Journal articles: 'Body image in the theater' – Grafiati (2024)

Abstract:

Diabetes treatment involves a demanding self-management regime that is particularly challenging to adolescents. There is a need for qualitative research into the specific contexts in which adolescents attempt to balance self-management demands with the needs and desires of adolescent life. This study investigates the usefulness of image theater, a participatory form of theater using the body as an expressive tool, to articulate these dilemmas in daily life contexts. We performed a qualitative analysis of two image theater workshops with 12- to 18-year-old adolescents living with diabetes. Our results show three areas of application: (a) unraveling the contextual complexity of lived experience, (b) the articulation of implicit understandings and underlying motives, and (c) the playful exploration of new behavior. We conclude that image theater is a promising method, especially with respect to the opportunities of a more contextual and action-oriented understanding of the trade-offs made in self-management provide for diabetes education and counseling.

Abstract:

Resumo: O teatro exige a presença de corpos. É necessário, no entanto, repensar a concepção de que o corpo, numa encenação, subordina-se à imagem, ou seja, a seu caráter explícito de representação; é necessário levar em conta que o contato de corpos no espaço cena-platéia não visa apenas a veicular uma convenção ficcional: há, no teatro, um excesso de corpo que transvaza da ficção. A relação entre ator e personagem é necessária – o teatro só existe através de um pacto ficcional –, mas não é suficiente – a significação do corpo do ator não se esgota no fato de ser personagem. Como pensar, então, as relações entre as camadas de signos que agem no espaço teatral? Como se dá a semiose que torna possível uma ficção gerada pelo contato de corpos?Palavras-chave: corpo; semiótica; teatro.Abstract: Theater requires the presence of bodies. However, it’s necessary to check the conception that body, in staging, is subordinated to image, to its explicit feature of representation; it’s necessary to take into account that the contact of bodies in stage-audience space doesn’t just intend to transmit a fictional convention: in theater, there is an excess cífbody that draws off fiction. The relationship between actor and character is necessary – theater only exists through a fictional pact –, but it's not sufficient the meaning of the actor’s body is not limited to its being character. How to think the relationships between the layers of signs that actuate in theatrical space? How is the semiosis that makes a fiction created by the contact of bodies possible?Keywords: body; semiosis; theater.

Abstract:

The article presents the results of our independent qualitative research conducted in Polish theater circles. In-depth interviews have been conducted with fourth-year female students of acting faculties from four state theater schools and with lecturers working at these faculties. The aim of the study was to answer the question whether the theater has currently become a place where bodily images are being standardized and beauty canons reproduced. The research material gathered allows for the formulation of the following conclusions: 1) studying at a theater school significantly impacts the perception of one’s own body, 2) there is a widespread belief among the students concerning the importance of the body (and the beauty thereof) in the profession of an actor, which results in subjecting the body to some regimes, often destructive ones, 3) the pressure to have a perfect body is so strongly internalized in the theater circles that it becomes imperceptible to those who yield under this pressure.

Abstract:

Theater as a form of cognition of the phenomenon of man and society is of interest to researchers in various fields. This is a consequence of the syncretism of all the elements that shape the art of theater. An important place in the art of theater is a costume, according to modern theater critic Patrice Pavi, as one of the main elements of the organization of stage space, which directly affects the integrity of the scenery and its integration with the actor's body. They open the image of each character: by determining the age, sex, character, profession, emphasize individuality or typify the person. The costume is a sign of a person and at the same time a means that allows reincarnation into another person. With the help of staging, the principle of the inner composition of the play is determined: the interaction of the costumes with each other in terms of cut, shape, color, material and place in the overall scenography of the design. The problems of costume in the system of Ukrainian theater remain little studied, in contrast to folk costumes or the history of fashion.

Abstract:

Background, objectives of the research. The article reveals the method of improving the professional skills of the actor of the puppet theater, aimed at the organic connection of the puppet technique with the actor’s internal psycho-techniques. The peculiarity of creating a stage image in the puppet theater is that the functions of the puppeteer actor in the creating of a role “on the inside line” coincide with the functions of the drama theatre actor. However, the process of making the stage character in the puppet show is built according to other laws: “vitalizing” through the puppet – the main instrument of the puppeteer. Based on the methods of teaching professional subjects in high schools of puppeteers of Kiev and St.-Petersburg, the author develops and complements the teaching methods of the puppet theater actor’s skills, concentrating on the puppet-master’s technique and the process of gradually “reviving” a puppet by virtue of an actor training. Results of the study. Mastering professional skills and abilities takes place based on of working with puppets of various systems in training exercises and sketches, which gradually fills with elements of acting; continues and improves on the stage of the educational theater and ends with the creation of a stage image with a puppet in a diploma performance. The training provides such an external technique, with which the actor-puppeteer correctly performs all kinds of puppet’s moves. For this purpose, it is necessary to learn the possibilities of the puppet in the process of physical incarnation of a role, it is necessary to understand the laws of its convincing plastic living. This can be achieved through training, resulting in skills that will become semi-automatic. The wonder of the puppetry lies in the fact that the viewer, even in the “open manner”, does not notice the puppeteer and directs all his attention to the puppet, watching her “process of living”. However, the skills and abilities themselves will not become expressive means until they are will be connected with the internal psychology of the actor. The purpose of educating the puppet theater actor is to teach him the organic, natural playing with a puppet. The training involves visual control over the puppet, coordination of the self-own body with the puppet’s body and gradual introduction to the training process the elements of actor psychophysics. Because an actor creates an inner image, and the puppet becomes an external plastic expression, a manifestation of this image. The puppet mastering consists in the fact, that the puppet in the hands of the puppeteer reproduces meaningfully and consistently a series of sculptural finished poses, characteristic for a particular role. The construction of sculptural mise-en-scenes and plastic dialogues requires the possession of skills of “microscopic” hand plastics. “Micro-plastics” convinces viewers in presence of an internal monologue and permanent “life” a puppet on a stage. Alternation of movement and expressive postures is the component of the stage action of a puppet. Gradually, through regular training, students in practice study the technical possibilities of the “body” of the puppet – its torso, head, hands, “legs”, beginning to use them freely in stage action. It is advisable to start the development of puppeteer’ technique from the cane puppet, because its construction is closer to the “human”. The observation of the plasticity of the human body takes place in rhythmic lessons. Imaginative thinking of a student and his fantasy help to acquire the ability to analyze, control, choose moves of a puppet, and mutually co-ordinate them in space. Teaching the profession of puppet actor begins with the lessons aimed at the development of plastics of hands and fingers, their professional position. Work of hands is the first and necessary link in the creativity of the actors of the puppet theater. The degree of their training depends on accuracy of working with a puppet. Therefore, it is so important, before giving the student a puppet, to draw his attention to the constant training of dexterity, ductility and expressiveness of hands. In exactly owning gymnastics of the puppet actor’s hands, performing different imaginative and musical-plastic exercises and etudes, a student acquires the vocational specificities and develops his own internal abilities. Such a technique is necessary for the gradual transition from the technique of movement to the ability to use independently this technique for the embodiment of creative ideas in etudes. Creation of etudes is a continuation of training exercises and based on the inventing of the proposed circumstances requiring certain effective actions in these conditions. Motivation for action arises from familiar, understandable, vital for the student of the proposed circumstances. The student gradually, from the rehearsal to the rehearsal, clarifies the plot of the sketch, enriches and clears the proposed circumstances, based on which the storyline unfolds, that forces him to select and fixe the behavior of the actors. Etudes develop a student’s fantasy; they promote the assimilation of the laws of stage action. In etudes, students make their first steps in scenic communication with a partner – a puppet. In etudes, the student first encounters the need to create a scenic character and his behavior logic in the proposed circumstances. All stages of creating a stage etude a student takes on individual classes with a teacher. Conclusions. The process of forming the future actor-puppeteer has a complex character including as well as the mastering the techniques of driving puppets of different systems, from traditional to modern, and the actor’s mastership – the art of stage – reincarnation. This process continues on the stage of the training theater, where the student receives his first scenic practice – in the main and occasional roles, in mass scenes, in partner interaction. The image created in the diploma performance must carry all the signs of the actor-puppeteer profession: temperament, humor, actor mastership and the perfect possession of puppet technique, in any system of theatrical dolls. The Higher Theater Schools of Ukraine basing on the traditions and the latest achievements of stage art, forms the actors-puppeteers who professionally own all of major puppet systems and have the necessary skills to create a scenic image with a puppet. Such an actor will be able to enter in a creative team of a professional theater and continue searching for new expressive possibilities of a puppet at the theatrical stage.

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the identification of interdisciplinary foundations of historical views and theoretical judgments in the development of theater studies, which are now widely recognized internationally. Theater studies that have combined theater practice, its history, theory and criticism are undoubtedly relevant. The modern world theatrical process poses new scientific problems to art researchers. Theatrical production as a “reduced model of the world” requires modern research methods. The search for a universal language for the analysis of the director’s philosophical interpretation, the actor’s artistic idea, the scenic relief sign, choreographic gesture, semantics in the coverage of performance, happening, site-specific, theatrical discourse and other productions of various forms are a relevant problem of modern theater studies. Recently, in theatrical practice, during the oral and written analysis of unique stage images, gestures and dance movements performed by the human body in performances, choreographic productions, national and ritual, everyday or social, etc., theater critics face a terminological deficit. Therefore, this article will be aimed at expanding the range of approaches to theater research with the strengthening of interdisciplinary connections based on the experience of applying the methodology of social sciences research in the field of theater studies.

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The purpose of the article is to identify the features and determine a promising theoretical and practical approach to acting in the context of the specifics of post-dramatic theater. Methodology. An analytical method was applied to identify domestic and foreign scientific works on the theory of post-dramatic theater; the method of systems analysis and synthesis, thanks to which the approaches and methods of actor's mastery developed by K. Stanislavsky are considered in the context of dramatic and post-dramatic theater, with their inherent originality; the method of historical and cultural analysis and the comparative method, on the basis of which the differences in acting in the performances of dramatic and post-dramatic theater are revealed. Scientific novelty. The skill of the actor of the post-dramatic theater was investigated; the features of acting perception and practice of playing in performative practice are revealed; a promising theoretical and practical approach to acting, corresponding to the specifics of post-dramatic theater, is proposed; the expediency of using certain principles of the Stanislavsky system in search of new methods of acting by an actor in post-dramatic theater has been proved. Conclusions. A wide range of types of theatrical practices at the present stage of the development of the performing arts has led to the transformation of acting perception and acting. The post-dramatic theater offers the viewer not only the image of the hero but also the special existence of the actor, which is defined as “presence” and is the result of work on the material, the theme of the performance. In the context of the specifics of post-dramatic theater, in our opinion, a proactive approach is appropriate, providing for the rejection of prejudices and adherence to a single system, discourse or practice and cultivates a critical awareness of acting as a multiple and variable. This approach will contribute to the implementation of a certain set of actions - historically and procedurally considered and comprehended by the actor "absolute" while being part of the plurality. For example, the study showed that for the development of the actor's skill in certain types of post-dramatic theater, it is extremely useful to use certain aspects of the Stanislavsky system, in particular, the development of an actor's inner creative state of body and mind becomes extremely important.

Abstract:

The conception of the actor as a living being who keeps his body engaged in a fictional time to create a scenic truth, is related to the real, present and above all trained body. This body, generator of signals meant to be understood by the observer, involves an inner understanding of signs and images that originate beyond its boundaries. The objective of this reflexive article is to propose a “form”2 type of Tai Chi Chuan as a limited and instinctive process, using its ideographic imagery as a guide for the creation of a “movement score”3 , a resource for the actor to scrutinize the action that this imagery engenders and the relationship it establishes with his or her body language. The methodology is premised on an initial consideration that fans out into different possible analyses, until finally culminating in a “meta-reflection”4 , based on prior knowledge and experience in both theater and Tai Chi Chuan. The above includes theoretical and practical aspects that allow dealing with the analysis of Tai Chi Chuan ideograms as images for their representation, to create a movement score from them. The didactics discovers those elements which might potentially help capture Tai Chi Chuan through its calligraphy and vice versa, adapting and reinterpreting understood aspects to the actor’s physical training, which will be evaluated and implemented in the future in the stage environment.

Abstract:

This article analyzes a particular corpus of theater-perfor- mance: Prometheus chained according to Alberto Kurapel, a work released on March 11, 1988 in the Exile Space, Montreal, Canada and published in 1989 by the Humanitas publishing house. From the photographic images and the video of its staging, this analysis focuses attention on the body - on its various constructions / presentations - and on sound understood as a space / body that reveals another reality. Bodies that denote a dis- location caused by the notion of exile, since the actor-performer is the entity in charge of recovering memory in the utopian body of the scene, unraveling its meanings and showing its symbolic depth. The study at- tempts to answer the question: how is the historical memory of exile in Alberto Kurapel's Prometheus constructed with body and sound?

Abstract:

This study is an attempt to overlap the characteristics of the affective image that appeared at the turn of the century around 1900 with the composition of film art. In particular, the focus was on the expressionless face and still movements as shared characteristics between the affective image and the elements of montage. While the existing film studies have often compared film mainly with literature and occasionally with theater among adjacent arts, this study focuses more on body-centered arts, such as dance and sculpture, which deal with senses of rhythm and formative gestures. Along the line, I try to suggest how montage is a new way of perception rather than thought, which, in turn, is to reconsider the physical properties of excessive images that are easily overlooked in the analysis of cinematic structure of meaning. Furthermore, introducing the sense of touch is an attempt to expand and understand the composition and experience of film meaning, differentiated from the mainstream discourses centering on the visuality and transparency. Tactile acceptance now attracts attention as a synaesthetic element that can be discussed along with visuality. Such discussion may explain various arts of alternative perception of today that are experienced in a distracted way through dispersed media and platforms. This study can be one starting point to explore in earnest the interface between the film/media art and other arts that use the body as a means of expression.

Abstract:

Objective: to evaluate the feasibility of the intra-operative application of a specimen PET/CT imager in a clinical setting. Materials and methods: this is a pilot analysis performed in three patients who received an intra-operative administration of 68Ga-PSMA-11 (n = 2) and 68Ga-DOTA-TOC (n = 1), respectively. Patients were administrated with PET radiopharmaceuticals to perform radio-guided surgery with a beta-probe detector during radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer (PCa) and salvage lymphadenectomy for recurrent neuroendocrine tumor (NET) of the ileum, respectively. All procedures have been performed within two ongoing clinical trials in our Institute (NCT05596851 and NCT05448157). Pathologic assessment with immunohistochemistry (PSMA-staining and SSA immunoreactivity) was considered as standard of truth. Specimen images were compared with baseline PET/CT images and histopathological analysis. Results: Patients received 1 MBq/Kg of 68Ga-PSMA-11 (PCa) or 1.2 MBq/Kg of 68Ga-DOTA-TOC (NET) prior to surgery. Specimens were collected, positioned in the dedicated specimen container, and scanned to obtain high-resolution PET/CT images. In all cases, a perfect match was observed between the findings detected by the specimen imager and histopathology. Overall, the PET spatial resolution was sensibly higher for the specimen images compared to the baseline whole-body PET/CT images. Furthermore, the use of the PET/CT specimen imager did not significantly interfere with any procedures, and the overall length of the surgery was not affected using the PET/CT specimen imager. Finally, the radiation exposure of the operating theater staff was lower than 40 µSv per procedure (range 26–40 μSv). Conclusions: the image acquisition of specimens obtained by patients who received intra-surgery injections of 68Ga-PSMA-11 and 68Ga-DOTA-TOC was feasible and reliable also in a live-experience session and has been easily adapted to surgery daily practice. The high sensitivity, together with the evaluation of intra-lesion tumor heterogeneity, were the most relevant results since the data derived from specimen PET/CT imaging matched perfectly with the histopathological analysis.

Abstract:

Following the rules of self-sacrifice for a higher cause, the Palestinian female bomber performs the values of the struggle through and on her body in a farewell video statement. She leaves herself behind to create an image of a strong and victorious soldier. The female bomber's performance of the new self introduces her as a role model for younger generations. Her public appearance in hijab challenges notions of the body, physical beauty, and freedom in the secularist world at the same time as it deviates from the norms of a fundamentalist view of women. It is the dual impact on local and international viewers that politicizes the female bomber's public performance and makes it significant. Rana Salimi has received her PhD from the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. She currently lectures at UCSD and at National University on a variety of subjects, including theatre history and language arts.

Abstract:

In fact, all kinds of information we have acquired regarding the five senses have a personal reflection in our minds: The events we experience, the books we read, the people we meet, the image we touch, taste, smell, everything we hear is the reflection of the sound in our mind-consciousness; It is the building block of artistic expression. Images that make our emotions speak freely in art education make our dream world and world of thought creative and enrich. Everything that is the subject of our dreams also becomes the subject of art. Art makes the reader-art-receiver feel those emotions-thoughts by shaping our emotions and thoughts in a visual order. Drama is a total art discipline that is based on the acting techniques of theater -role playing, improvisation, etc.- performed and structured with body language animations: It first activates our senses, sensations, imaginations and then our thoughts in order to make art with the five senses. It consists of interdisciplinary arts and arts education; group interactive works on the development of the power of imagination by interacting emotionally with people over the dramatic, enhancing the experiences of the participants. Drama consists of interactive play processes that are constructed by arranging our emotions and thoughts within limited freedoms, enabling the participants to learn and socialize while entertaining them, and provide life experiences. However, the game provides not only emotional treatment, but also imaginative thinking, creative imagination, learning through interaction, and the participants acquire new learnings by developing cognitive-affective-motor behaviors. Drama education master's and doctorate programs have been carried out in conuntry’s higher education for 21 years; this art discipline is becoming widespread in education and training with postgraduate scientific studies. Since art education and artistic creative process require thinking with images, art educators should develop an image-based approach strategy to the drama method. In this article, on the axis of image, art education and drama education are emphasized; The subject of why art education based on the discipline of drama is necessary is explained by examining the image.

Abstract:

In this paper, the current practices and discourses surrounding the Alevisemahare analysed in a peculiar reflexive and embodied manner. The semah is comprehended here as a “dynamic structured body system,” which is differently recognized asibadet(devotional practice),dans(dance), ormeditasyon(meditation), and whose practice is alleged to support ideals of inter-religious peace and gender equity. Its analysis resorts to data collected during an intensive fieldwork that was carried out between 2008 and 2011 by following the experimental theater piece with the titleSamah—Kardeşlik Töreni(Samah—the Ritual of Brotherhood) of the Ankara Deneme Sahnesi amateur group based in Ankara (Turkey). This play is the result of a re-elaboration of ethnographic data that were collected throughout the Anatolian peninsula since the early 1980s by a team of students and researchers affiliated with the Theatre Department of Ankara University. In this process of re-adaptation for the stage, the semah was singled out of its religious source (theAyin-i Cemritual) for which it started to display a mirror image offering a condensed exposition of the Alevi rituals to an audience. This paper contextualizes these formal adaptations on the stage into the frame of the abrupt history of migration and urbanization in late twentieth century Turkey. Such historical processes played a major role in the current circulation of the semah in Turkey as well as abroad, resulting also in its perspective inscription as world intangible heritage.

Abstract:

What does the visual culture of early modern England, and the ways in which that culture articulated specific notions of corporeality, tell us about the actor’s body on Shakespeare’s stage? This article locates one answer to that question in the popular emblem books and the somewhat more rarefied cosmographical treatises of the day. Digging in these sources reveals an understanding of the body that is grounded first and foremost in corporeality – the body, before it was anything else, was matter. As such, I argue that the actor’s body on the early modern stage served as an instance of irrefutable and irreducible materiality, ‘lending’ its materiality to the abstractions and absences that Shakespeare’s theatre so readily ‘bodied forth.’However, as a wealth of scholarship on the body has suggested over the past few decades, things are not this simple. The body appears in these arenas as a very specific kind of matter, and matter itself is shown to have a complex relationship to ‘form’, or the immaterial realities of life. I argue here that the nature of the body-as-matter, and indeed of matter itself, is fruitfully understood in terms of two related early modern concepts: prima materia, and man as microcosm. These ideas were most in circulation in the distinct but kindred fields of alchemy and cosmography, and their visual manifestations offer a perspective on the theatrical body that does not reduce the body to simplematter, but still acknowledges its profound materiality, and the effect that the body-as-matter has on stage-work as a whole.

Abstract:

Relevance. In this work we continue to develop the range of problems raised in the first article, which shows that the ontological status of an artistic image is made up of its "materiality", sign-symbolic and metaphysical components. An urgent problem for the theory and philosophy of the theater is the development and substantiation of the processes of synthesis of the imagination and physicality of the actor in practice, in the embodiment of the stage image. The purpose is on the basis of the philosophical and methodological analysis of theatrical practice we are going to show that the embodiment of a stage image in a theatrical performance is possible only under the condition of a joint maximum concentration of perception, both by the actor and the spectator. Objectives: on the basis of various theatrical concepts and ideas of quantum-synergetic anthropology we plan to consider the formation of a stage image in practice; to reveal the relationship of the ontological status of this image with the problem of the unity of consciousness and body; to identify the features of the audience's perception of the game and the unique characteristics of theatrical practice as a post-non-classical practice. Methodology. Historical and philosophical approach to the problems of perception and the correlation of corporality and consciousness; philosophical reflection, hermeneutical method, methodology of generalized corporeality in quantum-synergetic anthropology. Results. The concept of a creative impulse of a theatrical action is introduced as an interpretation of the concept of A. Bergson's creative impulse in theatrical practice. As a result of the study, it was found that the completeness of the perception of the stage image mainly depends on the integrity of the states of the actor's generalized corporeality in the acts of the "creative impulse" of the theatrical action. Conclusions. The theatrical production gives the viewer much less space for interpretation (compared to other non-stage art forms) in the process of being captured by the general action, although, of course, it does not completely deprive him of this freedom. The ontological status of the stage image represents the integrity of the processes of the generalized corporality of the actor and the audience's perception.

Abstract:

This essay engages an undertheorized form of democratic agency: the embodied spectacle that characterizes a strain of activist politics. Where an existing literature addresses “the spectacle” as a tactic of power, it does not do justice to how marginal groups have used radical bodily acts in order to intervene within the image-world of democratic politics (e.g., hunger strikes, die-ins, self-immolation). The essay argues that such performances represent a standing challenge to democratic theory and demand a more richly sensuous approach to how political claims are made. Such forms of bodily theatre do not only “speak” in ways that exceed official civic discourses but, in so doing, they unsettle the space of citizenship. Ultimately, these bodies do something in being undone.

Abstract:

The contemporary staging of Women's bodies raises both practical and theoretical issues, and in both text-based theatre and performance art women theatre artists are currently engaging these challenges in inventive ways. Drawing upon the inland expanses and ontological freedoms of the American Midwest, the women at the Omaha Magic Theatre have recently premiered two collaboratively written plays, Body Leaks and Sound Fields, which use image, action, technology, and text to engage issues of gender, identity, sexuality, and the material body. In these issues, the spectator is prohibited from making direct relations between body and self, and must instead come to terms with a web of relationships which include the self, the physical body, the community, and the environment. Susan Carlson, a professor of English at lowa State University, has written two books on theatrical comedy, most recently Women and Comedy: Rewriting the British Theatrical Tradition (1991). She is currently working on the contemporary performance of Aphra Behn's plays, and is writing a book on the connections between productions of Shakespeare at the turn of the twentieth century and early suffrage theatre.

Abstract:

Anatomía dunha serea (‘Anatomy of a mermaid’) () is a documentary theatre play in which the Galician actor Iria Pinheiro shares the experiences of obstetric violence she went through during and after labour. I filmed Pinheiro’s creative process when putting the play together. As I was filming, I found Anatomía dunha serea presented a reality that is still debated in Spain, disrupting the performative image of the pregnant woman that has been perpetuated in cultural production within western patriarchal society. In this article, I address how I use video essay as a research form to analyse the subversive nature of the play, looking at how Pinheiro uses parody as a device to disrupt, and how she confronts us with the image of the pregnant woman typically portrayed in films. Furthermore, what started as an investigation into the actor’s creative process turned into a personal exploration to understand more about the pregnant woman who infiltrates the Galician and Spanish imaginary. By analysing to what extent the image we get from films has been framed by the depictions of the pregnant Virgin Mary and how subversive portrayals in films are sometimes made invisible, I intend to challenge how we present the pregnant woman on screen.

Abstract:

The images that make up the project presented here are very much part of “the technical universe of images” Flusser has identified in his book [Into the Universe of Technical Images]. They were taken over a period of two years with an automated “intelligent” wearable camera called the Autographer. The artist wore the camera in various everyday situations: on a city walk, in a holiday resort, in an art gallery, in a lecture theatre, at home. The machinic behaviour was nevertheless influenced by the way her body moved, enacting a form of immersive, corporeal perception that broke with the linearity of perspectival vision and its representationalist ambitions, while also retaining human involvement in the multiple acts of image capture. The human element was also foregrounded in the subsequent editing activities: Zylinska was faced with over 18,000 images from which she chose several dozen. Active Perceptual Systems thus raises the question of whether the creative photographer can be seen as first and foremost an editor: a Flusserian in-former who provides structure to the imagistic flow after the images have been taken. Keywords: algorithm, Autographer, editor, surveillance, technical image

Abstract:

Background: This study aims to test the hypothesis that: (1) radiation exposure is increased with the intended use of Flat Surface Image Intensifier (FSII) units above the operative surface compared with the traditional below-table configuration; (2) this differential increases in a dose-dependent manner; and (3) radiation exposure varies with body part and proximity to the radiation source. Methods: A surgeon mannequin was seated at a radiolucent hand table, positioned for volar distal radius plating. Thermoluminescent dosimeters measured exposure to the eyes, thyroid, chest, hand, and groin, for 1- and 15-minute trials from a mini C-arm FSII unit positioned above and below the operating surface. Background radiation was measured by control dosimeters placed within the operating theater. Results: At 1-minute of exposure, hand and eye dosages were significantly greater with the flat detector positioned above the table. At 15-minutes of exposure, hand radiation dosage exceeded that of all other anatomic sites with the FSII in both positions. Hand exposure was increased in a dose-dependent manner with the flat detector in either position, whereas groin exposure saw a dose-dependent only with the flat detector beneath the operating table. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the surgeon’s hands and eyes may incur greater radiation exposure compared with other body parts, during routine mini C-arm FSII utilization in its intended position above the operating table. The clinical impact of these findings remains unclear, and future long-term radiation safety investigation is warranted. Surgeons should take precautions to protect critical body parts, particularly when using FSII technology above the operating with prolonged exposure time.

Abstract:

A nonverbal transmission and an implicit way of communication are highly encouraged in Japanese society. The reason for this “silence prerogative” is often found in historical facts of lengthy feudal era or in ancient philosophies and religions such as Buddhism and Confucianism and their various concepts which privilege taciturn way of communication. Moreover, the unspoken comprehension is often complemented by the attitude which equates truthfulness with silence. This paper explores the silence as a communicative act in the domain of Japanese art, where the body takes over the place of the language. In traditional Japanese theatrical performance, such as noh, words are often inadequate to convey emotion and therefore the aesthetics of emptiness, understatement and abstraction is transcended by the masks with "nonmoving lips". Drawing on theoretical perspectives from both East and West, I argue that the silent bodies operate as deliberate and integral determinants of Japanese non-silent art forms – especially in cinema and theatre. In the Eastern thought, visual perception is fundamental in cognition of the world, whereas auditory discernment is secondary to "image-thinking" (Yuasa). Accustomed to taciturnity, Japanese audience effectively corresponds to the performance and "completes" it in silence.

Abstract:

This performative lecture explores artistic, social, cultural, and philosophical issues embedded in interdisciplinary dance theater artist Michael Sakamoto's latest solo work, blind spot. Combining film, video, and photography, dance, and theatrical performance, blind spot attempts to tell a story of looking without seeing, yet with sudden, ephemeral flashes of insight. Using his own history and perception-projection as a racialized, “Asian-American” body practicing butoh, an “Asian” form, Michael speaks of self-contradiction, code switching, and embracing both socialized and subjective identity. Inspired by the Buddhist conception of impermanence and ontological questions of embodied truth in media-based art forms, blind spot is rooted in the belief that every moment is an instance of not knowing, simultaneously revealing our fear and desire, making life a circuitous, nonlinear journey of mapping such “blind spots.”From Michael's artist statement on blind spot: The fear of not seeing is the same as that of not knowing. From implosive desire, we give primacy to sight at the cost of vision. Within and without language-delineated, behavioral paradigms, we alternate between embracing our passion/obsession and holding ourselves at arm's length in the third person. Our mediated image—dead to the world but with a life of its own—becomes both bulwark against and support for the tenuous, febrile cord connecting us to heredity and lineage in the ways we both speak and act.

Abstract:

A primary theme of twentieth-century theatre has been the actor's body. Numerous directors from Stanislavsky to Anne Bogart have evolved stage theories and related training methods to promote a more expressive body on stage. In her 1995 article ‘Developing a Physical Vocabulary for the Contemporary Actor’, Lea Logic provides an overview of many of these approaches. While acknowledging the contributions of these director-teachers, she suggests, ‘If body shape and movement are to retain and increase their power as the central focus of theatre, actors must learn to maximize the expressive potential of their bodies.’ Quoting Copeau, Chekhov, Stanislavsky or Barba, she maintains the primary problem is an actor's tendency consistently to return to physical choices related to their personality and not necessarily to the role they are playing. She quotes Copeau's description of actors: ‘I always know, in advance what they are going to do. They reduce everything to the level of their habits, their clichés, their affectations. They do not invent anything.’ While Copeau's complaint is not directed at actor teachers, but actors, his words define one of the primary challenges for them, to teach actors to expand their expressive abilities beyond their self image.

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O artigo visa a investigar o esquivo e deslizante conceito de graça ou graciosidade (Anmut) do corpo, tradicionalmente remetido à dança e ao corpo do bailarino. Para tal, retoma a leitura de um instigante texto de Heinrich von Kleist (1997), intitulado Sobre o teatro de marionetes, articulando-o a certas reflexões de José Gil (2001; 2002) acerca do corpo do bailarino, bem como as de Henri Bergson(2001) sobre o mecânico aplicado ao vivo, fonte do riso e da comicidade. A exploração do tema da graça no movimento do corpo a partir deste texto do início do século XIX permite cernir, de modo extemporâneo, as relações entre graça, consciência e imagem, acrescentando à reflexão sobre o corpo na contemporaneidade o tema oportunamente anacrônico da perda da alma e da graçapor efeito de uma consciência que se reflete nos espetacularizados espelhos da imagem. Palavras-chave: Graça; Corpo; Dança. Grace, body and conscience Abstract: This article investigates the both elusive and allusive concept of grace or graciosity (Anmut), traditionally referred to dance and to the moving body of dancers. It analyses an inspiring text written by Heinrich von Kleist (1997) at the beginning of the XIXth century, named On the Marionette Theatre. This text is then articulated with some reflexions developed by the Portuguese philosopher José Gil (2001; 2002) on the body of the dancer, as well as with Henri Bergson’s (2001) discussions on mecanicity applied to the living body as a source of laughter. This exploration of Kleist’s theme of graciosity connected to the movements of dance leads us, two centuries after Kleist’s text, to new reflexions about the loss of a certain soul (delicious anachronical term) and of graciosity as correlated effects of a conscience more and more reflected in the spectacularized mirrors of image. Keywords: Graciosity; Body; Dance.

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The Baroque coincides with the development of a new art, a technique that learned how to read the confessions of the body, one that knew with precision how to bring the body out of its deadly silence and make it confess. This was not the tribunal of the Inquisition; this was the Anatomy theatre whose imprint bore the character of the scalpel. By laying out the canvas of the corpse, the amphitheatres showed a figure appearing upon the very same folds under which it disappeared. In the anatomy lesson, the act of reading coincided with an act of writing: the knife wrote as it read. The anatomist conceived a carte blanche, a blank map whose contours were traced on the selfsame edges of the parchment. For the first time—it seemed—the portent of veils gave straight answers. The magistri vulnerum—the masters of wounds—sought to undo the body in order to gaze at the nakedness of Eden; their most prized text being the silence written on Adam’s coat of skin. Such was the dream of the anatomist: to hold the image of man in one piece. Piece by piece

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This article puts forward an experiential teaching method for becoming aware of, getting access to, and giving meaning to the sensory experiences that constitute and shape learning processes during social anthropological fieldwork. While social anthropologists use all their senses in the field, the preparation and processing of fieldwork are limited to certain senses. In accordance with the academic habitus, it is common to discuss theoretical texts pre-fieldwork and almost exclusively rely on making meaning of written fieldwork material afterwards. While cognitively produced textual sources and techniques of verbalisation (e.g. presentations) are extensively focused on, the body, emotional and sensory experiences are often overlooked in academic discourse and practices. The proposed experiential method integrates the dimensions of sensory experiences in classes, colloquiums and workshops, and brings into practice a teaching approach that includes the analysis of embodied knowledge and stresses its importance as an ethnographic source.

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Between 1975 and 1988, the Korean Public Performance Ethics Committee (KPPEC) censored obscene language, body exposure, and extreme violence, as is common in all forms of theatre censorship. However, the KPPEC focused in particular on depictions of the President of South Korea, and proscribed any work that challenged or even questioned the public image of the President as a strong leader for a nation in crisis. Despite the official abolition of censorship in 1988, it was discovered in 2016 that a blacklist had been in operation that excluded ‘left’ and ‘pro-Pyongyang’ theatre directors and actors from accessing public funding. By exploring the process of censorship, Seong-kwan Cho in this article interrogates the relationship between the theatre and the nation. Seong-kwan Cho is a lecturer at the School of Global Communication at Kyung Hee University. With Jae-beom Hong, in his current research he has been exploring North Korean performance, and his article on this subject is forthcoming in Asian Theatre Journal.

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It is ironic that the works of Antonin Artaud, who called for the rejuvenation of theatre as such, come to us today not on their own, but through an unusually dense filter: a peculiarly persistent critical/theoretical apparatus doubles his own writings and practice. Artaud's work has occupied a cultish space in both French and English criticism for several decades. Each major trend in Artaud scholarship has reinforced the image of Artaud as a brilliant/mad theoretician and inspirational writer but a failed theatre practitioner—worse, one doomed to failure. The French school of criticism has plumbed the depths of the paradoxes of Artaud's oeuvre, examining the impossibility of reconciling the inadequacy of expression with the need to express. Derrida has argued that Artaud's projects, by their nature, by his nature, cannot succeed: They betray him the moment they begin to be articulated; they cannot stand upright the minute they leave his body. Much French criticism takes Artaud's madness and uses it as a touchstone for discussion of his legacy. The French Artaud begins at the asylum in Rodez.

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Background. M. Gogol’s «Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka» often attract the attention of theater directors. Thus, in June 2009, the premiere of the play «May night, or Moonlight Witchcraft» directed by Oksana Dmitrieva, took place at the Kharkov Puppet Theater. Trying to reveal the genre nature of the production, theater critics give it such definitions as a fairy tale, musical, fantasy, ethno-folk show, liturgy, mystery play, as well as analyze individual finds of a young director, but the complete picture of the artistic features of this performance is absent yet. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to identify the features of the interpretation of the Gogol story by director O. Dmitrieva. Results. The «May night...» begins with a musical introduction consisting of two themes: the lyrical theme of the pipe with intonations of Transcarpathian melodies (which is connected with the young couple Hanna and Levko and the image of Pannochka) and the theme of hand drums, which reveals the inner strength of the Ukrainian people, as well as demonological beginning associated with the witch-stepmother. The music gives way to the sounds of night nature and the stars appear on the backdrop. Their low location and shape resemble the Christmas stars, with which carolers sing for Christmas. In the dark, the figure of Pannochka appears, wrapped in white cloths remembering a shroud. The unfolding of intersecting clothes above Pannochka’s head, and then their rotation symbolize both the alternation of day and night and the winter solstice. Thus, there are both, the Orthodox and the Pagan features, in depiction of the Ukrainian village. From several notes that the heroine sings, her leitmotif grows up. He fits well on modern arrangements of Ukrainian music, and is easily recognizable on his own. In combination with Pannochka’s sudden gusty movements (as if a bird is trying to break out of the snare, fly up into the sky), it helps to reveal her ambivalent nature: on the one hand, of the martyr, on the other – the representative of evil forces. Pannochka becomes the main character of the performance, and the Moon becomes her attribute, which can turn into the tambourine of shaman, the lyre, the sword, etc. The youth walking scene “on the garden” with the use of the jigging puppet, accompanied by folk songs differs in tempo and rhythm from previous mysteriously lyrical scenes. In the next episode, Pannochka enchants the characters on the stage with moonlight, so the meeting and the dialogue between Hanna and Levko begin to be perceived as a dream of heroes. This is facilitated by both the slow movements of the actors, the lengthy summons into the names of the characters, their flight around the stage, and the dialogue with the Moon that Pannochka props up. The tragic history of Pannochka is depicted first with the help of portraits of its participants on round screens, and then the screens are assembled into the figure of a Witch-Cat. This form also is reminiscent of a Chinese dancing Dragon. The episode with the hand fans depicting the “cat’s claws” is accompanied by alarming drum sound: Pannochka has no repose from the Witch even after death. The village in the new picture is reflected in the ripples of water: the real world is floating, swinging. Hanna and Levko confess their love to each other, however, Kalenik suddenly appears, recalling the Head. The image of the Head is solved by the director using two masks – large and small. At the beginning of the second act, the actors appear on the stage with long poles, which are similar both to the Chinese combat weapon and to the Ukrainian musical instruments “trembits”, allowing the actors to show brilliant plastic technique of “slow-motion”. Stylized masks of animals (cows, goats, pigs, roosters), which the walking lads pulling on themselves are the allusion to the Christmas fests. The lad boys strive to annoy the Head, so Head masks reappear on the scene, but there are already three of them: large, medium and small. With their help, there is a debunking of this character losing his power. The action transferred to the bottom of the pond, as symbolized by stylized fish. The drums and the fans – the cat’s claws – once again remind of the conflict between Pannochka and the Witch. Like in Gogol’s novella, the heroine asks Levko to find the Stepmother-Witch. The marionnette a la planchette and then – a shadow paper doll represent the image of the hero. Thanks to Levko, Mermaids (the original puppets) seize the Witch, and her death is symbolized by a broken rattle-rattle with the image of the cat’s muzzle. Next, the scene action follows by the Gogol’s novella: grateful Pannochka given to Levko the note, Head read it and allowed his son to marry Hanna. The image of Levko is represented here both in the system of the tablet puppet and in the means of the shadow theater. And the long clothes-shrouds acquainted from the first episodes of the play perform a number of new functions: this is the water of the pond, where Pannochka floats, and the paper, on which the note is written, and later – the wedding table. In this way the end of the Pannochka plot line comes. The spiritual verse «The soul with the body was parting» sounds, and in the hands of actress V. Mishchenko, the light paper doll, as the soul of her heroine, seeks up into the sky. Pannochka redeemed her sins, and now her soul can fly to heaven, because Easter has come. The last episode uses the “time-lapse” technique symbolizing the cleansing of the world from evil, and Pannochka’s leitmotif is organically superimposed on the Easter chime of bells. The action ends with a rap on the words “The Angels had opened the windows and they are looking on us” and the news that Easter has come. The final supports an idea that a person’s life moves from Christmas to Easter, from suffering to light, thus closing the spectacle into a ring composition. Conclusions. The original Gogol’s text allowed O. Dmitrieva to show a wide palette of modern possibilities of the puppet theater and the high skill of the actors of the “live plan”. In addition, the interweaving of national and foreign, Orthodoxy and paganism, an appeal to the expressive possibilities of the Ukrainian folk and modern music and to the ballet plastique suggest the postmodern nature of the play «May night, or MoonlightWitchcraft».

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The article aims to explore forms of representation of a monarch in Irish court odes between 1702 and 1714. By 1702, Protestant Ireland to a large extent adopted the political structure of its mother country. The Irish parliament was turning into a regular institution, and the development of the party system was also underway. This posed a threat to the status quo, which the Irish government sought to maintain. To protect the rights of the Crown in England Queen Anne used a theatre of power and heavily relied on self-representation. However, in Ireland, the Queen's representation was limited to the odes for the Queen’s birthdays. Control over the writing of odes was given into the hands of Irish lords-justices, who were heavily involved in party politics. This led to the appropriation of the Queen’s second body by a dominant party in the Irish government: the image of Queen Anne was frequently used to support party politics. The image of the Queen was fairly passive due to her gender and physical disabilities: with the lack of the Queen’s personal control, it was not difficult for the parties to use the monarch’s second body for their purposes. In odes of 1709–1710, the image of Queen Anne was used to support Whig war policies; in 1711–1714 it was transformed to support the new moderate cabinet. As a result, instead of being an important weapon against partisanship, the representation of Queen Anne in Ireland was occasionally used as party propaganda.

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In The Affect Theory Reader, Gregory J. Seigworth and Melissa Gregg write about Roland Barthes’s splendid notion of ‘shimmer’: an ‘exhaustively nuanced space’ that may be inventoried as patho-logies (by which to contemplate pathos) of bodies (human and nonhuman). In Alex Garland’s 2018 film Annihilation, a refracting effect — the Shimmer — which has appeared around a lighthouse and is slowly spreading outwards, is being studied. Military groups have entered the Shimmer never to return. A group of female scientists — of which Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist, is one — enter the Shimmer and begin to inventory the strange organic duplicates of form within it. These organic structures, while extraordinarily nuanced, are also patho-logies of organic life as they are refracted by the Shimmer. This article will consider the ‘exhaustively nuanced space’ of cinema and its patho-logies via the conditions of the rhythm of the pixel in cinema, and beyond, in social media. While cinema, as well as social media, can be conceived as an affective experience, this essay will consider how the rhythm of the pixel as an energetic relation allows for an ethics to arise in the relation between the media text and the spectator/operator. In an examination of the rhythm of the pixel beyond the cinematic medium, I consider the energetic ‘becoming’ of the spectator/operator and the digital image (text and image in social media) as they act in relation. In an examination of the rhythm of the pixel beyond the movie theatre, I consider the infinite intensities in the aisthetic encounter of body and text/image in social media and its correlation to the politics of a mass-art. My hope is that in the ‘exhaustively nuanced space’ of rhythm beyond the cinematic medium and the pixel beyond the movie theatre, what may be found is patho-logies conjured by affective intensities and their connectives whereby digital interactions may no longer be refracted by the passions of divisive debate, but by an ethics of care, compassion, and empathy.

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Key terms such as “pro-ana,” “pro-anorexia,” and “pro-ED” are searched for on the Internet over 13 million times annually. These searches lead to web pages and social media sites where pro-anorexia and “pro-bulimia” (pro-ana/mia) contributors share weight-loss and exercise tips, “thinspiration” slogans, images and videos, and speak openly about their problems with eating and body image. In this article, we outline our initial research on online responses to pro-ana/mia, and describe how we used the data and analyses from this research to create a piece of research-informed theatre, or performance ethnography. The initial research identified a range of responses to pro-ana/mia that were aligned with either dominant or critical discourses on the causes of, and solutions for, pro-ana/mia. Our findings and analyses challenge media portrayals and medical approaches to pro-ana/mia phenomena, and support an alternative, critical analysis of how psychocentrism and neoliberalism foster social injustices for women and girls. Our work nurtures collective efforts to displace dominant ideologies and practices that have serious implications for the socio-cultural, economic, physical and mental health of women and their communities.

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With the spread of digital and other modes of electronic recordings into the auditoria and lecture theatres where performance is studied, the debate about the video documentation of performance – already well rehearsed and in the pages of NTQ – is about to intensify. Rachel Fensham and Denise Varney have based the article which follows on their own work in videoing live theatre pieces for research into feminist performance. This article deliberates on their experience with the medium and examines the anxieties that surface at the point of implosion between live and mediatized performance. The first part locates these anxieties in the question of presence and absence in performance – especially that of the performer, whose body and self are both at stake in the recorded image. In the second part, the authors offer a description of viewing practices, which they present as a model of ‘videocy’. Rachel Fensham is Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, Monash University, and Denise Varney is Lecturer in the School of Studies in Creative Arts, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

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The present work in the form of a case study aims to identify the contribution of the dance performance “Spontaneous 40” through the personal perception of two ordinary male and five ordinary female citizens, part of a total group of 40, all over 40 years old, who, voluntarily and without any previous experience, participated in the laboratory of Madrid choreographer “La Ribot” at the “Teatro Camões” in Lisbon within the cycle of performance art called “Like You and Me.” This cycle was programmed by the art director of the theater, Mark Deputter, contradicting the idea that art has little to do with people's daily lives, and advocating the replacement of trained and disciplined bodies of classical ballet dancers on stage with the differentiated bodies of ordinary people: some small, big, fat, thin, young, or old. The Spontaneous 40 is a creative and interdisciplinary work in an artistic, cultural, and educational forum that explores the body, laughter, sounds, objects as background music, and poetic visual richness. Following a qualitative methodology, an open questionnaire was used for data collection. The data were subjected to content analysis to phenomenological grounds. The data were then subjected to a content analysis. The results of this study revealed that the unanimated adult becomes alive through dance, reconciling him- or herself with his body, with him- or herself and with others, and exploring his or her creative background and allowing him or her to build self-images of life with more energy, elegance, and creativity, away from the stereotype of aging in our present Portuguese society.

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In 1772, William Kenrick published Love in the Suds, a direct attack on David Garrick. In 1776, Humphrey Nettle [William Jackson] published Sodom and Onan, a satire against Samuel Foote. Both of these texts make explicit charges of homosexuality against the two men. Why were these two actors singled out at this particular moment: serendipity or a new mechanism of power? An examination, thus, is required, of the representational practices operating within and without theatre, through which accepted sexual practices and new forms of personhood were normalized and put into discourse in late eighteenth-century London. The fact that this was to be achieved by placing actor's image and actor's body, occupying an ambiguous social position, under close scrutiny, points to a new economy in performing cultural and societal norms.

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This a r t i d e deals with Hélene Cixous's relation to t h e theatre. Her first play, La Pupille (1972), isn't p e r f o r m e d so far. Her breakthrough as a playwright was Portrait de Dora (1976), where Freud's case study is called in question by Cixous's text and Simone Benmussa's production. In a feminist theatrical manifesto Cixous declares theatre for h e r to be "a political gesture, with a view to changing", i.e. "the position of victim" of women in western theatre. (I.e Monde, April 28, 1977). Her opera Le nom d'Oedipe (1978), however, has been criticized for the static role of Iocaste (Kolk, 1990). Cixous describes her development as a writer as a way f r o m "the staging of the unconscious to the staging of History", and indeed her great historical plays, Sihanouk (1985) and LTndiade ( 1987), produced by Ariane Mnouchkine & T h é å t r e du Soleil, have proved her ability for the theatre. But Cixous has not remained exclusively a playwright for t h e "Stage of History", as the play On ne part pas, on ne revient pas (1991) shows. In this a r t i d e it is a r g u e d that Cixous' early interest in body & text, as it came about in "The Laugh of t h e Medusa" and La jeune née ( b o t h in 1975) as well as in her "fictions" in the 1970's happily goes together with her work for the theatre, the medium which works through the living body. A distinguishing quality of Cixous's "fictions" (after 1975 she no longer calls t h em "novels") is h e r advanced linguistic play o n the signifier, which highlights the patriarchal power over language, tlius she is challenging the predominant order. For example, she writes "måle élevée" (instead of "mal élevée"), signifymg an "ill-bred girl", thus summing up the whole debate on gender as a social construction within 'Taccent circonflexe"! In working with the theatre Cixous finds o t h e r possibilities to reveal power, lies a n d stereotypes, especially in working on contradictions p r o d u c e d by a confusing inter- play body / voice / image. In Portrait de Dora even a filmed sequence is projected to counter-act t h e f r e u d i a n interpretation of Dora produced on stage. In her plays as well as in h e r "fictions" Cixous thus urges us to take an active role, as spectators and readers, in the construction of "truth".

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In this article, I examine how two English theatrical phenomena used stage technology to produce illusions for certain political ends. The two phenomena of interest are the court masque of the early 1600s and the illegitimate genres of the late Georgian London theatre. My focus will be on the latter, through an examination of the pantomime The Picture of Paris – opening at Covent Garden in 1790. Whereas a political reading of the court masque is well established in theatre studies, the same cannot be said regarding a political understanding of the theatre culture of the late Georgian period. Furthermore, those who have focused on the political aspects of this theatre culture have not been interested in the role played by stage technology. This is where this article aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Although the court masques and the illegitimate genres used much of the same stage technology, they differed in how they used it and to what political ends. Whereas the masque could be understood as a conservative statement of royal powers, asserting their right to rule, the illegitimate genres approached the governing powers and policies in a more subversive manner. Late Georgian cultural politics, censoring the spoken word on stage and patenting the performance of tragedy and comedy, gave rise to new theatrical genres where visual aspects – by legal necessity – took centre stage. The resulting spectacular theatre of action and visual image was exempt from government censorship, making possible a special kind of political freedom of expression in these genres. It was during performance, through their use of dumb shows, setting, stage machinery and special effects that government criticism could unfold within these genres.

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In recent decades, there have been many works on inclusive research that provide a clear framework on its meaning and the implications it entails. They also highlight the importance of addressing outstanding challenges, among others, to inquire after research strategies that respond to the diversity of situations in which people with intellectual disabilities find themselves. This article presents a research project carried out in Spain over a period of eighteen months by a team of researchers with and without intellectual disabilities. Specifically, we explore how the construction of enabling relationships, both dialogic and horizontal, requires giving greater emphasis to visual and creative methodological strategies, such as photographs, image-theatre, body-mapping, murals or visual presentations. The findings reported by the researchers and co-researchers have encouraged us to review some methodological premises such as our role as researchers or the type of relationships we establish. They also demonstrate the value of using a variety of collaborative enquiry strategies that recognise the agency of all researchers.

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In this personal account of a moment participating in a large group protest, the author reflects on how her training and experience as a performer, body-based therapist and parent have sensitized her to ecological destruction and equipped her to play a part in the ‘theatre of protest’: Non-violent direct action (NVDA). The author attributes her confidence while participating in protest to skills gained from embodied practices. This may lead the reader to reflect on the ways in which their own embodiment supports them in eco-somatic or eco-justice contexts and/or a variety of life practices. NVDA could be considered inherently embodied, in that it is the strategy of this form of protest for the bodies and actions of protestors to express the messages they want to communicate. When art is used in NVDA the artist may describe themselves as an ‘artivist’. This account endeavours to convey an embodied experience of NVDA, including emotions that arise as a result of active acceptance of the subject of the protest: climate and ecological breakdown. Specifics of time, place and collaborators are intentionally omitted from the narrative and accompanying photo, so as to evoke rather than document the themes described. This omission in text and image serves to protect the identities of protesters and anonymise the author’s role in protest movements. In addition, the choice to focus on the sensory/embodied quality rather than the specifics or academic qualifiers of the experience invites the reader to connect with the humanity that can be present in NVDA.

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From the moment I first stepped in the door to our seminar room I was aware that I was a foreigner here. That was not just due to the fact that I had set out from my familiar Hannover on an Erasmus semester at University College Cork, but rather particularly due to the fact that in choosing the course Drama and Theatre of the 20th and 21st Century, I set foot in hitherto untested territory. As far as theatre and the performing arts were concerned, I was, in fact, a blank page. My stage experience was limited to playing Joseph in the Christmas nativity play, the canon of plays which I had read to those which were a part of the core curriculum in secondary school. I was a foreigner. The mental image of going up on stage made me feel uneasy and at moments when eyes were focused on me, I had the feeling that I could no longer properly control my body language. However, as you must sometimes set yourself new challenges, and as I thought that there could be no better point in time for such a peek outside the box than a semester abroad, in which ...

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The use of cultural approaches addressing stigma and discrimination promotes acceptance by raising consciousness. People with schizophrenia are often stigmatized by others.Discrimination associated with common myths contributes to social exclusion and treatment delay, creating a barrier to recovery.This paper aims to present the development, implementation and evaluation of an anti-stigma campaign in the context of primary health care and local community using theatrical techniques.In the Health Centre waiting rooms the invisible theatre technique was implemented, consisting in the performance of a previously rehearsed script without informing the public that it was a play, aiming to provoke debate and clarify problems related to social inequality and discrimination. The play script addressed common myths related to schizophrenia: People with schizophrenia are usually dangerous and violent; People with schizophrenia are unlikely to recover; Schizophrenia, as other mental conditions is a sign of weakness and not a true medical illness and others. In the local community, street performances were implemented based on image theatre techniques consisting in the use of living body imagery to address the myths described above.Behavioural responses to the intervention were assessed using Likert type scale. Most of the people in both the settings were paying attention to the performances and dialogues. People watching street performances, however, were more active in expressing opinions or making specific questions related to the subject.Further research on the impact of anti-stigma campaigns using theatre techniques is needed. These strategies may provide an effective approach to fight stigma in communitarian settings.

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Background. One of the most important questions in the acting profession is how to educate the psychophysical apparatus of the actor, what it consists of, what exercises will be useful and will be able to develop the necessary psychophysical qualities. Therefore, the theatrical teachers often turn to the sciences, which study the human, to be able to rely not only on the personal experience and on theoretical works of famous theatrical figures. Therefore, K. Stanislavsky creating theory of art turned to experimental psychology, the theory of conditioned reflexes by I. Pavlov. K. Stanislavsky sought to substantiate scientifically his system, to analyze creativity based on “brain physiology”, to study objectively higher nervous (mental) activity. One of the basic elements of the actor’s psychophysics is imagination, which remains by far one of the least studied. Moreover, the first studies of the “imagination” in such science as neuroscience began only in the second half of the XX century. Today, it is important to pay attention to the discoveries that take place in the related sciences in order to be able to understand deeper how a particular exercise affects the psychophysics of a future actor. There is a small amount of contemporary work devoted to the theoretical substantiation of the development of the psychophysical qualities of the actor. Among them the writings by famous theater educators Uta Hagen (“Play as Life”) and Ivana Chubbuk (“Chubbuk’s Actor Technique”) are, which consider the concept “imagination” in relation to other elements of actor psychotechnics, as one of the tools and ways of creating the role. The American actor and a teacher Gavin Levy has created an interesting book “275 Acting Games: Connected” presenting various exercises connected with developing of imagination. Professor of Acting at the University of California Bella Merlin in her work “Acting: Theory and Practice” proposes to develop imagination through a variety of games and improvisation also. Attempts to comprehensive study of actor training, the impact of exercise on the imagination and psychophysics of the actor as a whole are described in the works of M. Alexandrovskaya, S. Gippius, N. Rozhdestvenskaya, V. Petrov, and L. Gracheva, whose experimental results was used in this study, The objective of this paper is to consider the concept of “imagination” in the complex and interaction with other elements of actor psychophysics, using the latest scientific discoveries about human. A complex methodology was used in the work: analysis and synthesis methods that allow to explore a category such as “imagination”, separately and in conjunction with the elements of actor psychophysics; methods of systematization and generalization – to determine the key theoretical provisions of the study in the context of understanding the pedagogical experience of modern domestic and foreign theater schools; method of historical and cultural analysis – in the course of consideration of works on the theory of theater. Results. The concept of “imagination” in acting training is used quite often, but there is no specific answer to the question – whether imagination trains or not. Professor of Russian State Institute of Performing Arts Larissa Gracheva conducted an experiment to help answer this question. Students were asked to recall and relive in their imagination the acute emotional situation that was in the life of each participant in the experiment. A total of 30 student actors and 20 economics and theater students were involved. This experiment affirms the influence of special acting exercises on developing the imagination, because 95 % of participant-actors demonstrated body physical reactions. This concept is considered the paper in conjunction with other elements of actor psychotechnics, such as “visions” (after K. Stanislavskiy), affective and emotional memory, reaching truthful expressiveness on stage and muscular freedom. The chain of interaction between these elements is proposed and their interdependence is justified. The experiment answered the question of how imagination is dependent on “visions” and affective memory, what kind of exercises the future actors can train their imagination. Links has been established between imagination and muscular freedom. Recent discoveries of neuroscience have been used to answer the question of what is going on with the brain, when human being imagines something. Overall, the paper summarizes the current state of knowledge of the selected topic by discussing the findings presented in recent research papers that create an understanding of the theme for the reader. Conclusions. Training of “awakening the imagination” is a complex psychophysical process that can be developed only in combination with other elements of actor psychotechnics. Such complex approach will allow the actor to shape a completely harmonious personality. Imagination is based on visions that form and emerge from each person’s long-term memory. For each actor, these internal images will be unique. This proves that the use of imagination (substitution effect and affective memory) is quite personal and unique process. This approach causes an impression of truth of drama action and induces a strong emotional response. In turn, emotional reaction is first a muscular reaction of the body. Therefore, in acting training it is important to make exercises so as to harmoniously develop the psyche and physics of the actor using in plastic exercises imagination and vice versa, the physics reactions for the developing of imagery thinking.

Abstract:

Abstract In The Piano Tuner of EarthQuakes (2006), the Quay Brothers' second feature, the sensual form and the meta-artistic content are truly interweaved, and the siblings' staple animated materials become part of the theme itself. Using Michel Serres's argument in Les cinq sens (2014, whose subtitle in English is A Philosophy of Mingled Bodies), I address the relationship between the Quays intermedial animation and the way the art forms of music, painting, theatre and sculpture are used to captivate the film viewer's sensorium in the same way that some of the characters are fascinated by the evil Droz, a scientist and failed composer who manipulates machines and people alike, among them Felisberto, a meek piano tuner with the ability to stir the natural elements. I further proceed to posit the entire film as an intended allegory of animation on the Quays part. Their haptic construction of a three-dimensional world which they control artistically is replicated in the film in Droz's and Felisberto's activities vis-à-vis Malvina van Stille, an abducted opera diva who is kept in a suspended animation state (just like a marionette) and several hydraulic automata with musical resounding properties, some of them made up of an uncanny assortment of body parts. The artificial life of these creatures is contrasted, in two ways, with their physical reality as beings that exist in the world: first, via Serres's sensorial strategy to transform a body into a conscious entity (i.e., endowed with a soul), an embodiment I call 'Corpo-Reality', and second, by resorting to Deleuze and Guattari's theory of the body without organs (BwO) in its advocacy of 'hard' nature and the rejection of a rigid assortment of body parts (either biological or social). The paradoxical organic objectivity of the 'marionettized' Malvina is pitted against the seemingly subjective doings of the mechanical automata, especially an android woodcutter. However, just as in the story things are not what they seem, and the automata actually reflect the 'real' world of Felisberto's tuning of them (and vice versa, in a process entitled 'vertical mise en abyme'), so the film itself can be a 'crystal-image' (per Deleuze), offering itself to the senses of the spectator.

Abstract:

There survives an extraordinary letter of 1616 by the prominent English stage player, Nathan Field. His missive is one of the only extant apologies for the theater written by a player. Field’s letter is a response to a sermon preached by Thomas Sutton, and it richly characterizes Field’s relationship to his parish and to the larger ecclesial powers. This discussion shows how Field ironically employs the very charges often levied by opponents of theater—deception, emotional indulgence, and idolatry—to indict Sutton for a public attack he wielded against Field from the Sunday pulpit. Field’s apology is read within the context of the era’s antitheatricalist polemics, Jacobean politics, Reformation theology, and Field’s history as the son of a radical puritan preacher. The letter invites deep consideration of church and theater—preaching and playing—as competing kinds of performance. Field’s apology also focuses attention on a neglected area in theater studies—the history of players and playing in early modernity. What was an actor’s idea of himself at a time when his profession was redefined by religious reforms? Further, this discussion offers preliminary suggestions for an early modern aesthetics of performance by inviting a dialogue between the era’s extreme antitheatricalism and concurrent prescriptions for effective oratory.