Athlete of Emotion - Examining the Perdekamp Emotional Method

<p>The Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) is an emerging psychophysiological acting system that claims to allow actors ‘safe, reliable and repeatable access’ to emotion, with no recourse to their own psychology, imagination or personal experience. Developed in Germany over the last thirty years, the process regards the emotions as innate, biological movement patterns, hard-coded in human beings, that can be invoked consciously through a specific combination of physiological triggers. In light of recent international studies that point to significant psychological unwellness throughout the acting profession, there is an ethical imperative for drama schools to investigate such techniques, and evaluate their legitimacy against more commonly utilised approaches to achieving believable emotion, such as the Emotion Memory techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, which have courted criticism for being both inefficient and, at worst, harmful. While Austrian research has been carried out to establish the scientific legitimacy of PEM, nothing has been written about it in English, and it is only just beginning to be introduced to performance training institutions around the world. This thesis investigates PEM's claims in order to contribute critically to the depth and understanding of this system, and to evaluate the potential value of introducing PEM into the conservatoire model of a tertiary Drama School, using practical experiments and teaching observations at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School as a case study. Its research results are evaluated through a combination of a historical review of acting approaches to producing emotion, interviews with PEM creator Stephen Perdekamp and Master Instructor Sarah Victoria about the pedagogy of PEM and its theoretical underpinnings (and evaluating this against current neuroscience theories concerning emotion), observations of and interviews with students learning PEM through workshop instruction, and practical experiments of applying PEM to screen work with student performers through a period from March 2017 to November 2018.</p>

Athlete of Emotion - Examining the Perdekamp Emotional Method

<p>The Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) is an emerging psychophysiological acting system that claims to allow actors ‘safe, reliable and repeatable access’ to emotion, with no recourse to their own psychology, imagination or personal experience. Developed in Germany over the last thirty years, the process regards the emotions as innate, biological movement patterns, hard-coded in human beings, that can be invoked consciously through a specific combination of physiological triggers. In light of recent international studies that point to significant psychological unwellness throughout the acting profession, there is an ethical imperative for drama schools to investigate such techniques, and evaluate their legitimacy against more commonly utilised approaches to achieving believable emotion, such as the Emotion Memory techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, which have courted criticism for being both inefficient and, at worst, harmful. While Austrian research has been carried out to establish the scientific legitimacy of PEM, nothing has been written about it in English, and it is only just beginning to be introduced to performance training institutions around the world. This thesis investigates PEM's claims in order to contribute critically to the depth and understanding of this system, and to evaluate the potential value of introducing PEM into the conservatoire model of a tertiary Drama School, using practical experiments and teaching observations at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School as a case study. Its research results are evaluated through a combination of a historical review of acting approaches to producing emotion, interviews with PEM creator Stephen Perdekamp and Master Instructor Sarah Victoria about the pedagogy of PEM and its theoretical underpinnings (and evaluating this against current neuroscience theories concerning emotion), observations of and interviews with students learning PEM through workshop instruction, and practical experiments of applying PEM to screen work with student performers through a period from March 2017 to November 2018.</p>

‘El Capri Kylex’: A Franciscan astronomical mnemonic

This article examines the role of memory techniques in medieval astronomy. Using a mnemonic written by a Franciscan friar c. 1330 as a case study, it shows how astronomers and astrologers simplified the sky for practical purposes, using verses and codes to make their science memorable. The article decodes the mnemonic and its underlying astronomical data, assessing its usefulness, memorability and adaptability alongside some other popular astronomical and calendrical mnemonics of the later Middle Ages. It argues that astronomical learning could be a creative, playful activity. And it situates the astrological practices of this particular friar, who made wide-ranging annotations in a 13th-century astronomical compendium, within the scientific and educational traditions of his order.

PEDAGOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF MNEMOTECHNICS IN INCREASING THE VOCABULARY OF UZBEK LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN GERMAN LANGAUGE

This article presents the views on the use of mnemonics in increasing the vocabulary of Uzbek learners in German language and the analysis of its effectiveness. The pedagogical significance of the use of mnemonics is analyzed. The main literature on the subject is studied. The effect of memory techniques on learning efficiency is described.

Movement: migration and navigation

Using migration and navigation as a focus, this chapter looks at the movements of birds. The genetic, hormonal, and physiological control of migration is analysed as are the evolution of migratory strategies and routes. Particular emphasis is given to fuelling migration and the significance of stop-over behaviours during migratory movements. The conservation implications of migration and of movement in general are considered, and the impact upon migratory fuelling of neonicotinoids pesticides are discussed. Sections examining innate and learned route finding and the migratory cues (sun, stars, magnetic field, etc) used by birds to determine their location, and the direction in which they need to travel to arrive at a goal, are given. The role of memory in place finding and food storage is considered, as is the neurology of spatial memory. Techniques used by ornithologists to study bird movement are explained throughout the chapter.

Essay on Bernard Stiegler’s history of mnemotechnics

The purpose of this article is to present history of memory techniques as it described by French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. It is shown that Stiegler speaks from the point of view of humanistic marxism arguing that the positive development of mnemotechnics is determined by their integration into symbolic relations, outside of which they becomes a means of consumer capitalism. History of mnemotechnics is divided on two large periods — preindustrial and industrial, where the former is determined by the dominance of religion, politics and culture, and the latter — by the law of surplus value. It is analyzed Stiegler’s understanding of mnemotechnics as «epiphylogenesis» or «third memory». The main features of mnemotechnical evolution, from the first inscriptions on stone tools to today’s global digital retentional apparatus, is reviewed

Autoethnography

In autoethnography, one researches the hidden experiences of only one person—the researcher—in order to provide a unique perspective on a group that can be understood by insiders and outsiders alike. Autoethnography is well-suited for exploring concerns about the individual’s identity or life experience. This method can be challenging, however, because it demands hard emotional work and unsettles one’s assumptions about life issues. This chapter describes different audiences and foci of autoethnography within health humanities and then explains the steps for doing autoethnography: choosing autoethnography as a process of inquiry, journaling with memory techniques, using keepsakes and other memory aids, revisiting your memories alongside nonpersonal data, assessing your own identity and positioning, literature search and review, and analyzing your ideas through writing and rewriting. This process is demonstrated through the author’s experiences of life-long chronic kidney disease, dialysis, and transplantation.

The nitty-gritties of Effective Presentations for Technologists

Presentations are one of the proficient skills, which every professional has to acquire. A Presentation is an effectual tool to execute a plan. Presentations are necessary for decision making, to give training or a set of instructions while handling a project, to learn a skill, to select a service or strategy, to report progress and so on. Technical presentation is one of the soft skills that every Engineering professional needs to familiarize and master. Technical presentations elucidate the design and working of a product, technological progression and a solution to tackle a difficulty. Every technologist despite his/her technical skill and expertise also needs to be an effective presenter in order to execute his project and this is the need of the hour. The present paper prepared after substantial research and knowledge gained through experience, focuses on how to cultivate the skill of presentation in an effective manner so that the audience becomes engrossed and enthralled. The paper also sheds light on the techniques of selecting a topic, preparing a paper, modus operandi of opening, conducting and closing a presentation, memory techniques to remember the content, appearance, tact, body language, tone, innovation and methods to collect audience feedback required for effective technical presentation.