Mirror neurons and the art of acting

This theoretical paper explores the parallels between the mirror neuron system and the art of acting. It aims to establish a fruitful multidisciplinary encounter between actors, neuroscientists, and drama therapists which will allow them to compliment and deepen each other's exploration of being human, and to add to the current literature on drama therapy. Consistent and pervasive throughout all the acting literature is the message that the art of acting requires a profound understanding of human nature, and the astute observation and understanding of others as well as oneself. Modem neurological findings tell us that understanding of self and others relies to a large extent on the mirror neuron system. This study will look at the mirror neuron system as a means of clarifying and expanding our understanding of the art of acting. The mirror neuron system provides another level of abstraction at which to understand the art of acting, thus broadening our understanding of the art, and the processes which drive it. A deeper understanding of the processes of acting leads to a greater understanding of the role of drama in therapy, and of drama therapy in the larger community

As cinemáticas e narrativas de jogos digitais: implicações para o design de jogos

Game cinematics integrating filming techniques, cutscenes, and animations are likely to have a pivotal role in the player experience, emotional attachment, and relatedness to the game narrative content. In recent years, the avoidance of cuts to generate a seamless and connected game experience has challenged older patterns on storytelling in games and find new ways of intertwining gameplay with the narrative. However, a one-size-fits-all strategy may not be applied when considering different storytelling purposes, structures, and language used in diversified game genres. The purpose of this research is to examine the contributions of cinematics to affect game story comprehension, especially in young adults. A multi-stage development research method is applied, encompassing the following activities: (1) identification of requirements to develop game cinematics based on the literature review and interviews with 16 scholars and industry professionals in Game UX, and cinematic development; (2) Development of a Game Cinematics experiment for the game Mutation Madness, using first- and third- perspectives; and a (3) Comparative evaluation of game cinematics in terms of experience and narrative comprehension. The cinematics developed are tested with 46 young adults to assess the effect of the Point Of View (POV) camera on visual attention and story comprehension in Mutation Madness, using an eye- tracking experiment. The results suggest that third- perspective in game cinematics constitute omniscient knowledge of the story, evoking the sense of time and focusing on the story agents, while first- perspective visually guides the player to the game events happening in the time of gameplay. This research contributes to the Communication Sciences and Technologies field by presenting a set of best practices developing game cinematics.As cinemáticas de jogos que integram técnicas de filmagem, cutscenes, e animações, tendem a ter um papel central na experiência do jogador, envolvimento emocional, e relação com a narrativa. Nos últimos anos, os padrões mais antigos inerentes ao processo de contar histórias nos jogos têm sido desafiados pela ausência de cortes e interrupções na experiência, de modo a garantir a interconexão e o entrelaçar da jogabilidade com a narrativa. No entanto, a adoção de uma estratégia de dimensão única pode não atender a diferentes propósitos da narrativa, estruturas e linguagem utilizadas em diferentes géneros de jogos. O objetivo desta investigação é compreender o modo como as cinemáticas podem afetar a compreensão de histórias de jogos, especialmente em jovens adultos. O método de investigação de desenvolvimento é aplicado, subdividido nas seguintes etapas: (1) Identificação de requisitos para desenvolver cinemáticas de jogos com base na revisão da literatura e entrevista a 16 académicos e profissionais da indústria em experiência de jogo, e desenvolvimento de cinemáticas; (2) Desenvolvimento de cinemáticas do jogo Mutation Madness, com recurso à primeira e terceira perspetiva; e (3) Avaliação comparativa das cinemáticas de jogo em termos de experiência e compreensão da narrativa. As cinemáticas desenvolvidas são testadas por 46 jovens adultos, recorrendo à metodologia eye-tracking, para avaliar o efeito da perspetiva da câmara [Point Of View (POV)] na atenção visual e na compreensão da narrativa do jogo Mutation Madness. Os resultados sugerem que a cinemática em que é adotada a terceira perspetiva no jogo proposto contribui para um conhecimento omnisciente da história, evocando o sentido do tempo e concentrando-se nos agentes da história, enquanto a primeira perspetiva orienta visualmente o jogador para os eventos do jogo que acontecem no tempo da jogabilidade. Esta investigação contribui para a área das Ciências da Tecnologia da Comunicação ao apresentar um conjunto de melhores práticas para desenvolver as cinemáticas nos jogos.Mestrado em Comunicação Multimédi

'Stitched up' in the 'Conversengine': using expressive processing and multimodal languages to create a character-driven interactive digital narrative

My practice-based research, which this thesis supports, explores the question: How can a convincing interactive character, with apparent psychological depth, be modelled in a playable digital narrative that adapts to reader choice? To this end I am building my own platform, the 'Conversengine', for authoring and, in future, publishing and playing text-driven interactive narratives that rely on enactment rather than narration. Currently, the platform consists of the 'Convowriter', the authoring tool, which I am using to develop 'Stitched Up', an interactive psychological thriller. Using the concept of the black box from second-order cybernetics with possible worlds and theory of mind from narratology, I show how combining these theories, mapping one onto another, provides a framework for not only thinking about the character-driven interactive narrative, but also a methodology for authoring one, in both natural language and computer code, and designing its richly responsive visual interface. This incorporates a unique emotional data visualisation system ('emoviz') to dynamically represent interactive fictional characters. This system is built upon the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance Emotional State Model (Russell and Mehrabian, 1977) and informed by existing psychological research into colour, shape and motion. I contend that abstract visualisations, coupled with the characters' text-based thoughts and/or speech, can eloquently express convincing mental and emotional behaviour. This provides the feedback in my cybernetic 'steering-a-course' game engine, which, whilst maintaining narrative coherence, allows the reader-player to steer their own course through the narrative. Creating an interactive narrative of this kind, which simulates psychological rather than physical action, requires a different approach to game writing, development and design. In part two of this thesis, I explore how the distinction between story and narrative discourse has practical implications for the creation of interactive digital narratives. I discuss how using existing game engines and tools can be limiting, and how this led to building my own interactive narrative engine with its own expressive domain-specific language. I show how the combined features of the 'Conversengine' offer a new way of representing complex interactive characters with psychological depth

Deadly Pleasure

In this work, a girl’s father is one of the victims in the mass political persecution by Emperor Yongzheng, 18 A.D., and he is killed in front of his family. The Emperor is present during his murder and he notices the girl and her gorgeous, long hair. Because of this the girl survives the massacre of her entire family and is sent away and trained to become a concubine. It becomes the goal of the girl to work hard to become a chosen concubine by the Emperor so she can avenge the murder of her family with her gorgeous, magical hair. Deadly Pleasure is my Master’s of Fine Arts thesis film with a total runtime of five minutes and thirteen seconds. It is a 2D animation that was produced primarily in TVpaint, Photoshop, and After Effects. This paper outlines the entire creation process of making this 2D animated film. It details the very beginning of the story ideas to the final screening version. It describes all my intentions, obstacles, challenges and successes, as well as the problem-solution process

Animist interface : experiments in mapping character animation to computer interface

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-58).by Richard W. Lachman.M.S

Thematic Analysis of Medium and New Medium Theories on Popular Netflix Series’ Facebook Audience Engagement

This qualitative study aimed to find the recurring themes amidst Facebook audience engagement of the Netflix drama series. The series sampling size was collected from Nielsen Ratings (2023) and Netflix’s (2022) top ten charts for three consecutive months from 11/4/2022-1/29/2023. Netflix was the most-watched streaming platform, with 80% of viewership, with drama being the most prevalent genre. The theoretical frameworks were medium and new medium theories. The Craig’s traditions were sociopsychological and sociocultural. The literature review expanded on the impact of the medium of streaming media, the binge-watching phenomenon, and genre studies. Five hundred ninety-one comments were manually scraped and coded from the five Facebook posts about both series, with the top 210 words analyzed and categorized into themes depicted through tables, word clouds, and pie charts. The overlapping thematic findings for the Facebook audience engagement from The Recruit and Kaleidoscope were narrative, audience emotion/opinions, and sub-thematic findings of binge-watching and anticipation for Season 2. Thematic findings for the Facebook audience engagement from The Recruit also included characters, genre, and sub-thematic findings of cliffhangers. Sub-thematic findings for Kaleidoscope also included a comparison to other series/films. The implications of this study on the entertainment industry, communication studies, and the relevance of streaming media were discussed in detail. Suggestions for future research involve replicating the methodology for participant studies on binge-watching

Positive Media: An Introductory Exploration

Media has become an increasingly large part of our lives, and therefore plays a crucial role in our well-being. Positive psychology, the science of well-being, can be complemented through the new potentialities of media, which in many ways also seeks to improve the human experience. I create the context for a new dialogue about what positive media might be. By adopting a positive lens and discussing exemplars in different formats, this paper explores the ways media effectively incorporates elements of well-being. Through this positive approach, we gain an appreciation for what media does well. The paper also recommends ways that people can consume media in support of their well-being, and ways media creators can design content that optimizes human flourishing. Lastly, the paper encourages a dialogue between the important fields of positive psychology and media. With a partnership between these fields, it posits the opportunity for dramatically increasing global well-being

Drama in the High School English Classroom: Pedagogical Theory and Practical Application

Drama in education is not limited to elementary skits or junior/senior class plays. It can be used in the high school English classroom to engage students in active learning. Drama in the classroom is a pedagogical method, which focuses on the learning process of the participants rather than a polished performance for an audience. The purpose of this dissertation is to address the limited use of drama in the classroom by providing a pedagogical rationale for its use and concrete drama activities for the high school English classroom. There are multiple pedagogical advantages for using drama as a method. Drama pushes students\u27 cognitive learning. As active learners they do not just absorb information; they formulate questions, interpret ideas, and synthesize connections. Drama offers a balance with affective learning. Through drama, students are intrinsically motivated to learn. The collaborative aspects of drama are beneficial as peers push each other, stimulated by the work of the group. Students develop communication skills as they listen to each other as well as convey their ideas clearly. Because drama meets students at their level, it is a method that builds students\u27 self-confidence. When a student\u27s self-confidence is enhanced, the outcomes are positive for that class and for a lifetime of learning. The dissertation is divided into genre chapters, which explore drama activities related to dramatic literature, fiction, poetry, and classroom writing. The drama activities illustrate concrete ways drama is applicable to today\u27s English curriculum. Several of the activities are designed for texts that are a part of the standard high school canon. Other activities are provided for texts which are not typically taught in high schools with the hope of encouraging teachers to expand the canon. An appendix also describes warm-ups which are applicable for the high school classroom. The specific drama activities developed in this dissertation facilitate teacher\u27s use of drama in the classroom. With these concrete activities as models, teachers can also begin to create their own ways of using drama in the classroom

Cinematic Competence and Directorial Persona in Film School: A Study of Socialization and Cultural Production

This thesis examines the role of professional socialization in cultural production, particularly in the popular arts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a graduate program of narrative filmmaking, it asks what is taught and what is learned in film school? and answers those questions through an account of two critical domains in film school practice: aesthetic repertoires (including narrative and stylistic competence in cinema), and the social identity of the student director. It also considers the ideology of talent in the school community. Aesthetic practice in the school extends from classical to New Hollywood, the former based on narrative clarity, continuous space and time, and goaloriented protagonists, the latter varying those conventions through the limited use of ambiguity as a narrative and stylistic element. The ideal role of the director in the school and in student filmmaking is the auteur, the film artist who uses narrative and stylistic principles to express a personal vision , and who writes, directs and edits her or his own films in an otherwise collective production process. Beyond a set of tasks, the title director also connotes an identity--who you are as well as what you do. In coming to identify themselves as directors in the school, students cultivate persona, or distinctive personal styles. Through task set, vision and persona, and also through the attribution of talent as an intrapersonal trait, the film director as singular artist merges, despite the divided labor of film production and a populist aesthetic based on a large and heterogeneous commercial audience