SOMEWHERE NEAR THE SOLAR PLEXUS
emotions in communication, 2014
Originally written as graduation thesis in 2013 then shorten to be published as an essay in the first issue of the research review Demain dès L'aube in 2016:
this research aims to highlight emotions as a specific system of communication, almost choreographic, that can be designed and manipulated. To do so, it confronts a theoretical approach of the linguistic system to a case study upon "tears in cinema".
"It requires time to be moved to tears. You have to let the emotion rise, as a baker would do with sourdough [...] Maybe that's why we rarely cry during the first part of a movie."
Focusing on the context of the stage _ acting techniques and self-representation skills were developed. These techniques belong to the rhetoric as a way to take advantage from the potential of emotional expressions to convince an audience by provoking empathy. In classical terms it is called the Pathos.
However the development of cinematographic tools revealed new perspectives on emotional emphasis. Filming techniques were able to create a virtual proximity. Close-up, slow motion, music, became as much more tools progressively enabled on live stage performances through the presence of backstage engineers.
What if the actor himself was able to control these effects from his own acting position? And in a more prospective scale – observing the evolution of virtual reality and technologies – what would happen if anyone was able to use these tools on daily interactions to create their own everyday "pathos"?
Credits
- Publication — Hoosh, formerly known as "Demain dès l'aube" issue #1, Paris 2016.
- Research and writing – Fiona du Mesnildot
- Academy of research – MA.1 graphic & digital media design, J.Prévert Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, 2013 - full thesis in french
