by Katrin Weißler -

Rhythm in Film | 1

Overview:

  1. Definition
  2. Human Rhythm
  3. Aural Rhythm
  4. Time

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Film is essentially musical, like any temporal art form. It’s all about incremental progressive effect of all the events that make up the flow.[1] – Sheila Curran Bernard

  1. DEFINITION

CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY[2]

rhythm

a regularly repeated pattern of sounds or beats used in music, poems, and dances

Rhythm is also a regular movement

Rhythm is also a regular pattern of change

COLLINS DICTIONARY[3]  

Rhythm (rɪðəm )

1. A rhythm is a regular series of sounds or movements.

2. A rhythm is a regular pattern of changes, for example changes in your body, in the seasons, or in the tides.

Thinking of rhythm, rhythm in music is what first comes in our mind. Maybe you think of a drummer playing a beat… But rhythm can be found in many different forms. From the definitions we already know that rhythm provides structures through patterns, are variable and changing and it is connected to movement and us as humans.

2. HUMAN RHYTHM

Where do we find rhythm in ourselves? If we are very quiet, we can hear our heartbeat. It can be slow when we are relaxed and fast when we are excited, but it is a constant faster pulse. Our body is rhythmic. Let us concentrate on our breath – breathing in and breathing out. This is a ongoing pattern. Moreover, there is rhythm in our voices, varying from person to person and to different situations. [4] Through rhythm we communicate sub messages.[5] A straight reaction implicates certainty. A long pause before answering implies doubt or scepticism. In nature rhythm demonstrates in the “succession of day and night, lunar influences, the change of seasons”[6].

In film different rhythmic elements evoke suspense, build a structure, support understanding and create an experience. Visually as well as aurally a film works with repetitions, patterns, accents, pauses, tempo, time and pulses.

3. AURAL RHYTHM/ SONOROUS RHYTHM

Film music evokes emotions, and the tempo purports the speed and perception of time passing. Atmospheric sounds and noises of the surroundings help to immerse in a film. The ringing of church bells or an alarm bell, barking of dogs, or the monotonous ton of rain, all small audio details play their own role.

Jacob Bricca explains for example how he included a sound of typing:

“I used the same strategy in my film Finding Tatanka, taking scans of typewritten letters and notes from my father and turning them into living, breathing documents via Jonathan Swartz’s animation. This gave us license to add rhythm to the typing (spurting out particular sentences and phrases together while pausing elsewhere for effect) and to make the audience feel as if they were present for the moment of its creation.”[7]

Through the power of editing rhythm gets “reinforced” so objects which “tend to have no inherent rhythm of their own” are given a “desired tempo and rhythm of presentation”.[8] Karel Reisz names as an example a scene from Merchant Seamen where a calm ocean through rhythmic beat suddenly is “placed in a sequence of great speed and excitement”.[9]

Danijela Kulezic-Wilson regains the Principles of Gestalt Principle within rhythm as both use a repetition and grouping. [10] In music there is a “repetition of aural stimuli“ processed with similarity and proximity.

“.. grouping on all architectonic levels is a product of similarity and difference, proximity and separation of the sounds perceived by the senses and organized by the mind …In general, sounds or groups of sounds which are similar (in timbre, volume, etc.) and near to each other (in time, pitch, etc.) form strongly unified rhythmic patterns. Difference and distance between sounds or groups of sounds tend to separate rhythmic patterns. However, though similarity tends to create cohesion, repetition usually makes for the separation of groups.”

The aural rhythm has a huge impact on the perception of the audience as audio signals are perceived much faster. In comparison to visual cutted patterns, music pervades the spectator even faster. As Widgery says that “music rhythm, ‘particularly that with a steady pulse, arguably has a more immediate and visceral kinetic impact than the rhythm of cutting itself’”.[11]

But how do we perceive rhythm in music?

“The process of organizing separate sounds mentally into structural patterns is influenced by various aspects of music which, as well as duration, also include pitch, intensity, timbre, texture and harmony, although rarely at the same time.”[12]

4. TIME

Rhythm provides the spectator with a “sense of temporality”[13]. Jean Mitry compares silent films to sound film and realizes that “a real feeling of duration, of time passing” is only provided by “rhythmic beat to enable the audience to measure internally the psychological time of the drama, relating it to the basic sensation of real time”. [14]

The beat helps the audience to be in the same time experience as the character within the film. Rhythm allows to stick to a measurement of time within a film: “The time experienced by the characters in the drama, the relationship in time between shots or sequences, may be perfectly well recognized -but it is understood, not experienced”.[15]

[1] Bernard, Sheila Curran: Documentary Storytelling. Creative Nonfiction on Screen, 3rd edition,Burlington, USA, Oxford, UK: Focal Press, 2011, p.260

[2] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/worterbuch/englisch/rhythm [02.05.2021]

[3] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/de/worterbuch/englisch/rhythm [02.05.2021]

[4] Vgl. Kulezic-Wilson, Danijela: The Musicality of Narrative Film, Hampshire, England: Palgrave Studies in Audio-Visual Culture, 2015, p.37

[5] Rabiger, Michael; Hermann, Courtney: Directing The Documentary, 7th edition, Oxon, New York: Routlege, 2020, p. 87

[6] Kulezic-Wilson, 2015, p.37

[7] Bricca, Jacob: Documentary Editing. Principles & Practice, New York: Routledge, 2018,p. 156

[8] Reisz, 2010,136

[9] Reisz, 2010,136

[10] Vgl. Kulezic-Wilson, 2015, p.41

[11] Kulezic-Wilson, 2015, p42 refering to : Widgery, C. J. (1990) ‘The Kinetic and Temporal Interaction of Music and Film: Three Documentaries of 1930’s America’, unpublished Ph.D. diss. (University of Maryland College Park, UMI order no. 9121449).

[12] Kulezic-Wilson, 2015, p. 42 refering to Mitry, Jean (2000) Semiotics and the Analysis of Film, trans. C. King (London: Athlone Press), p.143   

[13] Kulezic-Wilson, 2015, p. 39

[14] Mitry, Jean (1997) The Aesthetics and Psychology of the Cinema, trans. C. King (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), p.248

[15] Mitry, 1997, p.248

by Petra Vymazalova -

Sign learning education – depth perception and mirroring

Two important points that must be thought through are the depth perception and the mirroring for first time learners of sign language. I came across this topic through reading a project description of the SAIL (Signing Avatars and Immersive Learning) project which is lead by a team from the Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., engaging in the topic of sign learning education.

As depth perception must be learned for first time learners who are not used to manoeuvre in the space in front of themselves, this team helps the users learn American Sign Language signs from both the first-person perspective and the third-person perspective with help of VR and using principles from embodied learning. Not only does it require to practice to move their body in a 3D environment, but also mirroring the instructor the other way round. The SAIL project team solves this mirroring thinking which is unusual for first time users by viewing both perspectives in form of a augmented teacher that is standing in front of you and also by showing augmented hands that are supposed to show you your own body movement you should do in front of your body.

The team itself states the great potential in this new way for learning ASL (American Sign Language) for native ASL users who will learn in the comfort of their own homes. Their next steps in their project are the conduction of EEG cognitive neuroscience experiments which should show the effects of embodied learning on ASL learning and also transfering their project ideas to an AR version after the VR version is developed entirely.

The use of the first person perspective helps learners especially in the beginning as I personally have seen that I have looked downwards and focused a lot on my hands and the precious movement while trying to sign for the first time. Watching videos of people who sign words while trying to sign by yourself and being unsure if you mirrored the sign correctly in your mind, would not be necessary and reassure you on what you are doing. Including this would also help the learner to keep on with the work as he would feel more confident throughout the learning process.

source: https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/presentations/1720

by Marie Kunzmann -

04 | How do we communicate online? part 2

In my last entry I was examining about the paper “Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction” of Joseph B. Walther from 1996. In this second entry about it, I want to focus on the hyperpersonal interaction. Nowadays the research of Walther is the origin of the “hyperpersonal model” which basically suggests that CMC (computer-mediated communication) can transform our face-to-face based interpersonal relationships or even surpass them. But why should a relationship without the ability to see or hear someone be more intimate than interacting in real life? 

The hyperpersonal model is based on the classic communication elements: Sender, receiver, channel and feedback. Walther is examining about what happens to each of these elements if the communication happens computer mediated instead of FtF (= face to face).

  1. The receiver: Idealized perception

Because of the lack of social context cues communication receivers tend to search for every subtle social context or personality cue they can find and give them a particular great value – even an “over attribution”. The results are stereotypical impressions built on merger or rather unqualified information cues like misspellings or overdone punctuation (!!!). If the communication partners already know each other, they may already know the paralinguistic expressions and can decode them. And if the receiver likes the sender or even only got a positive impression of her/him in advance (e.g. checking a social media profile or hearing a positive reputation = “I could like her/him, she/he is like me”), the impression or decoding of the received message will be positively affected. In this case the receiver has no interfering or disproving nonverbal cues what leads to a strong idealisation of the sender and their attraction. 

2. The sender: Selective (and optimised) self-presentation

People tend to present themselves as optimal in order to be liked and accepted by others. Asynchronous CMC has many opportunities for self-optimization: Senders can reread, correct and optimise their messages and everything else they send out (like social media posts) to an unlimited extent. With that opportunity senders are able to show themselves in their desired manner and “censor” every unliked or unsuitable characteristic. Selective self-presentation is a natural FtF phenomenon (like preparing for a job interview or dating someone) but the opportunities of CMC enhance it in an already supernormal way. I think most of us know that in terms of social media this can have negative effects like for example presenting oneself as somebody else – maybe even someone more optimal. But thinking of communication only, this can be also a chance for the sender: Filtering everything unnecessarily out and focusing on the message and its expression. 

3. The channel

As mentioned the channels of asynchronous CMC gives the communication participants favourable opportunities to communicate and present themselves in the way they like. For Walther it is incorrect to try to make the CMC experience feel or adjust like FtF interaction because this is not possible to the full extent. The users should rather use CMC for its own advantages. The cognitive load during a FtF interaction is a lot higher than in CMC: It requires a higher level of psychic, sensory and emotional involvement. From this perspective asynchronous CMC leads to more conversational relaxation and a better focus of mental energy on the messages’ content. 

4. The feedback: Intensification loop

The examination of  the last element is for me the most interesting because I was not aware of the following argument. Feedback in the communication interaction is crucial for developing a relationship. In point 1 “the receiver” we saw that the users of CMC tend to magnify every minimal cues they can find, what is also valuable in terms of feedback. In combination with behavioural confirmation (having personal expectations from others and acting in a certain way in order to make them confirm them) this leads to an intensified feedback loop. The involved self-optimisation then leads to a positively enhanced picture of the other communication participant. In other words: By self-optimising our own messages we make our communication partner feedback something positive which then leads again to a positive answer from us. Over a long time, this loop eventually intensifies the relationship.

In order to enhance my research to more recent findings I include Walther’s recent viewpoint of the hyperpersonal model. If you are interested in this topics I recommend watching the following talk from the year 2018:

Computer-Mediated Communication and Hyperpersonal Interaction (2018), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEHU5ryPfQ

In the video Walther brings up some studies he did in the past. The insight I gained from one of them is that by trying to convince someone via CMC one is also convincing yourself about that topic. With that in mind we could go on with that and argue that self-optimisation should result in an optimised picture about our self. Assuming this were indeed the case this could not lead to an intensification loop but an self-optimisation loop in terms of presenting yourself without any communication partner (like posting something on social media): You optimise your image online and then try to even perfect that – just because that is the picture you created about yourself beforehand. Would this mean that computer mediated communication not only “hyperpersonalizes” your interpersonal relationships & communication but also enables you to transform into the person you aiming to be? Would this self-optimisation loop be endless and therefore become a disappointing and energy consuming delusion? 

Sources:
– https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0160.xml#:~:text=Computer%2Dmediated%20communication%20(CMC),%2C%20and%2For%20video%20messages (last review: 02.05.2021)
– Joseph B. Walther: “Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction”, 1996, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009365096023001001
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEHU5ryPfQ, 2018 (last review: 02.05.2021)

by Lisa Fresser -

AR good examples

When thinking about Augmented Reality most people will probably think about games or entertainment but there are many helpful ways how AR can extend our daily life. In the following I want to show some good examples:

AR in Event Planning
Using a cube which is able to display multiple information about an event.

Information like the conference agenda, sponsors, information about the speakers and so on are displayed and visualized in an interactive a modern way. While reading through a simple flyer would ne far less fun and als much waste as people will likely throw those flyer just away.

Also there are many information that can be displayed because there is no limited space like there would be on a flyer.

AR for education
Basically everything that is printed has one big problem: the space is limited. AR is giving a whole new format to this. Because with the digitalization space is not a point to talk about anymore. This is also a big thing when thinking about education. While we had our books with images in when we went to school, AR apps can support those images in a three dimensional way. Things can be discovered and even interactive or showing a change of a state with animations. Also this means that education becomes cheaper and more accessible.

This way of education also engages the user and makes discovering and learning way more fun.

Especially at times like these where distance learning is a bigger topic than ever before, this is a helpful way to make learning at home more interesting and also support the teachers which cannot be in place to show certain things. There even can be animated person or tutors which help the user to explain the topic in an interactive way.

Gamification
AR can also be used to engage the users while using gamification like the video shows below. The user can help to keep the ocean clean while buying this product. To make it more tangible there is a game coming up when scanning the product which wants you to clean the beach while wiping over your smart phone screen.

Using the space on a product
Even if there are just some small animations shown you can use AR for transfering your product into a display where many informations can be shown. So you can keep your printed pagaging style simple and clean but still be able to show all the informations a user wants to see.

More advantages:

Real-time
Another big advantage is that since the AR apps using internet they run on realtime or better said if there is any reason to change something, it is just needed to update the app. As soon as it is update, everybody will get the new features or changes.

Higher customer propaganda
The already showed label of wine “19 crimes” where you can scan the label and a prisoner will tell you his story increased their social media interactions for about 2100% with not the campain but just having scannable labels.

Sources
https://arvrjourney.com/five-augmented-reality-usages-that-solve-real-life-problems-55e7a81f61b

Ar App
https://brutkasten.com/wikitude-und-constantia-flexibles-bringen-ar-aufs-packerl/

FactCheck vs. GlobalResearch
by Carina Steindl -

Comparative Analysis of fake and proper Fact-Checking Sites #P5

This post will be another comparison of fake fact-checking sites with real fact-checking sites and how there are differences in their design language (Typography, Images, etc.), the content (Expertise, Rigour, Transparency, Reliability) and the overall usability. It’s hard to find similarities that apply to the various pages, but this post will try to show the most common ones. Therefore I decided to compare InfoWars with ProPublica in the previous post and in this one Global Research with Fact Check.

Global Research vs. Fact Check.

Globalresearch is an “anti-Western” website that has troubles distinguishing between serious analysis and discreditable junk and so just publishes both. While some of GlobalResearch’s articles discuss legitimate humanitarian concerns, its view of science, economics, and geopolitics is conspiracist. The website under the domain names globalresearch.ca, globalresearch.org, globalresearch.com etc., is run by the non-profit The Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), which was founded by Michel Chossudovsky (1946–), a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/

Fact Check is a nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. political players, including politicians, TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases. Their goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

https://www.factcheck.org/

As you can clearly see common rules of distinguishing if a site is a false information spreading site or not, do not apply to these pages. Some governments already started to implement laws or similar actions against misinformation. Also other scientist and artist startet to visualize this problem.

So last but not least the comparison. Both pages use he SSL certificate which means they should be “safe to use”. While FactCheck.org always has their sources on the end of each article, GlobalResearch.ca only has sources to some articles and also these are called footnotes. Overall both sites do what they are supposed to do, but design related there are some differences. Global Research is really jam-full with articles. There is almost no space in-between the preview blocks and also the font is pretty small. Whereas Fact Check uses a lot more white space and also fonts and images are bigger. So in points of accessibility and readability Fact Check is the clear winner. The website of Global Research just feels like they need to give you all the information in one screen. To describe this phenomenon visually, it feels like some stranger is screaming to your face, but you actually do not understand a thing. The overall usability of both sites is good, but the Fact Check page has a clearer visual structure and a better design language. In terms of functionality everything works fine. Both websites more or less follow the common design principles, even though both sites could be better. During my research I experienced a lot of stuffed content websites and this mainly occurs on fake-news or hoax spreading sites, but unfortunately also some proper fact-checking sites have a really bad visual appearance. So that fact does not tear them apart.

by Giuseppe Taormina -

From Polyrhythm to Orchestral Soundtrack

There are a lot of things to say about Radiohead and all the amazing and interesting things about their music like math, technology, experimentation.

You can also find a small book called Kid Algebra: The Euclidean and Maximally Uniform Rhythms of Radiohead by Brad Osborn, in which all these small subtle details are analyzed.

He describes their music as a Goldilocks principle, saying that it inhabits a space between mundane conventions and pure experimentation, the perfect “sweet spot”.

Here I would like to share this interesting transformation of one of their songs into an orchestral soundtrack for the film Blue Planet II, produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in 2017.

For this film, in which they worked with composer Hans Zimmer, they decided to use their song Bloom from their eight studio album, The King of Limbs (2011). This song was formerly written by singer Thom York and was inspired by the Blue Planet movie. Therefore, this was perfect.

This song is rhythmically very complex, full of polyrhythm, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for a film about all the beauty and depth of the ocean. Thus, this was the challenge. How to turn it into an immersive soundtrack for the ocean?

Well, in this video they (Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood) and Hans Zimmer explain the surprisingly simple yet effective process and technique they used to achieve this. Just a little spoiler, the answers lies in Pointillism.

And this is the final, magical, version of the song for the soundtrack.

Reference

1. B. Osborn – Kid Algebra: Radiohead’s euclidean and maximally even rhythm. 2014.

by Christoph Stuhlpfarrer -

Das Klangtheater

By Wolfgang Musil Posted on 24. November 2020

Virtuelle Räume und donnernder Untergrund am Campus

Die mdw bekommt im Neubau mit dem Klangtheater einen hochspezialisierten elektroakustischen Klangraum von ca.170 m2 und ist für 99 Besucher_innen (im Normalfall) zugelassen. Genutzt soll dieser doppelschalige Saal als Konzert- und Proberaum sowie für Lehre und Forschung werden. Zusammenarbeiten wie mit dem Institut für musikalische Akustik – Wiener Klangstil (IWK) sind angedacht. Der Raum wird in seiner geplanten öffentlichen Nutzung einzigartig in der Kulturlandschaft Wiens sein.

Die Ausstattung mit 21+2 Lautsprechern in einem dreidimensionalen Layout (vorerst nur auf drei Ebenen – hemisphärisch angeordnet) bilden den 3D-Raum. Weitere drei Bühnenlautsprecher dienen als klassische Bühnenbeschallung, eine 4-Kanal-Lautsprecher-Eckaufstellung und einige ältere Vintage-Speaker machen den Raum zu einem Alleskönner für viele beschallungstechnische Aufgaben im Bereich elektroakustische Musik, Akusmatik, Live-Elektronik und traditionelle Beschallung für Tonmeister_innen. Die Diversität dieser unterschiedlichen Klangquellen macht dabei das Klangbild reichhaltiger, was für klangliche Demonstrationen in der Lehre besonders wichtig ist. Eine Art elektroakustischer Wiener Klangstil.

Unterschiedliche Raumrichtungssynthesen und Verräumlichungsmethoden zur Gestaltung eines virtuellen Raumerlebnisses kommen hier zum Einsatz. Um diese vielen Kanäle unter Kontrolle zu bekommen und sie der Lehre zur Verfügung zu stellen, braucht es ein wohl durchdachtes Bedienungskonzept für die vielen unterschiedlichen Anwendungen in diesem Genre der akustischen Projektion.

Die Raumakustik des Klangtheaters ist bewusst trocken gehalten und ermöglicht so ein speziell analytisches Arbeiten. Raumrichtungen, die eine Software synthetisiert, können in dieser akustischen Atmosphäre viel präziser wahrgenommen werden. Methoden wie Ambisonics und High Order Ambisonics (HOA), amplitudenbasiertes Panning (VBAP) und Wellenfeldsynthese (WFS) sowie eine Vielzahl weiterer experimenteller „Raumverteilungen“ werden in der Lehre diskutiert und konzertant angewandt.

Das Stichwort „Immersive Sound“ ist in aller Munde und suggeriert einen neuen akustisch-virtuellen Realismus, jedoch meist ohne Sinnhaftigkeit. Hier kommt die Wichtigkeit eines solchen Akustiklabors in einer universitären ästhetischen Auseinandersetzung und in der Lehre zur Geltung.