The study of the archaic round dances dramaturgy from the spring cycle

The relevance of the study is determined by the need to find clarification of the interpretation of the primary symbolism of some dance ornaments and movements. This will help to focus the choreographers’ attention on the competent use and interpretation of symbols in the dance dramaturgy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the archaic motifs in the dramaturgy of the spring cycle dances on the cycle example of round dances “Podolianochka” to explain their primary sign content. The methodology. The article analyzes the dramaturgy of the archaic spring rites on the cycle example of round dances “Podolianochka”, which are united by a plot and choreographic features. The archaic origins sources of the choreographic staging of these ritual actions are traced and systematized. The components of mythological, calendar-ritual and initiating origins of such a rite are considered. The results. The main character origin as a sun reflection in the spring flood (in the Danube) is formulated on the basis of a common feature — “white face” and others. The initiation of “Podolianochka-Bilodanchyk” leads to the Lela-spring birth. Choreographic elements that contribute to the success of the magical ritual and accompany the events course are considered: jumps — for the successful initiation, marriage and promoting plant growth, running — to increase fertility. It is shown that the schemes of movement in these round dances ensure the involvement of all girls in the role of the central character, as well as create magical symbols similar to Easter painting: sun-bird, meander, “thunderbolt”. It is proved that from the view of magical point the round dance plays the role of rosaries, the grains of which are taken one by one, and to each of them the gods’ glorification is pronounced. The novelty of this study is to clarify the ideological basis of the main character origin of the dance “Podolianochka-Bilodanchyk”, in the interpretation of choreographic patterns as symbols similar to Easter painting, the analogy between the touching of rosaries and mandatory participation in the role of the central character of all girls. The practical significance of this study is the selection of meaningful lines of round dance dramaturgy: 1) choreographic staging of events with grain and sorcery for the harvest; 2) girls’ initiation before the marriage period; 3) choreographic staging of events from the gods’ life and consecration of human actions. This allows you to more fully reconstruct both individual movements and the round dance dramaturgy as a whole in practice.

WHICH HUMAN FACES CAN AN AI GENERATE? LACK OF DIVERSITY IN THIS PERSON DOES NOT EXIST

In this abstract we show the results of an interdisciplinary research in which we audit fake human faces generated by the website This Person Does Not Exist (TPDNE), and discuss how this system can help perpetuate normativities supported by a dependency on a limited database. Our analysis is centered on the “default generic face” that we created by overlapping random samples of fake human faces generated by TPDNE's algorithms – a version of Generative Adversarial Network, the StyleGAN2. To carry these experiments, we built a database with 4100 fake human faces taken from TPDNE via web scraping; we analysed them through a Python language script; and discussed behaviours identified in results. Our analyses are based on the use of images, called “cluster-images”, created from this overlapping of N arbitrary fake human faces by the TPDNE's algorithm. Our experiments showed that, independently of the group of fake human faces sampled, the same generic white face always appeared as a result. These results intrigue particularly because the lack of diversity of TPDNE's generated faces is not a mere problem to be fixed in this system in this digital infrastructure, but a dynamic of reinforcing standards that historically regulate bodies, territories and practices.

Auto-essentialization: Gender in automated facial analysis as extended colonial project

Scholars are increasingly concerned about social biases in facial analysis systems, particularly with regard to the tangible consequences of misidentification of marginalized groups. However, few have examined how automated facial analysis technologies intersect with the historical genealogy of racialized gender—the gender binary and its classification as a highly racialized tool of colonial power and control. In this paper, we introduce the concept of auto-essentialization: the use of automated technologies to re-inscribe the essential notions of difference that were established under colonial rule. We consider how the face has emerged as a legitimate site of gender classification, despite being historically tied to projects of racial domination. We examine the history of gendering the face and body, from colonial projects aimed at disciplining bodies which do not fit within the European gender binary, to sexology's role in normalizing that binary, to physiognomic practices that ascribed notions of inferiority to non-European groups and women. We argue that the contemporary auto-essentialization of gender via the face is both racialized and trans-exclusive: it asserts a fixed gender binary and it elevates the white face as the ultimate model of gender difference. We demonstrate that imperialist ideologies are reflected in modern automated facial analysis tools in computer vision through two case studies: (1) commercial gender classification and (2) the security of both small-scale (women-only online platforms) and large-scale (national borders) spaces. Thus, we posit a rethinking of ethical attention to these systems: not as immature and novel, but as mature instantiations of much older technologies.

From Social Justice to Metaphor: The Whitening of Othello in the Russian Imagination

Othello was the most often-staged Shakespeare play on early Soviet stages, to a large extent because of its ideological utility. Interpreted with close attention to racial conflict, this play came to symbolize, for Soviet theatres and audiences, the destructive racism of the West in contrast with Soviet egalitarianism. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, however, it is not unusual for Russian theatres to stage Othello as a white character, thus eliminating the theme of race from the productions. To make sense of the change in the Russian tradition of staging Othello, this article traces the interpretations and metatheatrical uses of this character from the early Soviet period to the present day. I argue that the Soviet tradition of staging Othello in blackface effectively prevented the use of the play for exploring the racial tensions within the Soviet Union itself, and gradually transformed the protagonist’s blackness into a generalized metaphor of oppression. As post-collapse Russia embraced whiteness as a category, Othello’s blackness became a prop that was entirely decoupled from race and made available for appropriation by ethnically Slavic actors and characters. The case of Russia demonstrates that staging Othello in blackface, even when the initial stated goals are those of racial equality, can serve a cultural fantasy of blackness as a versatile and disposable mask placed over a white face.

Putting on white face: navigating whiteness in the queer southeast asian community

In this research study, I engage in the process of autoethnography to make visible the processes by which the marginalization of Southeast Asian queers are produced. The practice of Whiteness, why and how Southeast Asian queers engage with Whiteness and its implications on the queer Southeast Asian community are the main tenets of this study. By exploring these processes of marginalization, a space is created to discuss the ways in which Southeast Asian queers resist racism and colonialism.

Putting on white face: navigating whiteness in the queer southeast asian community

In this research study, I engage in the process of autoethnography to make visible the processes by which the marginalization of Southeast Asian queers are produced. The practice of Whiteness, why and how Southeast Asian queers engage with Whiteness and its implications on the queer Southeast Asian community are the main tenets of this study. By exploring these processes of marginalization, a space is created to discuss the ways in which Southeast Asian queers resist racism and colonialism.

The effect of familiarity on infants’ social categorization capacity

Recent studies indicate that a preference for people from one’s own race emerges early in development. Arguably, one potential process contributing to such a bias has to do with the increased discriminability of own- vs. other-race faces–a process commonly attributed to perceptual narrowing of unfamiliar groups’ faces, and analogous to the conceptual homogenization of out-groups. The present studies addressed two implications of perceptual narrowing of other-race faces for infants’ social categorization capacity. In Experiment 1, White 11-month-olds’ (N = 81) looking time at a Black vs. White face was measured under three between-subjects conditions: a baseline “preference” (i.e., without familiarization), after familiarization to Black faces, or after familiarization to White faces. Compared to infants’ a priori looking preferences as revealed in the baseline condition, only when familiarized to Black faces did infants look longer at the "not-familiarized-category" face at test. According to the standard categorization paradigm used, such longer looking time at the novel (i.e., "not-familiarized-category") exemplar at test, indicated that categorization of the familiarized faces had ensued. This is consistent with the idea that prior to their first birthday, infants already tend to represent own-race faces as individuals and other-race faces as a category. If this is the case, then infants might also be less likely to form subordinate categories within other-race than own-race categories. In Experiment 2, infants (N = 34) distinguished between an arbitrary (shirt-color) based sub-categories only when shirt-wearers were White, but not when they were Black. These findings confirm that perceptual narrowing of other-race faces blurs distinctions among members of unfamiliar categories. Consequently, infants: a) readily categorize other-race faces as being of the same kind, and b) find it hard to distinguish between their sub-categories.

The paradox of Whiteness: Neoliberal multiculturalism and the case of Chinese international students in Australia

Since its formal inception in the 1970s, Australian (ethno-) ‘multiculturalism’ has been a source of debate over the nation’s imagined trajectory. This internal or national discourse has, inter alia, critiqued the unchanging racialised power relations between groups, where ethnocultural plurality becomes subsumed under a predominant White governmentality. In this article, however, we consider a particular difficulty in sustaining a ‘truly’ multicultural narrative of contemporary Australian society from an extra-national perspective. To do so, we draw from in-depth interviews with 28 Chinese international students (CIS) in Australia to examine how a White Australia is constructed and normalised from outside the state. We utilise these perspectives to argue for the importance of considering extra-national factors in maintaining this racialised imaginary of Australia as a White nation. This argument also foregrounds the challenge of Australia’s neoliberal multiculturalism project in capitalising on a normative multiculturalism on the international stage, highlighting an extra-national difficulty to fully commit to a multicultural re-imagining of the nation that is divorced from a racialist narrative. This further presents a conundrum for the Australian state racialised as White. That is, the need to relinquish a White face to engender better social cohesion amongst its ethnoculturally diverse populations paradoxically exists in tandem with the need to maintain a White face for the attraction of more diversity, at least for economic benefits in this globalised, neoliberal era.

Black, White and Blue: Pregnancy and Unsettled Binaries in The Masque of Blackness (1605)

This article examines the construction of national and racial identities within Ben Jonson’s and Inigo Jones’s Masque of Blackness against the backdrop of King James’ investment in creating a ‘British’ union at the start of his reign. The article re-examines the blackface performance of the Queen and her ladies in the contexts of the Queen’s and Inigo Jones’ European connections, the Queen’s reputation as ‘wilful’, and her pregnant body’s ability to evoke widespread cultural beliefs about the maternal imagination’s power to determine a child’s racial make-up. We argue that the masque’s striking use of blue-face along with black and white-face reveals a deep investment in Britain’s ancient customs which stands in tension with Blackness’ showcasing of foreign bodies, technologies, and cultural reference points. By demonstrating the significance of understanding Queen Anna’s pregnancy and her ‘wilful’ personality within the context of early modern humoral theory, moreover, we develop existing discussions of the humoral theory that underpins the masque’s representation of racial identities. We suggest that the Queen’s pregnant performance in blackface, by reminding the viewer that her maternal mind could ‘will’ the racial identity of royal progeny into being, had the power to unsettle King James I’s white male nationalist supremacy in the very act of celebrating it before their new English court and its foreign guests.