scholarly journals Phantasmata of Dance: Time and Memory within Choreographic Constraints

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-338
Author(s):  
Silvia Casini

Abstract This article contributes to the scholarly discussion of the relationship between cinema and dance using Giorgio Agamben’s understanding of dance as gesture. To render Agamben’s critical framework operative, however, one needs to consider his reference to the concept of phantasmata (images) taken from Domenico da Piacenza’s Renaissance treatise on choreography. Agamben returns to this treatise to support his argument that dance is concerned first and foremost with time and memory rather than space and the present. To notate dance as a sequence of moving images is not simply to make visible on screen a series of bodily movements in space. Rather, it means acknowledging that dancing is primarily a mental activity. Taking Agamben’s reflections on dance and using Maya Deren’s work on screen dance as a case-study, this article discusses how cinema and dance together prompt us to undo the economy of bodily movements, restoring the body to us transfigured.

1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 742-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin O'Connor

In 1866, theAtlantic Monthlypublished a fictional case study of an army surgeon who had lost all of his limbs during the Civil War. Written anonymously by American neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell, “The Case of George Dedlow” describes not only the series of wounds and infections which led to the amputation of all four of the soldier's arms and legs but also the after-effects of amputation. Reduced to what he terms “a useless torso, more like some strange larval creature than anything of human shape,” Dedlow finds that in disarticulating his body, amputation articulates anatomical norms. His observation of his own uniquely altered state qualifies him to speak in universal terms about the relationship between sentience and selfhood: “I have dictated these pages,” he says, “not to shock my readers, but to possess them with facts in regard to the relation of the mind to the body” (1866:5). As such, the story explores the meaning of embodiment, finding in a fragmented anatomy the opportunity to piece together a more complete understanding of how the body functions—physically and metaphysically—as a whole.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-104
Author(s):  
Cristina Demaria ◽  
Patrizia Violi

The case study considered by the authors of this article is a peculiar example of a documentary that intervened in the landscape of democratization conflicts in the opaque context of current democracy in Indonesia. Half a century after the genocide, the film reopens the memory of a terrible and non- elaborated past, questioning the impact of the genocide in a difficult democratization process. Is it possible to move from an authoritarian regime that infected and corrupted all aspects of civil coexistence to a new and supposedly more democratic era without working through its traumatic legacy? What role might remorse and forgiveness play in the foundation of a possible new democratic pact? Joshua Oppenheimer’s film, The Act of Killing, confronts all these questions through the documentary use of the Indonesia genocide perpetrators’ words, body images, silences and denials. Engaging the images of this film through a semiotic perspective, the authors interrogate the relationship between aesthetic texts and political emancipating processes, as well as the role of traumatic memory elaboration in the foundation of democratization. Essential for their analysis is the investigation of how moving images are implicated in the imagination and actions of perpetrators, including their possible functions and effects in relation to the audience.


Author(s):  
Ana Sánchez-Colberg ◽  
Dimitris Karalis

The essay revisits the relationship between music and dance, sound and movement, in contemporary dance and music in improvisation. The main philosophical thrust for the discussion draws from the work of Peters, specifically his 2009 book The Philosophy of Improvisation. Peters argues that true improvisation requires a ‘powerful memory, memory of the parameters of an instrument, of the body, of available technology, the parameters of a work’s structure, and one’s place within it at any time, the parameters of an idiom, a genre and its history, its possibilities’. This idea, of the need to set parameters, understand rules, structures, as well as one’s positions within an improvisational process, is central to the discussion. The project Moving Sound, a collaboration between music director Dimitris Karalis and composer-saxophonist Yannis Kassetas, is discussed as a case study.


2001 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane W. Davidson

The work described in this paper interprets the body movements of singers in an attempt to understand the relationships between physical control and the musical material being performed, and the performer's implicit and explicit expressive intentions. The work builds upon a previous literature which has suggested that the relationship between physical execution and the expression of mental states is a subtle and complex one. For instance, performers appear to develop a vocabulary of expressive gestures, yet these gestures – though perceptually discreet – co-exist and are even integrated to become part of the functional movement of playing. Additionally, there is the matter of how both musical and extra-musical concerns are coordinated between performer, co-performers and audience using body movements. A case study shows how, in the interaction between body style, musical expression and communication movements of both an individual and culturally-determined style are used. Many of these performance movements have clear functions and meanings: to communicate expressive intention (for instance, a sudden surge forwards to facilitate the execution of a loud musical passage, or a high curving hand gesture to link sections of the music during a pause); to communicate to the audience or co-performers a need for co-ordination or participation (for example, nodding the head to indicate “now” for the audience to join in a chorus of a song; or exchanging glances for the co-performer to take over a solo); to signal extra-musical concerns (for example, gesturing to the audience to remain quiet); and to present information about the performer's personality, with their individualized characteristics providing important cues (muted contained gestures, or large extravagant gestures, for example); to show off to the audience. From these results a theory is developed to explain how gestural elements help to make a performance meaningful.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Danielle Hrstich

<p>This thesis considers how to use atmosphere as a driver when designing to strengthen the relationship between the body and architecture. Wigley, following Semper, argues that atmosphere is constructed through the outer surface. Surface is used as a key element in architectural practice to contribute to the overall atmospheric conditions within architecture, to influence the way an occupant experiences space. To strengthen the relationship between the body and the built, this thesis looks at the surface of architecture to explore ‘how atmosphere can be designed for through a kinetic surface’. This thesis begins with a theoretical review of atmosphere and surface, along with case study research that contributes to the thesis exploration through design research. This thesis consists of three design outputs that test the kinetic surface at three increasing scales to engage the body. These design outputs include an installation, a house and a public building with each design increasing in complexity. While primarily focusing on the atmosphere produced through surface, these experiments also deal with site and programmatic constraints. This thesis concludes with an architectural strategy of using a double layered kinetic surface in a public building to create atmosphere that forms a strong relationship with the body, through light, movement and materiality.</p>


2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parissa Safai

This case study examines the relationship between the “culture of risk” and the negotiation of treatment between sport medicine clinicians and student-athletes at a large Canadian university. The evidence acknowledges that a “culture of risk” was reinforced under certain circumstances during negotiation, but was also tempered by the existence of a “culture of precaution” that worked to resist those influences. The dialectic between the cultures of risk and precaution reveals some of the tensions inherent in negotiations between clinicians and patient-athletes, and helps to complicate the notion of a “culture of risk.” Another aspect (one that has rarely if ever been examined) of the negotiation of treatment is also considered—the promotion of “sensible risks” by clinicians to injured athletes.


Organization ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Dashtipour ◽  
Bénédicte Vidaillet

Psychoanalytic perspectives (such as the Kleinian/Bionian and Lacanian literature) have made significant contributions to the study of affect in organizations. While some have pointed out the affects involved in work tasks, most of this literature generally focuses on the affects linked to organizational life (such as learning, leadership, motivation, power, or change). The center of attention is not on affects associated with the work process itself. We draw from the French psychodynamic theory of Christophe Dejours—who is yet to be known in English language organization studies—to make the following contributions. First, we show the relationship between affect and working by discussing Dejours’ notions of affective suffering, the real of work, the significance of the body, and ‘ordinary sublimation’. Second, we advance critical research in organization studies by demonstrating the centrality of work in the affective life of the subject. Third, the article reinterprets Menzies’ well-known hospital case study to illustrate how Dejours’ theory extends existing psychoanalytical approaches, and especially to point to the significant role of the work collective in supporting workers to work well. We conclude by suggesting that if the centrality of work in the affective life of the subject is acknowledged, it follows that resistance strategies, and work collectives’ struggle for emancipation, should focus on reclaiming work.


2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (spe) ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
Robson Quinello

This article analyzes the relationship between organizational memory and forgetfulness in the generation of operational vulnerabilities, based on a case study carried out with a highly specialized technical team from a multinational company of the automotive sector. The article starts with the presentation of the complexity context of the Brazilian automotive sector in the last decades. It then goes on to discuss the theoretical referential on learning organizations, organizational memory and forgetfulness and organizations with high operational reliability characteristics. Finally, a case study is presented, carried out based on the theoretical concepts described in the body of the article, showing the contradictions and evidence of this relationship.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147035722096141
Author(s):  
Carey Jewitt ◽  
Kerstin Leder Mackley ◽  
Sara Price

This article examines how the use of emergent smart baby monitors re-mediates parent–baby touch, notions of connection, parental sensing and the interpretation of babies’ bodies, and contributes to the formation of subjectivities. Domestic baby monitors are a mid 20th-century phenomenon which normalizes parental anxieties. While baby monitoring is not new, the ‘next generation’ of wearable bio-sensing baby monitors offers a different relationship to the body via the physiological tracking of babies, and the sending of information or alerts to parents’ via connected mobile apps. These devices have been associated with creating unnecessary parental anxiety and the digital ‘replacement’ of parental touch, although little research exists on their use in the context of parent–infant interaction or touch. The authors present a qualitative case study of one such technology, Owlet, to explore how parents experienced, understood and negotiated the discourses of parent–infant touch that circulate around and through Owlet, with particular attention to the relationship between visual and tactile resources. The study focuses on both its multimodal design and take-up by parents through analysis of interviews with the Owlet designer, Owlet as a product, focus groups with parents and families’ home experiences of Owlet. Data is analysed through a tri-part lens, which first combines multimodal social semiotic and sensory ethnographic approaches, and then the analytical concept of governmentality. The findings are discussed in relation to four analytical themes: (1) creating a desire for digitally mediated touch; (2) spatiality of digitally mediated connection; (3) formulating the ‘right kind’ of touch; and (4) reconfiguring ‘knowing touch’. The authors discuss multimodal discourses pertinent to the shaping of parent–baby touch practices including: rationality and efficiency; individualism, autonomy and freedom; and self-improvement and empowerment. They conclude that the discourses that coalesce around Owlet contribute to the reconfiguration of parent–baby touch and the formation of neoliberal subjectivities.


Author(s):  
Salah M. M. Dagnoush ◽  
Gamal S. A. Khalifa

The object of this study is to examine the relationship between effort expectancy and behavioral intention to use m-commerce in the Libyan context. It also aimed to determine the effect of effort expectancy on users’ behavioral intention. Using data from 310 respondents, the model of this study is supported by Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The findings of the study suggested that there is a positive relationship between users’ effort expectancy and users’ behavioral intention. The findings also proposed that effort expectancy has a positive influence on user's behavioral intention to use m-commerce in the Libyan context. This study contributes to the body knowledge on m-commerce usage while also providing practical guidance for the Libyan government on how to improve user usage of m-commerce systems. Particularly, it confirms that the user's effort expectancy increases the user's behavioral intention in the Libyan context.


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