Mapping Indeterminacy and Chance through Movement Notation: A Study on Dance Improvisation

Leonardo ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-283
Author(s):  
Kai-Han Chung ◽  
June-Hao Hou

A dance notation system is usually regarded as a representation tool rather than a creative tool. This paper uses the indeterminacy approach as a creativity method to assist body-based limb exercise and development. The movement notation system is constructed based on the effort action from Laban Movement Analysis. In-depth interviews provide a comprehensive insight into the choreographer’s perspective. The findings show that the notation system and body-based improvisation training are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, the use of a notation system gives dancers a better understanding of how movements interact with various stimuli, in relation to internal and external environments.

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-385
Author(s):  
Mark Wright ◽  
Justine Lemos

In this article, we couple Peircean semiotic theory with Laban movement analysis (LMA) to interpret scenes of Classic period Maya dance. We focus primarily on depictions found on polychrome ceramics that feature the dances of the Maize God and contrast them with those featuring the wahy creatures that inhabit the underworld. We interpret their inner emotional states based on their postural and gestural vocabularies using LMA, developed for that very purpose. The body can be considered a semiotic sign, and is therefore capable of simultaneously conveying iconic, symbolic, and indexical meanings. Maya dance has typically been interpreted at the iconic or symbolic levels, which reveal its mimetic or representational qualities. We explore the indexical qualities of the bodies of the dancers, and propose that shifting our attention to the indicative mode enables us to gain yet more insight into their embodied states.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony KOLA-OLUSANYA

As soon as decision makers are expected to make differences towards sustainable future, young adults’ ability to make informed and sound decisions is considered essential towards securing our planet. This study provides an insight into young adults’ knowledge of key environment and sustainability issues. To answer the key research questions, data were obtained using a qualitative phenomenographic research approach and collected through 18 face-to-face in-depth interviews with research participants. The findings of this study suggest that young adults lived experiences that play a huge role in their level of awareness of topical environmental and sustainability issues critical to humanity’s future on earth. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Cleves Nkie Mongo

This article provides insight into the “brown envelope journalism” in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville). Through in-depth interviews with journalists from four major Congolese news outlets, this research reveals how financial difficulties result in reporters justifying their violations of journalism ethics and standards. While two news outlets accept bribes to compensate for their precarious financial situation, two other news organizations pretend that they oppose envelope journalism although this research shows that their reporters also secretly accept bribes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
JOHN GLUCKMAN

I provide a syntactic analysis of the take-time construction (It took an hour to complete the test). The investigation provides insight into well-known issues concerning the related tough-construction. Using a battery of standard syntactic diagnostics, I conclude that the take-time construction and the tough-construction require a predication analysis of the antecedent-gap chain, not a movement analysis. I also conclude that the nonfinite clause is in a modificational relationship with the main clause predicate, not a selectional relationship. Broadly, this study expands the class of tough-constructions, illustrating crucial variation among predicates, and pointing the way to a unified analysis. The investigation also reveals undiscussed aspects of English syntax, including the fact that English has a high applicative position.


Author(s):  
Shannon Frattaroli ◽  
April M. Zeoli ◽  
Daniel W. Webster

AbstractFirearms increase the risk of lethality in violent intimate relationships. Policies that restrict access to firearms by respondents to civil domestic violence protective orders (DVROs) are associated with reductions in intimate partner homicide, yet there is scant literature about how such prohibitions are implemented. We document how four localities are implementing gun possession prohibitions that result from civil and criminal restraining orders and domestic violence misdemeanor convictions; and assess the findings in the context of Kingdon’s agenda setting framework. We identified four jurisdictions where gun dispossession of prohibited domestic violence offenders was underway and collected data through in-depth interviews, site visits, and documents. We coded the data, identified explanatory themes, and compared the findings to Kingdon’s framework. The four jurisdictions have policies ranging from no state laws restricting domestic violence offenders’ access to guns to comprehensive state laws. We describe implementation initiatives to dispossess prohibited people of their guns in the four jurisdictions, two distinct implementation models through which gun dispossession occurs, and an expanded application of Kingdon’s model. In each jurisdiction, we identified one or more individuals who championed implementation. Policies that prohibit domestic violence offenders from possessing guns are promising, and possible in diverse settings and jurisdictions. Here we provide insight into implementation efforts in four jurisdictions, emphasize the role of individuals in prioritizing implementation, and highlight the potential to realize these restrictions across states with different laws. Focusing on implementation is a much-needed paradigm shift that complements the traditional focus on passing domestic violence prevention laws.


2021 ◽  
pp. 079160352110684
Author(s):  
Patti O’Malley

The multiracial family and the existence of mixed race children have come to be a regular feature of Irish familial life. Yet, nation-building discourses have promulgated notions of ethnic and religious homogeneity with Irish identity being racialised exclusively as white. Moreover, to date, there has been a dearth of academic scholarship related to racial mixedness in the Irish context. Through in-depth interviews, this paper sets out, therefore, to provide empirical insight into the lives of fifteen black (African) – white (Irish) mixed race young people (aged 4 to 18) with a particular focus on their experiences of racialised exclusion. Indeed, findings suggest that, as in other majority white national contexts, the black-white mixed race young people are racialised as black in the Irish public domain and as such, are positioned as ‘racialised outsiders’. In fact, their narrative accounts shed light on everyday encounters saturated by ‘us-them’ racial constructs based on phenotype. Thus, these young people, who are not fully recognised as mixed race Irish citizens, are effectively deprived of a space in which to articulate their belonging within the existing statist (i.e. inside/outside) framework.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina West ◽  
Mary Foster ◽  
Avner Levin ◽  
Jocelyn Edmison ◽  
Daniela Robibero

With rapid technological change has come a blurring of boundaries between personal and workplace space. Employers are challenged to develop guidelines and policies to direct the appropriate use of technology to maintain a civil workplace. Because of the lack of shared understanding, or even terminology, around the issue of cyberbullying, employers are seeking a response from lawmakers to assist with this issue. Lawmakers are reluctant to develop legislation prematurely, given the rapid change in the capabilities of technology, the diverse social norms about its use, and the uncertainty of the role and responsibility of employers in minimizing cyberbullying and facilitating a civil workplace environment. This Canadian study seeks insight into these emerging issues through in-depth interviews with human resource professionals representing diverse business and industry sectors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-44
Author(s):  
Yvonne Gordon ◽  
Christine Stephens

INTRODUCTION: Methamphetamine (MA) misuse is a recognised health issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, and there is a lack of appropriate treatment available for individuals who are methamphetamine dependent. This exploratory study, undertaken in 2019, sought to gain insight from individuals in Aotearoa who have experienced MA dependence and now identify as being in recovery, to discover which strategies, approaches or treatment appeared helpful in their recovery.METHODS: The participants in the study were seven adults (New Zealand European, Samoan and Māori ethnicity) who had abstained from methamphetamine for six months or more. In-depth interviews were audiotaped and transcribed before being analysed. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which has its theoretical origins in phenomenology and hermeneutics.FINDINGS: Four themes emerged to describe the lived experience of recovery from methamphetamine misuse: Getting Away, Support, Personal Sources of Strength, and Treatment. Each theme held importance in the participants’ recovery from MA and provided insight into their journey in abstaining and being in recovery.CONCLUSIONS: These findings may be used to assist others entering recovery. The present findings are limited by the size of the sample; however, they provide valuable information on this important health issue as a basis for further research, which is urgently needed in Aotearoa.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Traci Rose Rider

This paper aims to investigate the current state and potential opportunity of strategic environmental discourses and rhetoric in architectural education. Because there is limited research completed on this specific focus, a grounded theory approach was used. In-depth interviews were held with twelve purposefully selected participants, each of whom are prevalently perceived as leaders in incorporating sustainability topics into architectural education. Through a cyclical coding process, larger themes about integrating environmental topics in formal architectural education emerged, with the importance of discourse and rhetoric as one of the primary sub-themes. Different discourses, emphasis on specific terminology, and the implications of each in the conceptual space of architectural educational are explored in the context of both program- and university-level structures. Breaking down the current environmental discourses in these specific contexts offers insight into opportunities to streamline the inclusion of sustainability themes in architectural education. This study concludes with possible avenues for further research regarding environmental discourse and rhetoric in architectural education, and suggestions for application in programs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Gunnhild Bergset

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss some of the challenges in communication and interaction between a kindergarten staff and a parent group of migrant background. Based on an interview study conducted in a kindergarten, the article works to provides insight into and understanding of the kindergarten staff’s experiences and reflections from their efforts to improve communication and interaction practices in daily contact with parents of migrant background. The staff completed a kindergarten-based project of the initiative of the principal, in which all employees implemented specific communication and interaction measures. Then, in-depth interviews were conducted with all staff, as well as two focus group interviews with the same group of informants. The study is based on a dynamic concept of culture and highlights the challenges of asymmetric communication and the possibilities of communicating and interacting based on a resource perspective. The findings show that a movement has taken place towards dialogue-based reciprocity in the staff`s attitudes towards communication and interaction with these parents. The article argues that connection between a trying-out of concrete, professionally grounded practice and pedagogical reflection constitutes the necessary basis for a shift from a problem orientation to a resource orientation in communication and interaction. One outcome of this resource perspective was that the kindergarten staff recognized the parent`s experiences and perceptions as valuable for achieving the parental involvement required by kindergarten`s social mandate.


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