1,721,056 research outputs found
Videomapping in Augmented Reality. Surfacing media and urban storytelling in Cthulhu of the KOMPLEX-Live Cinema Group
Full text linkThis essay analyzes the Augmented Reality (AR) installations of the KOMPLEX-Live Cinema Group, who since 2013 have worked for the dissemination of digital visualities in urban spaces. KOMPLEX’s installations define AR’S media and narrative features, as a kind of surfacing media which allows digital images to come to the surface, by narrating the user’s walk through urban spaces (urban storytelling). The following analysis will consider the interactive installation Cthulhu – An Investigation on Very Low Frequencies in L’Aquila (2016) as the topic for consideration. Cthulhu is an augmented walk through the city of L’Aquila, where many districts were destroyed by a violent earthquake. These are replaced by the rich imagery taken from the literary mythology of H.P. Lovecraft novels.The AR work by KOMPLEX in Cthulhu aims to re-signify the interactive-immersive account between the user, medium and urban space. Before a formal analysis of Cthulhu, this essay will sketch out a theorical framework for the phenomenological study of Augmented Reality. According to some issues taken from pre-cinema, cinema of attractions and post-cinema models, AR will be conceived as medium in transition. Through this conception, the essay will trace both the polymorphic and the sharp expressive characteristics of AR as emerging medium
The “Ontological Fibrillation” of Transmedia Storyworlds. Paratexts, Cyberworlds and Augmented Reality
Full text linkIn this study we shall be trying to examine in more depth the relationships between the processes of trans-medial world-building and their “ontological fibrillation” via the affordances of recent digital technology. The analysis will be concentrating on the contribution from Augmented Reality in the ontological materialization of The Walking Dead transmedia storyworld. To this end, the dual configuration of a narrative continuum and an attractive-interactive materialization of the make-believe will be taken into consideration. This assumption will be backed up by our endeavouring to update the conceptual contributions of narratological categories, such as para-textuality, and medial categories, such as cyberworlds and the social media; the trend towards materialization of storyworlds, following in the tracks of a historical-archaeological perspective of pre-digital transmediality will be traced with reference to several scholars within transmedia studies
Preface: De-Marging Methodologies, Blurring Media-Texts
Full text linkIn this preface I try to briefly illustrate the methodological perspective with which this special issue of Between Journal, edited by Hans-Joachim Backe, Massimo Fusillo and myself, analyses the intrinsic complexity of the concepts of inter-mediality, trans-mediality and cross-mediality. The aim of this research is to further extend the field under investigation interlinking directions and perspectives, methods and approaches, to understanding the hermeneutic dimension of inter-trans-cross-mediality. Concentrating on the complexity of the texts and present-day medial contents, we have tried to contemplate actual methodology, gathering together contributions from different sectors scholars (comparative literature, film, Tv and media studies, game studies, etc.), with particular attention to the innovations brought about by the ubiquity of digital technology and the osmosis between cultural institutions and productive processes.In this preface I try to briefly illustrate the methodological perspective with which this special issue of Between Journal, edited by Hans-Joachim Backe, Massimo Fusillo and myself, analyses the intrinsic complexity of the concepts of inter-mediality, trans-mediality and cross-mediality. The aim of this research is to further extend the field under investigation interlinking directions and perspectives, methods and approaches, to understanding the hermeneutic dimension of inter-trans-cross-mediality. Concentrating on the complexity of the texts and present-day medial contents, we have tried to contemplate actual methodology, gathering together contributions from different sectors scholars (comparative literature, film, Tv and media studies, game studies, etc.), with particular attention to the innovations brought about by the ubiquity of digital technology and the osmosis between cultural institutions and productive processes
Tradurre l’impossibile in immagine. Funambolismo e (fanta)scienza nel cinema di Werner Herzog
Full text linkThis paper investigates the deep relationship between the films of German filmmaker Werner Herzog and the conceptual category of the impossible, especially the cinematic representation of something which can be defined as “unrepresentable”. The analysis focuses on the stylistic modes that contributed to making Herzog’s cinema recognizable, with attention to the following interrelated items:1) The cinematographic technique of the “ecstatic truth” (Prager, 2007);2) The conceptualization of the gaze and the vision within the filmic text through stories and settings linked to the motifs of the challenge and the titanic enterprise (Grosoli and Reiter, 2000; 2016).Thanks to the formal analysis of a corpus of fiction and documentary films, this paper tries to define funambulism and science in Herzog's filmography as instruments which convey on screen and in the viewer’s gaze stories, environments and landscapes that are poetically linked to the motif of the impossible.In questo contributo viene indagata la profonda relazione dei film di Werner Herzog con la categoria concettuale dell’impossibile e con i modi della sua rappresentazione cinematografica.L’analisi che segue si concentra sulle modalità stilistiche che hanno reso riconoscibile il cinema del regista tedesco, prendendo in considerazione alcuni aspetti interrelati tra loro:La tecnica cinematografica della “verità estatica” (Prager, 2007);La concettualizzazione dello sguardo e della visione nel testo filmico attraverso la scelta di storie e ambientazioni particolari, dove emergono i motivi della sfida e dell’impresa titanica (Grosoli e Reiter, 2000; 2016).Grazie all’analisi formale e tematica di un corpus di film e documentari, il contributo prova a definire i motivi del funambolismo e della scienza nei film del regista come strumenti che traducono sullo schermo e nella percezione dello spettatore ambienti e storie che rimandano a imprese e sfide impossibili nel cinema
Gazes and Bodies in the Pornographies of Desire
Full text linkIl saggio propone una lettura sociale della pornografia cinematografica usando la categoria dello sguardo e le sue declinazioni di genere.
Partendo dal famoso saggio di Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975), si sposterà il centro dell’analisi dal cinema narrativo tradizionale al cinema pornografico, considerando quest’ultimo un modello che fa contrappunto al voyeurismo dello sguardo maschile (male gaze) che la Mulvey riscontrava in alcuni film di Sternberg e di Hitckcock. Per dimostrare la natura contrappuntistica del cinema pornografico si metterà a confronto la medesima messa in scena di uno sguardo che desidera in due film molto differenti tra loro, Rear Window (1954) di Hitchcock e Behind the Green Door (1972) dei fratelli Mitchell. La natura contrappuntistica del porn movie si rintraccia anche nel dialogo che instaura con il cinema mainstream riguardo ai limiti del visibile in materia sessuale. Infine, la pornografia soddisfa la rappresentazione del desiderio delle altre identità di genere, mettendo in scena tipologie di sguardo adeguate – female gaze e queer gaze –, che diventano presto strumenti per una affermazione sociale della diversità sessuali
The Needs of Male Visuality: The Rhetoric of Male Gaze in Snuff and Hard-Core Culture between Cinema and Literature
Full text linkThe essay proposes a social and cultural interpretation of snuff and hard core culture in cinematographic and literary representations, by using the category of gaze and body on the male/female gender differences. This work aims to analyze two kind of male cultural needs:
- Visual: the male need of “seeing more” about the female body;
- Social and cultural: the need of having to re-establish male dominance against the destructuring action of feminism.
The field of analysis of cinematographic and literary outputs is focused on two titles: Snuff (1976) a movie produced by A. Shackleton, and the novel Snuff (2008) by Chuck Palahniuk. The movie is useful for the description of a snuff aesthetic and the rhetoric of male gaze; the novel instead is useful for the identification of relevant features about gender questions applied to extreme hard core pornography. At the end, it will be demonstrated the political attempt to reverse the hegemonic rhetoric of male gaze acting directly on the aesthetic of snuff movie ritual
The Cinema of the Zombies and the Mythology of the Christian Resurrection
Full text linkIl presente contributo si rivolge ad analizzare gli intrecci figurativi e tematici tra il cinema degli zombie e il dogma cristiano della resurrezione dei morti. Attraverso agli strumenti metodologici degli zombie studies e l’analisi formale dei contenuti cinematografici scelti come casi studio, viene descritto il sistema di violazioni e riappropriazioni del sacro che ha alimentato sin dalle origini, e continua a ravvivare, la figura culturale dello zombie. Osservando le dinamiche con cui rovescia le immagini del cristianesimo, lo zombie emerge come metafora concettuale complessa, che permette di costruire delle prospettive critiche nei confronti dei sistemi culturali e politici sedimentati nel tempo. L’analisi si concentra, pertanto, sulle trasformazioni figurative e metaforiche che attraversano la storia dello zombie cinematografico, e che si possono schematizzare, per linee generali, in tre paradigmi: lo zombie (post)coloniale; lo zombie postmoderno; il post-zombie. A queste declinazioni viene accostata l’analisi di un trittico di film identificati come rappresentativi delle interrelazioni tra cristianesimo e zombie film: White Zombie (1932), Dawn of the Dead (1978) e il cortometraggio Fist of Jesus (2012). L’analisi formale e tematica di questi testi filmici vuole restituire un quadro generale dei processi di secolarizzazione delle simbologie religiose e della funzione cristiana della resurrezione dei morti attraverso la metafora dello zombie. Proseguendo lungo una prospettiva diacronica scandita dai diversi film, l’analisi si concentra su alcune costruzioni simboliche significative: il confronto tra sistemi religiosi storicamente in conflitto tra loro (White Zombie); il depotenziamento del controllo sulla morte e le sue elaborazioni (Dawn of the Dead); il riposizionamento del sacro nelle estetiche contemporanee, ravvisabile in alcuni usi parodici del mitologema dello zombie nel contemporaneo (Fist of Jesus).This paper aims to analyse the figurative and thematic intertwining between Zombie cinema and Christian dogma regarding the resurrection of the dead. Using the methodological tools of zombie studies and a formal analysis of the film contents chosen as case studies, a system is described, of violations and re-appropriations of the sacred, a system which has nourished and continued to revive the cultural figure of the zombie since its origins. Observing the dynamics with which it overturns the images of Christianity, the Zombie emerges as a complex conceptual metaphor allowing for the construction of critical perspectives on cultural and political systems rooted over time. The analysis concentrates on the figurative and metaphorical transformations that cut across the history of the cinematic zombie, and which can be schematised, in general terms, in three paradigms: the (post)colonial zombie; the post-modern zombie; the post-zombie. These variations are approached through analysis of a triptych of films identified as representative of the interrelationships between Christianity and zombie films: White Zombie (1932), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and the short film, Fist of Jesus (2012). The formal and thematic analysis of these film texts aims to provide an overall picture of the processes of secularisation of religious symbolism and the Christian function of the resurrection of the dead through the metaphor of the zombie. Continuing from a diachronic perspective marked by the different films, the analysis focuses on certain significant symbolic constructions: the confrontation between historically conflicting religious systems (White Zombie); the lessening of power of control over death and its elaborations (Dawn of the Dead); the repositioning of the sacred in contemporary aesthetics, which can be seen in certain parodic uses of zombie mythology in the contemporary world (Fist of Jesus)
Webseries, Orginal Series and Digital Series: The Forms of Serial Fiction on the Web
Full text linklo scopo di questo saggio è quello di fornire attraverso una prospettiva storico formale un’analisi della morfologia della serialità nel web, dalle origini ai più recenti sviluppi linguistico-formali. Oggetto del saggio in questione è la webserie: un tipo di fiction webnativa che seppur trova diverse corrispondenze formali con il modello delle serie Tv al tempo stesso se ne differenzia notevolmente.
Partendo dall’appropriazione dei modelli e delle forme della serialità televisiva, la webserie si trova oggi al centro delle trasformazioni che attraversano il modo di comunicare, raccontare e fruire le storie nell’epoca della convergenza (Jenkins, 2007), di una condizione postmediale (Eugeni, 2015), di una cultura che appare sempre retta sulla produzione di forme ibride (Arcagni, 2016).
Non si tratta dunque di un semplice modello per il racconto seriale, quanto di un formato che ibrida luoghi dell’intrattenimento rendendo la differenza tra serie offline e online sempre più sfumata, come si evince nei prodotti seriali di player come Amazon e Netflix, e diventa uno dei formati con cui sperimentare i linguaggi e le forme narrative legate ai media immersivi di ultimissima generazione.
Nel saggio si proveranno a tracciare le nuove forme della webserialità in relazione allo sviluppo comunicativo dei social network e tecnologico di wereable media come i visori per la Realtà Virtuale al fine di tracciare delle possibili direttive per comprendere l’orizzonte prossimo dello storytelling digitale. Per farlo, si proverà a compiere una sostituzione terminologica-concettuale, ovvero adottare il termine digital series al posto di quello ormai tradizionale e insufficiente di webserie, o di original series
Rereadings, Refigurations and Survival of the Living Dead
Full text linkThe aim of the work is to show, through different typologies of rereadings and refigurations, the survival of the living dead as cultural figure and his adaptive ability within cultural backgrounds that are in a continuous redefinition.
It will be considered two methods of survival:
• The polyhedral of cultural discourse the living dead produces in his literary and cinematographic representation;
• The proliferation of the living dead within contemporary media context, especially with the so-called “crossmedia narrations”;
In the first case, three different cinematographic adaptations taken from the movie Dawn of the Dead (1978) shot by the American filmmaker George Romero will be analyzed to demonstrate the adaptive ability of the living dead. In the second case, the work will reflect about the overexposure of the living dead among the contemporary media ways.
By analyzing the two methods the work will try to trace the relationships between man and the removal of the concept of death within the postmodern society, in order to understand the expressive and representative strategies implemented by contemporary culture towards the removed of death that comes back
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