Browsing by Subject "Spectacle"

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Designing spectacle through multimedia
(2022-12-02) Erickson, John Allen; Reynoso, Josafath; Freer, Katherine
Touring installations, massive concerts, and public art pieces have pushed the field of multi-media spectacle into public awareness, but what processes go into creating these works? The purpose of this thesis is to research and deconstruct the design process of multi-media spectacle events, examining both how and what creates spectacle. In order to better understand this process I examined events with a significant media component and identified elements which I identified as creating spectacle. I then conducted interviews with designers, directors, and other producers of multimedia spectacle to better understand their design processes and philosophies. Based on this research I defined specific elements which can be incorporated into the design process when creating spectacle and applied this research by designing media for three different case studies in which spectacle was a specific goal.
Identification and interpretive rights in the rhetoric of violent spectacle
(2014-05) Eatman, Megan Elizabeth; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-; Diab, Rasha; Wilks, Jennifer; Faigley, Lester; Cloud, Dana
"Identification and Interpretive Rights in the Rhetoric of Violent Spectacle" approaches lynching, the death penalty, and stealth torture as multimodal public discourse, comprised of violent events, their representations, and their surrounding debate. While the forms of violence I discuss all have avowed communicative purposes, I argue that the rhetorical emphasis on these messages often masks more important claims about group identity and the nature of punishment. Through examination of the physical and discursive constructions of these violent events, I argue that these spectacles serve as centers of identification through which rhetors reinforce divisions between groups and standards of violent and non-violent argument. Chapter One builds on the common claim that lynching was a performance that affirmed a version of white Southern identity by examining how pro-lynching rhetoric performed lynching's implicit refusal to deliberate. Chapter Two addresses the contemporary death penalty's shift away from live spectacle and examines how pro-death penalty rhetoric constructs the audience/execution relationship when visual access is not an option. Chapter Three discusses how rhetors circumscribe "the right to look" at illicit images of Saddam Hussein's execution and the torture at Abu Ghraib, illustrating how the "right" reaction to a violent image can be a marker of group membership. The Conclusion begins to expand the dissertation's argument by raising questions about understandings of justice, legal codifications of pain, and multimodal representations of violent events.
Sensational genres : experiencing science fiction, fantasy and horror
(2010-08) Schmidt, Lisa Marie, Ph. D.; Staiger, Janet
This dissertation explores the embodied and sensory dimensions of fantastic film, those elements that are generally held up in contrast to and, often, in excess of, narrative structure. I suggest a departure from the traditional approach to genre study which has been preoccupied with narrative formulas, themes, and iconographies. My goal is not to dispense with those kinds of analyses but to complement them and, importantly, to point to some neglected dimensions of genre pleasure. I propose to transform the presumably excessive pleasures of the fantastic genre into something essential to it. First, I explore the disavowal or avoidance of embodied sensation within popular genre criticism. I then turn to critique existing models of film reception, focusing particularly upon a critique of the ocularcentric or visualist framework. From this critique, I am able to suggest some criteria for an alternative theoretical model based upon embodiment. I propose a theoretical framework based, first, on the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who demonstrates that human subjects are constituted materially and culturally through their perceptual relations within the world. Second, I rely upon a further interpretation of this phenomenology by the American philosopher Don Ihde. Ihde’s work, configured as “postphenomenology,” draws variously from technoscience studies, the philosophy of science, feminist, and posthumanist theory, and sketches a system for the application of an experimental phenomenology. With this method, I explore various embodied, sensational aspects of fantastic genre films, i.e., spectacle, gore, musical genre conventions. I describe and relate these aspects of fantastic film to other cultural venues, exploring common themes and structures among them. From this, I draw some conclusions as to the nature of these sensational genre pleasures for embodied human individuals. Simultaneously, I consider the possibilities for embodied difference among individuals.
Virtual reality collaboration for the entertainment industry
(2016-05) LeClaire, Jared Jamesen; Glavan, James; Ortel, Sven
This project is an exploration of emerging virtual reality and gaming technology as a means of collaboration for creative teams in live performance, film, and themed entertainment. As computer generated graphics technology continues to advance I believe it is necessary for artists to explore the creative possibilities these technologies offer and push the boundaries to influence continued development. This thesis asks questions of the effectiveness of VR and gaming technology as a collaborative tool, how these technologies can work in conjunction with traditional design processes, and details my experiences working with this technology on a devised theatrical production.