Documenting the Future: Visual Design

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-66
Author(s):  
Dan Dinello
Keyword(s):  
Visual Design ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
French Film ◽  
Production Values ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
The Future ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Andre Bazin ◽  
The Aesthetic

This chapter details how Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men eschews the glamorous production values of the standard Hollywood film and moves into the transgressive realm of simulated reportage. It elaborates Children of Men's realism by Cuarón's incorporation of the handheld camera with uninterrupted long takes, complex compositions with multiple planes of action, and an emphasis on medium and long-distance shots rather than close-ups. It also analyses Children of Men's visual style that reflects the aesthetic of French film theorist Andre Bazin. The chapter discusses how Cuarón takes a 'present-in-the-future' approach to the mise-en-scène and insistently cross-references the nightmarish state-of-siege future with staged versions of historical, politically charged imagery. It examines Children of Men as a transhistorical critique.

The Serpent Son (1979): A Science Fiction Aesthetic?

2018 ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
Tony Keen
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
Doctor Who ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Greek Drama ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Clear Statement

This chapter discusses the aesthetics of the BBC’s 1979 production of Frederick Raphael and Kenneth McLeish’s The Serpent Son, an adaptation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, which critics at the time associated with science fiction. Certainly, the design of costumes, sets, props and lighting, together with the direction and camerawork, gave this trilogy a non-realist studio-bound visual style familiar to contemporary British television science fiction series, such as Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven and The Tomorrow People. By examining elements of the mise-en-scène, this chapter assesses whether this was a deliberate choice. It argues that, whilst the similarities are there, the aesthetic is as much the result of production methods employed at the time by the BBC, and general non-mimetic approaches to the production of Greek drama on screen, as it is any deliberate attempt to recall the science fiction genre. But the choice of a non-realist aesthetic for Greek tragedy is also a clear statement about the producers’ view of the connection between the modern audience and ancient Greek texts. This is the dominant visual aesthetic of productions of Greek tragedy on British television around this time, many of which employed similar distancing effects.

scholarly journals From Literature to Image—Aesthetic Features of Space Megastructure Cities in American Sci-Fi Movies

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-121
Author(s):  
Zhi Li ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Digital Design ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Scene Design ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Space Colonization ◽  
Design Style ◽  
The Impact

The concept of Space megastructures is originated from science fiction novels. They symbolize the material landscape form of a comprehensive advancement of intelligent civilization after the continuous development of technology. Space megacity is actually an expansion process of human development in the future. It is not only a transformation of space colonization but also a mapping of self-help homeland. Therefore, it is a symbol of technological optimism and a future utopia in the context of technology. In contemporary times, sci-fi movies use digital technology to translate the giant imagination in literature into richer digital image landscapes. Space giant cities are one of the most typical digital images with spectacle view, which reflects the impact of American sci-fi movie scene design on the landscape and preference that human will be living in the future. The aesthetic preferences and design principles of the future picture, and the aesthetic value of science fiction as a medium of imagination are revealed. The aim of this article is to explore the digital design style of space megastructure with utopia sense in science fiction movies, and analyzes its aesthetic connotation.

scholarly journals Decoding the Visual Characteristics of Chinese Painting Strokes-A Study on Gao Gu You Si Stroke

2021 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 05093
Author(s):  
Xue Hu ◽  
Eakachat Joneurairatana ◽  
Sone Simatrang
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Chinese Painting ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
Local Characteristics ◽  
Visual Characteristics ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One ◽  
Aesthetic Characteristics

The architect Le Corbusier once said this theory: Design has local characteristics and universal characteristics. Local characteristics are greatly influenced by culture. The strokes are the one essence of Chinese painting that characteristics of the strokes are unique to Chinese visual culture. Among Chinese painting strokes, Eighteen Strokes are the typical representative of the aesthetics of Chinese visual culture. However, the current research on the cultural characteristics of Eighteen Strokes is insufficient. The objective of this article is taking Xie He’s Six Canons as the theory to decode the content of the aesthetic characteristics of the Gao Gu You Si Stroke (one of the Eighteen Strokes), then to get the visual cultural characteristics of Chinese painting strokes and the fundamental perspective characteristics of the inheritance visual cultural. Based on this, this article will use the Content Analysis Approach to conduct research, by decoding the aesthetic content of the Chinese painting strokes to construct the personality and characteristics required by Chinese visual design.

“Beauty” Based on the Functionality of Smart Skin in Buildings

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-69
Author(s):  
Salar Salah Muhy Al-Dın ◽  
Hourakhsh Ahmad Nia
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Aesthetic Evaluation ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Smart Skin

The aim of this study is to extend the rationale and comprehensive understanding in respect of the notion of functionality and beauty in the smart skin buildings. Smart skin in buildings plays a key role in improving building functionality, and the future lies in the use of innovative smart skin strategies. The methodology focused on the objectivity and subjectivity of human perception to assess the aesthetic value of a building's smart skin. A theoretical analysis has been conducted based on the results of the investigation model and fortified by comparing the results with the findings obtained through the opinions of experts based in AHP methodology. The study demonstrates that there is a relation between both the aesthetic value and the functionality of the smart skin of a building. The findings revealed the difference in the aesthetic evaluation between the subjective functionality and the objective functionality of the building skin. The findings contribute useful evidence for the promotion of our understanding regarding the aesthetic value of the smart skin of a building, based on its functionality.

Analyzing the Level of Inclusion of Digital Educational Objects in Eskola 2.0

2013 ◽  
pp. 199-219
Author(s):  
Mª Luz Guenaga ◽  
Iratxe Mentxaka ◽  
Susana Romero ◽  
Andoni Eguíluz
Keyword(s):  
Research Group ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Technological Equipment ◽  
Technology In The Classroom ◽  
Content Structure ◽  
The Future ◽  
Learning Research

The Basque Government has published two calls to create digital educational objects for the programme called Eskola 2.0. After having provided schools with technological equipment, these calls aim to increase the use of learning technology in the classroom. More than 300 didactic sequences have been developed, which vary greatly in visual design, content structure, organization, and pedagogical aspects. Even though accessibility is one of the quality criteria, the reality is that they are hardly accessible and inclusive. DeustoTech Learning research group has carried out a survey of the educational objects approved in these calls up to November 2011. The authors evaluated pedagogical and technological aspects to find out how inclusive they are. In this chapter, they provide the results of the survey and propose a set of guidelines for designing more accessible and inclusive objects in the future.

The Fragmented Frame 1

2020 ◽  
pp. 84-107
Author(s):  
Bruce Isaacs
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Form ◽  
Color Line ◽  
Formal Potential ◽  
Abstract Shape ◽  
Mise En Scene ◽  
Visual Frame ◽  
Experimental Works ◽  
Topographic Representation ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
A Site

The aesthetic of the fragment is examined in detailed analyses of the Hitchcockian frame. The frame is both the formal composition underpinning mise en scène and the opening into the infinite play of fragmented images within visual, aural, and narrative form. The frame is a site of formal “expressivity,” “abstraction,” “topographic representation,” and “schematization.” The fragmented frame is revealed in the modernist experimentation of form through color, line, and shape in North by Northwest, the topographic frame in The Birds, and the canting of the visual frame in Shadow of a Doubt. The chapter concludes that the representational image forming the diegesis is overwhelmed in Hitchcock’s experimental works by the formal potential of abstract shape and pattern.

A picture is worth a thousand words! How visual storytelling transforms the aesthetic experience of novel designs

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 913-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christin Seifert ◽  
Veena Chattaraman
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Visual Design ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
Holistic Model ◽  
Significant Interaction Effect ◽  
Visual Storytelling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

Purpose This study aims to provide a holistic understanding of how visual storytelling influences the objective and subjective cognitive responses of consumers, namely objective aesthetic impression and subjective aesthetic association, and aesthetic judgments in response to differing levels of novelty in design innovations. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-factorial experimental study manipulating the novelty of chair designs (moderate/high) and visual design stories (present/absent) was conducted among 263 female US consumers to test the proposed research model. Findings With respect to the main effects of novelty and visual design stories, consumers had more positive cognitive responses and aesthetic judgments to: product designs with moderate (vs high) novelty; and products with visual design stories than without. A significant interaction effect uncovered that visual design stories particularly aided products with high (vs moderate) design novelty with respect to objective aesthetic impressions. Examination of the structural relationships between the variables revealed that subjective aesthetic associations mediate the relationship between objective aesthetic impressions and aesthetic judgments. Practical implications To mitigate risk in radical design innovations, marketers should use visual storytelling to communicate product form associations and enable consumers to successfully decode the meaning of novel designs during initial encounters. Originality/value By examining a holistic model involving both perceptual and conceptual product concepts, this study fills a critical research void to develop insightful implications on bridging the gap between novel product designs and consumer understanding.

Genre and Ideology in Starship Troopers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Berliner
Keyword(s):  
Mass Market ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
War Film

Whereas chapter 8 demonstrates how ideology can complicate a film’s artistic design, chapter 9 shows how a film’s artistic design can complicate its ideology. Starship Troopers illustrates the commercial risks, and the aesthetic excitement, of a Hollywood film whose formal properties muddle up its ideological content. The film’s unconventional use of genre devices leads to ideological complexities that pose challenges for spectators trying to make sense of the film’s form and meaning. Starship Troopers employs the conventions of the Hollywood war film and the war film satire in ways that make the film’s worldview incoherent. The film’s mercurial form limited its success in a mass market but exhilarated cult audiences engaged by the film’s unusual design.

scholarly journals Using Pre-arrival Shared Reading to Promote a Sense of Community

LOGOS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Alison Baverstock ◽  
Jackie Steinitz ◽  
Brian Webster-Henderson ◽  
Laura Bryars ◽  
Sandra Cairncross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Shared Reading ◽  
Project Implementation ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Future ◽  
Student Enrolment ◽  
The University

Seeking to improve student enrolment, engagement, and retention, Kingston University began a pre-arrival shared reading scheme in 2014–2015, sending a free book to every student about to start at the university and making copies available to staff in all roles and departments across the institution. A number of associated events were organized and outcomes monitored through a variety of project-specific and institutional metrics. Continuing with the scheme in 2015–2016, Kingston University and Edinburgh Napier University joined together as research partners. Edinburgh Napier, having participated in the process of choosing a book for all to read, made the same single title available to their students and staff. In this paper the processes and outcomes of the collaboration are reported, including the differences in project implementation in the two institutions and what they learned from each other. Recommendations are made for how universities can work together on projects of mutual desirability, pointing out particular associated sensitivities, in this case when managing a long-distance collaboration, and what can be learned for the future.

scholarly journals Musique concrète, French New Wave cinema, and Jean Cocteau'sLe Testament d'Orphée(1960)

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA ANDERSON
Keyword(s):  
Art Music ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Jean Cocteau ◽  
French Film ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Film Directors ◽  
French New Wave ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Musique Concrete

AbstractJean Cocteau (1889–1963) is recognized as one of France's most well-known film directors, directing six films over a thirty-year period. This article argues that his film soundscapes occupy a unique position in the history of French film sound, providing a key link between contemporary experimentation in art music and the sonic experimentation of the New Wave filmmakers. This argument is best exemplified byLe Testament d'Orphée(1960), which represents the apotheosis of Cocteau's artistic output as well as the stage at which he was most confident in handling the design of a film soundscape. Indeed, Cocteau was comfortable with the selection and arrangement of sonic elements to the extent that his regular collaborator Georges Auric became almost dispensable. Nevertheless, Auric's willing support enriched the final film and Cocteau created a highly self-reflexive work through his arrangement of the composer's music with pre-existing musical borrowings. Cocteau's engagement with contemporary developments in film and art music can be heard throughout this film, highlighting his position as a poet simultaneously establishing himself in the canon of art and looking to the future.

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