Welcome and Keynote, Research for Visual Storytelling at HdM, Color Studies, HDR, HFR, Virtual Production

In her keynote Katja Schmid will talk about the role that practice-based research plays in education at the HdM and what ideas have been put forward so far for using it to master the challenges of the future in teaching creative media professions. She will show examples of studies from recent years on aesthetics for visual storytelling. Prof. Stefan Grandinetti will give a brief overview of his research in the field at HdM in applied sciences of cinematography investigating in aesthetics and technical relations. High Dynamic Range - how much contrast do we need? High Frame Rates - higher temporal resolutions in acquisition and display can improve to avoid artifacts in today's moving images in cinema or TV, but are still a fundamental challenge in aesthetics of fictional motion pictures. Virtual Production - international collaboration in a BIP-ERASMUS+ at HdM.

Prof. Katja Schmid, Prof. Stefan Grandinetti, Prof. Jan Adamczyk (HdM)

Spread of populist narratives in the comment sections of the social network Facebook

Populist narratives have spread in the comment sections of Facebook in diverse ways, making them battlegrounds for competing political opinions and a breeding ground for fake news, misinformation, and propaganda.Political parties employ similar narratives to those used by their supporters and members during campaign appearances, interviews, and on posters. Jørn Precht takes a closer look on this delevopment in the light of the rise of rightwing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Prof. Jørn Precht (HdM)

Hacking the Narrative: Storytelling & Transformation

There is a growing narrative scholarship concerned with the effects and affects of storytelling, focusing on critically analyzing storytelling practices. Which focuses on conveying the possible downsides of today’s story economy and the instrumentalization and uncritical celebration of storytelling (Makela et.al., 2018). The gap between this critical narrative scholarship and the use of narrative by storytelling professionals underpins the need for further development of the concept of narrative literacy for (future) storytelling professionals; to critically reflect on how narratives are constructed, how stories could be used for persuasion, how stories negotiate values and develop the skill to actively resist storytelling (Moenandar, 2018). I will share the concept of narrative hacking as a method to develop narrative literacy and the insights we have gathered in applying the method with students Creative Business at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and storytelling professionals in the creative industries in Amsterdam.

Dr. Silvana Beerends-Pavlovic (Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Coffee Break

Narrative Environments

Combining Cróna's MA in Narrative Environments and her current research into the significance of the pedagogic studio in tertiary design education, this presentation will explore the narrative, pedagogic, and spatial theories this enduring typology embodies. Applying Henri Lefebvre's position that space is never neutral but is constructed through multiple interrelated social and political dynamics, the presentation will explore how these spheres combine with cultural perceptions of the studio space. Reflecting Cróna’s participatory and student-centred approach to education the presentation will encourage audience interaction.

Cróna O'Donoghue (ATU Letterkenny Ireland)

Influence of iconic material on the Assessment of utterances

In this project, we present research results inspired by an experiment published in the Psychology Development journal in the article Stable Truthiness Effect Across the Lifespan, examining the truth effect based on photographic material. The subject of the presented study is how communication offers interact at the verbal and visual levels and whether and to what extent the linkability of oral statements differs from statements updating two channels of reception (verbal and visual). In the study, the respondents were presented with a questionnaire to be filled in by themselves, containing 21 statements with a request to evaluate them - true/false. The study was conducted in two stages: once, presenting only the text of the theorem, and once, the theorem with a photo placed above it. The data obtained empirically show that the presence of a photo next to a given statement does not affect the respondents' negation or acceptance of the statement.

Dr. Mariusz Wszołek (SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities Wroclaw, Poland)

Diving into Fluidity: Animations of Water

What do water and animation have in common? While researching this topic for my PhD thesis with a methodical mix from film studies, production studies and animation studies, one of my main interests was the interplay between the story, its visual narration with animation and film strategies, and the animated materiality. Using a humanities approach identified a number of similarities between water and animation: Animation dissolves visual structures as water dissolves substances, animated images can flow in a wave-like rhythm which connects to the visceral sensations of the viewers, animation can, like water, resists the attribution of fixed meanings.

Dr. Tina Ohnmacht (Hochschule Luzern, Schweiz)

Voices vs noises: Collaborative authorship in Stanley Kubrick’s films

My talk is based on my PhD thesis and continuous research on collaborative authorship in filmmaking practice. My research set out to challenge the mythology surrounding Kubrick’s filmmaking practice, arguing against the autonomous auteur approach. The working process in Kubrick’s crews is shown to exhibit strong collaborative features and to encourage individual creative input. My findings lead to an alternative perspective on film history. The outcomes of the research reveal other ways in which Kubrick collaborated. These alternative perspectives are used to build an argument around collaboration in Kubrick’s films, representing an important original contribution to the field of Kubrick studies.

Dr. Manca Perko (University of Bristol, UK)

Lunch Break

The "Armenia Effect": Tracing Personal Transformation in University Filmmakers

"In a screen-dominated and AI-driven world where information, content, and people are a single click away, do pedagogies and learning methodologies still serve the contemporary college student? What remedies and antidotes to this technological deluge can educators offer to budding artists? To replant the “human” into the Humanities, mentors must foster real-life bonding among classmates, encourage in-the-world connections, and motivate exchanges of ideas between cultures. Accompanying six talented students to Armenia to film a documentary, I witnessed the remarkable impact and transformative power of work travel on the eager identity formation of this future generation of media creators."

Marcel Giwargis (CalState LA, USA)

Decolonising cinematography education: experimenting with lighting ratios and textures for Black and Asian skin tones

Painting is often referred to for inspiration as practitioners learn to compose and represent light and shadow in an aesthetically considered manner. In this respect, it is noteworthy that the painters generally studied by film-making students are mostly from Renaissance traditions and produced work featuring predominantly White models. This gap of racial representation in cinematographic pedagogy is stark and has long been overlooked. This article mounts an enquiry into the lack of diversity in cinematography education, examining how different aesthetic traditions, such as Asian ink paintings, could pave new ways for decolonising the conventional conceptions of lighting ratios. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative case studies undertaken in university workshops, I discuss how students respond to Black and Asian artwork as visual references when they are tasked with lighting models with non-White skin tones to accommodate the different reflectance of their skins.

Sung, Yu-Lun (London South Bank University, UK)

The Interrelationship of Actor Performance and Camera Movement in Narrative Film: A New Approach to Teaching Directing and Cinematography

The traditional approach to pre-visualization involves arriving at a visual style before ever working with the actors. This means filmmakers often put secondary movement (movement of the camera) ahead of primary movement (movement of the actor). Students often have little understanding of the process of the actor, and how physicalization determines the quality of performance. I will discuss how camera movement can work in tandem with actor performance to enhance emotional context and my former HdM students will share their experience.

Dalila Droege (CalState LA, USA)

Coffee Break

Voices from the Community - Community Impact Media Project at Cal State LA

The Community Impact Media program started as an extension of the work Professor Heather Fipps was doing with the International Gallery Hauser and Wirth. It’s an educational program that bridges the gap to professional experiences for our students at Cal State LA while also creating community partnerships. Students pair with local non-profits to create short documentaries. They are mentored through the documentary production process, while also gaining the experience of working with an outside client. Our grant from Hauser and Wirth was recently extended because of our students’ excellent work. We’re excited to share more details about the program and its benefits.

Rachel Pearl, Dalila Droege (CalState LA, USA)

Is it Really Empathy? Emotional & Cognitive Responses to the Metaverse

Is Virtual Reality really an “empathy machine?” Do the heightened emotional responses that are experienced in virtual reality narratives lead to greater empathy and understanding for disadvantaged groups and individuals? This mixed-methods study uses biometric responses and interview data to examine people’s responses to immersive narratives concerning issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

Tamara Makana Chock, Ph.D. (Syracuse University)

wrap up & follow-ups

Prof. Katja Schmid

Networking Dinner