این مقاله درباره ی کارگاه پیشرفته ی تئاتر پداگوژی در سال 2009 در دپارتمان هنر دانشگاه تربیت مدرس ... more این مقاله درباره ی کارگاه پیشرفته ی تئاتر پداگوژی در سال 2009 در دپارتمان هنر دانشگاه تربیت مدرس است که با همکاری دانشگاه اوسنابروک آلمان انجام شد. نویسندگان این مقاله به سودمندی های این کارگاه و روش پداگوژی و نیز چشم اندازهای آنها برای جامعه ی ایران می پردازند
Shahnameh: A Mysterium Play for a Shamanic/Ritualistic Performance, 2021
Does what we perform exactly indicate who we are, or it indicates how we want to be seen? Most of... more Does what we perform exactly indicate who we are, or it indicates how we want to be seen? Most of the performance theories in Theatre Studies deal with what is performed and what is shown. But can we dig deep and get to the root of the performance, where the egg of a performance’s plot is formed in the womb of the author’s mind, which is where the script of the performance is being encrypted? The main subject of this essay is Shahnameh, aka The Persian Book of King(s), which is a rewriting of Khoday-nameh, The Book of the Lord(s), as its primary source. To have a better understanding of Shahnameh, as a text written solely for being performed by naqqals (traditional story-performers) and Shahnameh-reciters, and to explore ways for performing it, this paper proposes certain frameworks such as Metanarrative, Monumental History, Possible Worlds, and Narrative History. They may be used to find out the main dynamics, formulas, and agendas underlying the summary plot of Shahnameh, which is also reflected in its every individual story. Gaining such knowledge would be a precondition for exploring ways to perform Shahnameh successfully and effectively. Failure in understanding this plot results in performing Shahnameh in the wrong or opposite way in comparison to the intentions of its authors which would be like performing a tragedy as comedy or a mysterium play as a realistic performance. While, identifying Shahnameh’s underlying dynamics, formulas, and agendas would help with increasing the success of its performance in regards with its messages being communicated effectively and its audience relating to it more deeply at intellectual and emotional levels. By looking at the plot summaries of some of the main stories of Shahnameh, as a mostly faithful adaptation of Khoday-nameh, this paper will attempt to identify starting points for finding the reasons why the creators of these two books chose to create or recreate the Iranian myths in the way they did. This will help with identifying what was the philosophy and dynamics behind their esoteric representation, and with exploring what elements are embedded in these books that allowed them to be performed every day throughout the Persian empire for millennia, as well as after its collapse by the Arab invasion in 1,365 YA (years ago) until modern day Iran.
In this paper, first, I will briefly define what ritual is, and then, review its main functions, ... more In this paper, first, I will briefly define what ritual is, and then, review its main functions, mostly based on the views of Mircia Eliade, Nadja Berberović, Ian Maxwell, and Richard Schechner, among others. After that, I will describe an important ritualistic performance called Shahnameh-khani/Shahnameh-recitation, which is an ancient Iranian form of storytelling/story-performing. And, ultimately, I will describe how Morshed/Master Saghi Aghili, as a Naqqal/Shahnameh-reciter, have invented experimental techniques to create ritualistic effects and enhance Shahnameh-recitation’s effectiveness.
In the introduction of their book Impure Cinema: Inter-medial and Intercultural Approaches to Fil... more In the introduction of their book Impure Cinema: Inter-medial and Intercultural Approaches to Film, editors Lucia Nagib and Anne Jerslev introduce their collection as an expedition to continue Andre Bazin’s attempt to identify and promote Impure Cinema. Editors mention that "‘impure’ for Bazin seemed to mean in the first place accepting reality as it offers itself to the camera with all its contingent and apparently irrelevant bits, even if this reality is nothing but a book on which a film is based.” Nonetheless, ‘cinematic hybridization’ has been considered as one of the main characteristics of Bazin’s call for Impure Cinema on which theorists and filmmakers have drawn on. This may be resolved by taking Bazin’s appreciation of hybridization of arts and media with, and in, cinema as a call for not excluding arts and media, rather than including them in a cinematic work only for the sake of hybridization. Thus, a pure Impure Cinema does not stuff arts and media in film, but only records and reflects them as they are, only if they naturally fit into the reality of the film by themselves. Singin’ in the Rain can be a good example of hybridization of theatre and cinema as its story is about theatre actors and crew without trying to stuff theatre into cinema. In addition, mixing media, here theatre, with cinema, as Bertolt Brecht stressed can have a “distancing effect.” In this essay, considering Nagib and Jerslev’s introduction, I will investigate what arts and media have been included in Singin’ in the Rain. Then, I will argue if, and how, including theatre and other arts in Singin’ in the Rain has created a ‘distancing effect’. Besides, I will briefly have a look at inter-mediality and its possible alienating effect in three other movies The Red Shoes (UK, dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948), Dogville (USA, Lars Von Trier,2003), and The World (Canada, Zhangke Jia, 2004).
In the globalised market, where “English continues to expand, to colonise and to carry greater ec... more In the globalised market, where “English continues to expand, to colonise and to carry greater economic capital than any other world language,” (Blackledge, 2002, p. 198), many argue that “even if English does not ‘kill’ other languages, it relegates them to a lesser role in an incipient global diglossia” (Ferguson, 2016, p. 481). Consequently, there is an emerging tendency to support, re-strengthen, and re-vitalize languages that are about to die. In the middle of this battle, where most of the time the innumerable army of the English empire prevail, and some times scattered armies of insurgent minority languages gain some advancements, one may take courage and ask, isn’t all this, alluding to the Shakespeare’s play, “Much Ado About Nothing?” In this essay, I will argue that, from the perspective of preservation and dissemination of knowledge, embracing English as the global language of communication and science is more helpful than resisting against it and encouraging people to produce knowledge in non-English languages.
In this paper, using Reception Theories posed by the two wings, namely Uniformists and Individual... more In this paper, using Reception Theories posed by the two wings, namely Uniformists and Individualists, I attempt to provide a third way as a theoretical ground on which these two opposing parties may work together to create a theoretical field in which authors, readers, and theorists may live in peace. To this end, inspired by Stuart Hall’s concepts of differentiated moments of production and reception posed in “Encoding, Decoding,” I aim to create a more advanced version of them. In my version, I will address four differentiated moments of reading, perception, interpretation, and response. These four neglected moments are traditionally considered one moment in Reception Theories. However, I will suggest that differentiated moment of reading, in which the text imposes its authority, is the moment upon which Uniformist Reception Theories are built. On the other hand, differentiated moments of perception, interpretation, and response, each in its own way, are the moments in which what I call the authority of the reader/receiver operates, fostering Individualist Reception Theories. My claim is that these differentiated moments are what former theorists have missed or mixed up, and that their imprecise terminology is the main cause of reception theorists’ confusion and disagreement. By distinguishing these differentiated moments in the process of communication we will have a more precise vocabulary to identify different levels on which a communication operates. This will hopefully opens doors for further investigation on readers/audiences’ reception while having a more precise vocabulary to identify various levels on which a communication functions. I also suggest that considering syntax and context along with the inclusion of Michel Foucault’s concepts of “discourse” and “episteme” may help with drawing a better picture of reading as the most basic level of communication with the text.
In this essay, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of Reception Theories, I will render a br... more In this essay, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of Reception Theories, I will render a brief review of Literary Criticism and Reception Theories. In this history, three mainstreams may be identified: a) hegemony of the text; b) hegemony of the author; and c) hegemony of the reader. Hegemony of the text may be associated with the authority of the sacred texts in antiquity where oracles were supposed to decipher and announce a text’s meanings; hegemony of the author may be an aftershock of Romanticism with its great novel writers and playwrights where continuities in authors’ works became significant for literary critics, which later gave birth to the Auteur Theory in Film Studies; and the hegemony of the reader may be the fruit of capitalism’s conquest over socialism where individualism reached its crest, literary structures became less authoritative and more open to interpretation, and hermeneutics dominated philosophy and critique. Throughout my review of Reception Theories I will identify the three abovementioned strands of approaches in Reception Theories with their causes and consequences. I hope that this essay would be considered as a brief comprehensive study of Reception Theories and be useful for interested researchers.
What does One World Film Festival refer to? Does it refer to a united world, Marshall McLuhan’s g... more What does One World Film Festival refer to? Does it refer to a united world, Marshall McLuhan’s global village, or one of the worlds? According to One World Arts website, an organization which One World Film Festival is a part of, it refers to a “volunteer-based, charitable organization working to create awareness on world issues.”* In this essay, I will investigate what meanings and applications “awareness on world issues” may have in general and in One World Film Festival, and how they may be increased by communication methods of marketing. To these ends, I will scrutinize One World Film Festival’s goals posted on the festival’s website, analyze some barriers in the way of their goals, and will give some suggestions on communication methods of marketing to enhance creating awareness on and involvement in world issues. * http://oneworldfilmfestival.ca/about-one-world-arts/
What do we look at when watching a film? Do we assume that we are watching reality, or a remake o... more What do we look at when watching a film? Do we assume that we are watching reality, or a remake of reality? Is it a construction that is made to entertain us, or a puzzle to make us think? And, what is our relation to the cinema screen and onscreen characters? Cache (France, Michael Haneke, 2005) is a film which raises these questions in the audience’s mind. It is a complex film in which many layers are intertwined to construct the audience’s relations with the film as in watching it we oscillate between watching the film through a surveillance camera, Haneke’s cinematic camera, and Georges (Daniel Auteuil)’ and other characters’ points of view. In this essay, I will explore what might be our various points of view when watching some of the shots of Cache. These points of view show that Haneke has employed cinema as a collection of window, frame, mirror, surveillance monitor, and hidden surveillance camera. More importantly, Haneke has blurred the borders between them as in many of the shots, a number of them operate simultaneously. By sending the surveillance videos to Georges, Haneke has included himself as an invisible character with his cinematic-surveillance videos within the film’s narrative. He also has merged surveillance videos and cinematic shots as many of the interior and exterior shots may be surveillance shots, although the film does not indicate whether they are. In addition, Haneke has included different layers of surveillance in the film: exterior, interior, and inner mind, showing dreams and memories. By all these, Haneke has allowed audiences to see characters as their reflections on screen while allowing them to criticize their own actions through that of others. In addition, by employing an advanced version of panoptic structure where even characters’ minds are not immune to surveillance, Haneke has depicted powers of surveillance while indicating its limitations and deceptions.
Every day, we progress, which means “moving forward”. Jennifer Daryl Slack and J. Macgregor Wise ... more Every day, we progress, which means “moving forward”. Jennifer Daryl Slack and J. Macgregor Wise in Culture and Technology: A Primer state that people usually view progress as a “material and moral betterment (moving toward utopia).” However, some thinkers like Thomas Jefferson warned that “a balance had to be struck between material prosperity as the mark of progress and moral and spiritual growth.” The contrast between material prosperity and moral and spiritual growth is one of the main themes that Jean-Luc Godard draws on in his movie Alphaville (France, 1965). In this essay, I will show that the logical order of Alphaville represent material prosperity and technological progress, while Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) represents a moral and spiritual growth, who tries to wake up love, consciousness, and tenderness in the robot-like people of Alphaville.
In Poetics of Cinema, David Bordwell states that the study of actors’ blinks seems to have not ye... more In Poetics of Cinema, David Bordwell states that the study of actors’ blinks seems to have not yet been done properly in Film Studies. He writes that “blinking, as we would expect, is a tool of expressive performance, with implications shaped by context” (333). In this essay, I will explore the implications of eye blinks and eye directions based on their contexts in the movie L.A. Confidential. I will explain how actors’ eye blinks play important roles in creating meanings and indicating characters’ hidden traits or agendas in the movie.
Is the cinema just a craft, or a form of art? In this essay, my thesis is that the cinema is a fo... more Is the cinema just a craft, or a form of art? In this essay, my thesis is that the cinema is a form of art as it performs functions that craft does not. To this end, I will focus on Collingwood’s definition of craft posed in The Principles of Art describing craft as a phenomenon in which there is a relation between means and end. Although this is not an exact definition, but it helps with defining cinema as art, as there is no direct, exact relation between means and end in it. I will review some of the similarities between art and craft, which indicate the need for finding more distinctive features to distinguish art and craft. I will argue Collingwood’s views according to which art is defined as having no relation between means and end, being the result of artists’ collaboration, expressive of emotions, imaginary, and arouser of emotions are useful in examining cinema as an art. In addition, I will explain my recent personal experience with craft and art, where medical craftsmen aimed to cure my sickness, whereas watching the movie John Wick (USA, dir. Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, 2014) healed and comforted me by arousing my emotions and imagination. Accordingly, I will propose that being arouser of imagination may be one of the main characteristics of arts, which determines its value for individuals, societies, and governments.
In “The Exorbitant Lightness of Bodies, or How to Look at Superheroes”, Scott C. Richmond analyze... more In “The Exorbitant Lightness of Bodies, or How to Look at Superheroes”, Scott C. Richmond analyzes three main relations of ilinx (vertigo), identification (closeness), and mimesis (imitation) that audiences may have with the superhero in Spider-Man 1. However, I suggest that we cannot understand audiences’ identification or dis-identification if we do not first attend to the relations of bodies on-screen with each other which determine audiences’ relations with them. My thesis is that analyzing narrative, characterization, and iconography through the glasses of Lacan’s mirror stage, Metz’s secondary cinematic identification, and Freud’s Oedipus complex may help with expounding the relations of on-screen bodies with each other and with an audience in Iron Man 3.
In this Paper, I will use discourse analysis to analyze Dave’s presentation of his Salespreneur s... more In this Paper, I will use discourse analysis to analyze Dave’s presentation of his Salespreneur system in the Shark Tank TV show as a multimodal text consisted of verbal and non-verbal components. I will use discourse analysis to analyze this presentation as according to Fairclough (1997), “Discourse analysis is generally taken to be the analysis of texts in a broad sense—written texts, spoken interaction, the multimedia texts of television and the internet, etc.” (p. 348). Therefore, focusing mostly on the verbal part of Dave’s presentation, as Fairclough (1997) recommended, “We can continue regarding a text as a primarily linguistic cultural artefact, but develop ways of analyzing other semiotic forms which are co-present with language, and especially how different semiotic forms interact in the multisemiotic text” (p. 4). I will also employ Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which, according to van Dijk (1998), “is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias” (as cited in Sheyholislami, p. 1). I will use CDA to identify power relations which operate in Dave’s presentation before the Sharks and also within their conversation. This might indicate some of the reasons why Dave could not impress Daymond John and subsequently did not get a deal from him or the other Sharks, although he learned a big lesson from Daymond. Now, I will include the transcript of a part of Dave’s presentation and his conversation with the Shark Daymond.
To identify and classify dynamics and agendas underlying the narratives of Avesta, Khoday-namag(s... more To identify and classify dynamics and agendas underlying the narratives of Avesta, Khoday-namag(s) and Shahnameh in relation to the oral history, subconscious memory and existed artifacts of the people who composed them, this research proposes frameworks such as Metanarrative, Monumental History, Possible Worlds, and Narrative History. This may help with examining Shahnameh's mythical, esoteric, and narrative elements as zipped information of the past and their composers' projection of the future.
This paper aims to briefly introduce and review the current literature discussing PowerPoint pre... more This paper aims to briefly introduce and review the current literature discussing PowerPoint presentations. After rendering a brief history of PowerPoint, this review indicates PowerPoint’s limitations and advantages. By reviewing relevant researches, this paper also shows that PowerPoint’s defective use ends in results ranging from the audience’s passive reception and confusion to financial and fatal damages. More importantly, it reviews major existing theoretical frameworks that have been employed, or may help with, investigating PowerPoint presentations ranging from communication, theatre and film studies to cognitive science, rhetoric, and critical discourse analysis. This review, also, reflects some of the recommendations by theorists on how to improve PowerPoint presentations.
این مقاله درباره ی کارگاه پیشرفته ی تئاتر پداگوژی در سال 2009 در دپارتمان هنر دانشگاه تربیت مدرس ... more این مقاله درباره ی کارگاه پیشرفته ی تئاتر پداگوژی در سال 2009 در دپارتمان هنر دانشگاه تربیت مدرس است که با همکاری دانشگاه اوسنابروک آلمان انجام شد. نویسندگان این مقاله به سودمندی های این کارگاه و روش پداگوژی و نیز چشم اندازهای آنها برای جامعه ی ایران می پردازند
Shahnameh: A Mysterium Play for a Shamanic/Ritualistic Performance, 2021
Does what we perform exactly indicate who we are, or it indicates how we want to be seen? Most of... more Does what we perform exactly indicate who we are, or it indicates how we want to be seen? Most of the performance theories in Theatre Studies deal with what is performed and what is shown. But can we dig deep and get to the root of the performance, where the egg of a performance’s plot is formed in the womb of the author’s mind, which is where the script of the performance is being encrypted? The main subject of this essay is Shahnameh, aka The Persian Book of King(s), which is a rewriting of Khoday-nameh, The Book of the Lord(s), as its primary source. To have a better understanding of Shahnameh, as a text written solely for being performed by naqqals (traditional story-performers) and Shahnameh-reciters, and to explore ways for performing it, this paper proposes certain frameworks such as Metanarrative, Monumental History, Possible Worlds, and Narrative History. They may be used to find out the main dynamics, formulas, and agendas underlying the summary plot of Shahnameh, which is also reflected in its every individual story. Gaining such knowledge would be a precondition for exploring ways to perform Shahnameh successfully and effectively. Failure in understanding this plot results in performing Shahnameh in the wrong or opposite way in comparison to the intentions of its authors which would be like performing a tragedy as comedy or a mysterium play as a realistic performance. While, identifying Shahnameh’s underlying dynamics, formulas, and agendas would help with increasing the success of its performance in regards with its messages being communicated effectively and its audience relating to it more deeply at intellectual and emotional levels. By looking at the plot summaries of some of the main stories of Shahnameh, as a mostly faithful adaptation of Khoday-nameh, this paper will attempt to identify starting points for finding the reasons why the creators of these two books chose to create or recreate the Iranian myths in the way they did. This will help with identifying what was the philosophy and dynamics behind their esoteric representation, and with exploring what elements are embedded in these books that allowed them to be performed every day throughout the Persian empire for millennia, as well as after its collapse by the Arab invasion in 1,365 YA (years ago) until modern day Iran.
In this paper, first, I will briefly define what ritual is, and then, review its main functions, ... more In this paper, first, I will briefly define what ritual is, and then, review its main functions, mostly based on the views of Mircia Eliade, Nadja Berberović, Ian Maxwell, and Richard Schechner, among others. After that, I will describe an important ritualistic performance called Shahnameh-khani/Shahnameh-recitation, which is an ancient Iranian form of storytelling/story-performing. And, ultimately, I will describe how Morshed/Master Saghi Aghili, as a Naqqal/Shahnameh-reciter, have invented experimental techniques to create ritualistic effects and enhance Shahnameh-recitation’s effectiveness.
In the introduction of their book Impure Cinema: Inter-medial and Intercultural Approaches to Fil... more In the introduction of their book Impure Cinema: Inter-medial and Intercultural Approaches to Film, editors Lucia Nagib and Anne Jerslev introduce their collection as an expedition to continue Andre Bazin’s attempt to identify and promote Impure Cinema. Editors mention that "‘impure’ for Bazin seemed to mean in the first place accepting reality as it offers itself to the camera with all its contingent and apparently irrelevant bits, even if this reality is nothing but a book on which a film is based.” Nonetheless, ‘cinematic hybridization’ has been considered as one of the main characteristics of Bazin’s call for Impure Cinema on which theorists and filmmakers have drawn on. This may be resolved by taking Bazin’s appreciation of hybridization of arts and media with, and in, cinema as a call for not excluding arts and media, rather than including them in a cinematic work only for the sake of hybridization. Thus, a pure Impure Cinema does not stuff arts and media in film, but only records and reflects them as they are, only if they naturally fit into the reality of the film by themselves. Singin’ in the Rain can be a good example of hybridization of theatre and cinema as its story is about theatre actors and crew without trying to stuff theatre into cinema. In addition, mixing media, here theatre, with cinema, as Bertolt Brecht stressed can have a “distancing effect.” In this essay, considering Nagib and Jerslev’s introduction, I will investigate what arts and media have been included in Singin’ in the Rain. Then, I will argue if, and how, including theatre and other arts in Singin’ in the Rain has created a ‘distancing effect’. Besides, I will briefly have a look at inter-mediality and its possible alienating effect in three other movies The Red Shoes (UK, dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948), Dogville (USA, Lars Von Trier,2003), and The World (Canada, Zhangke Jia, 2004).
In the globalised market, where “English continues to expand, to colonise and to carry greater ec... more In the globalised market, where “English continues to expand, to colonise and to carry greater economic capital than any other world language,” (Blackledge, 2002, p. 198), many argue that “even if English does not ‘kill’ other languages, it relegates them to a lesser role in an incipient global diglossia” (Ferguson, 2016, p. 481). Consequently, there is an emerging tendency to support, re-strengthen, and re-vitalize languages that are about to die. In the middle of this battle, where most of the time the innumerable army of the English empire prevail, and some times scattered armies of insurgent minority languages gain some advancements, one may take courage and ask, isn’t all this, alluding to the Shakespeare’s play, “Much Ado About Nothing?” In this essay, I will argue that, from the perspective of preservation and dissemination of knowledge, embracing English as the global language of communication and science is more helpful than resisting against it and encouraging people to produce knowledge in non-English languages.
In this paper, using Reception Theories posed by the two wings, namely Uniformists and Individual... more In this paper, using Reception Theories posed by the two wings, namely Uniformists and Individualists, I attempt to provide a third way as a theoretical ground on which these two opposing parties may work together to create a theoretical field in which authors, readers, and theorists may live in peace. To this end, inspired by Stuart Hall’s concepts of differentiated moments of production and reception posed in “Encoding, Decoding,” I aim to create a more advanced version of them. In my version, I will address four differentiated moments of reading, perception, interpretation, and response. These four neglected moments are traditionally considered one moment in Reception Theories. However, I will suggest that differentiated moment of reading, in which the text imposes its authority, is the moment upon which Uniformist Reception Theories are built. On the other hand, differentiated moments of perception, interpretation, and response, each in its own way, are the moments in which what I call the authority of the reader/receiver operates, fostering Individualist Reception Theories. My claim is that these differentiated moments are what former theorists have missed or mixed up, and that their imprecise terminology is the main cause of reception theorists’ confusion and disagreement. By distinguishing these differentiated moments in the process of communication we will have a more precise vocabulary to identify different levels on which a communication operates. This will hopefully opens doors for further investigation on readers/audiences’ reception while having a more precise vocabulary to identify various levels on which a communication functions. I also suggest that considering syntax and context along with the inclusion of Michel Foucault’s concepts of “discourse” and “episteme” may help with drawing a better picture of reading as the most basic level of communication with the text.
In this essay, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of Reception Theories, I will render a br... more In this essay, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of Reception Theories, I will render a brief review of Literary Criticism and Reception Theories. In this history, three mainstreams may be identified: a) hegemony of the text; b) hegemony of the author; and c) hegemony of the reader. Hegemony of the text may be associated with the authority of the sacred texts in antiquity where oracles were supposed to decipher and announce a text’s meanings; hegemony of the author may be an aftershock of Romanticism with its great novel writers and playwrights where continuities in authors’ works became significant for literary critics, which later gave birth to the Auteur Theory in Film Studies; and the hegemony of the reader may be the fruit of capitalism’s conquest over socialism where individualism reached its crest, literary structures became less authoritative and more open to interpretation, and hermeneutics dominated philosophy and critique. Throughout my review of Reception Theories I will identify the three abovementioned strands of approaches in Reception Theories with their causes and consequences. I hope that this essay would be considered as a brief comprehensive study of Reception Theories and be useful for interested researchers.
What does One World Film Festival refer to? Does it refer to a united world, Marshall McLuhan’s g... more What does One World Film Festival refer to? Does it refer to a united world, Marshall McLuhan’s global village, or one of the worlds? According to One World Arts website, an organization which One World Film Festival is a part of, it refers to a “volunteer-based, charitable organization working to create awareness on world issues.”* In this essay, I will investigate what meanings and applications “awareness on world issues” may have in general and in One World Film Festival, and how they may be increased by communication methods of marketing. To these ends, I will scrutinize One World Film Festival’s goals posted on the festival’s website, analyze some barriers in the way of their goals, and will give some suggestions on communication methods of marketing to enhance creating awareness on and involvement in world issues. * http://oneworldfilmfestival.ca/about-one-world-arts/
What do we look at when watching a film? Do we assume that we are watching reality, or a remake o... more What do we look at when watching a film? Do we assume that we are watching reality, or a remake of reality? Is it a construction that is made to entertain us, or a puzzle to make us think? And, what is our relation to the cinema screen and onscreen characters? Cache (France, Michael Haneke, 2005) is a film which raises these questions in the audience’s mind. It is a complex film in which many layers are intertwined to construct the audience’s relations with the film as in watching it we oscillate between watching the film through a surveillance camera, Haneke’s cinematic camera, and Georges (Daniel Auteuil)’ and other characters’ points of view. In this essay, I will explore what might be our various points of view when watching some of the shots of Cache. These points of view show that Haneke has employed cinema as a collection of window, frame, mirror, surveillance monitor, and hidden surveillance camera. More importantly, Haneke has blurred the borders between them as in many of the shots, a number of them operate simultaneously. By sending the surveillance videos to Georges, Haneke has included himself as an invisible character with his cinematic-surveillance videos within the film’s narrative. He also has merged surveillance videos and cinematic shots as many of the interior and exterior shots may be surveillance shots, although the film does not indicate whether they are. In addition, Haneke has included different layers of surveillance in the film: exterior, interior, and inner mind, showing dreams and memories. By all these, Haneke has allowed audiences to see characters as their reflections on screen while allowing them to criticize their own actions through that of others. In addition, by employing an advanced version of panoptic structure where even characters’ minds are not immune to surveillance, Haneke has depicted powers of surveillance while indicating its limitations and deceptions.
Every day, we progress, which means “moving forward”. Jennifer Daryl Slack and J. Macgregor Wise ... more Every day, we progress, which means “moving forward”. Jennifer Daryl Slack and J. Macgregor Wise in Culture and Technology: A Primer state that people usually view progress as a “material and moral betterment (moving toward utopia).” However, some thinkers like Thomas Jefferson warned that “a balance had to be struck between material prosperity as the mark of progress and moral and spiritual growth.” The contrast between material prosperity and moral and spiritual growth is one of the main themes that Jean-Luc Godard draws on in his movie Alphaville (France, 1965). In this essay, I will show that the logical order of Alphaville represent material prosperity and technological progress, while Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) represents a moral and spiritual growth, who tries to wake up love, consciousness, and tenderness in the robot-like people of Alphaville.
In Poetics of Cinema, David Bordwell states that the study of actors’ blinks seems to have not ye... more In Poetics of Cinema, David Bordwell states that the study of actors’ blinks seems to have not yet been done properly in Film Studies. He writes that “blinking, as we would expect, is a tool of expressive performance, with implications shaped by context” (333). In this essay, I will explore the implications of eye blinks and eye directions based on their contexts in the movie L.A. Confidential. I will explain how actors’ eye blinks play important roles in creating meanings and indicating characters’ hidden traits or agendas in the movie.
Is the cinema just a craft, or a form of art? In this essay, my thesis is that the cinema is a fo... more Is the cinema just a craft, or a form of art? In this essay, my thesis is that the cinema is a form of art as it performs functions that craft does not. To this end, I will focus on Collingwood’s definition of craft posed in The Principles of Art describing craft as a phenomenon in which there is a relation between means and end. Although this is not an exact definition, but it helps with defining cinema as art, as there is no direct, exact relation between means and end in it. I will review some of the similarities between art and craft, which indicate the need for finding more distinctive features to distinguish art and craft. I will argue Collingwood’s views according to which art is defined as having no relation between means and end, being the result of artists’ collaboration, expressive of emotions, imaginary, and arouser of emotions are useful in examining cinema as an art. In addition, I will explain my recent personal experience with craft and art, where medical craftsmen aimed to cure my sickness, whereas watching the movie John Wick (USA, dir. Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, 2014) healed and comforted me by arousing my emotions and imagination. Accordingly, I will propose that being arouser of imagination may be one of the main characteristics of arts, which determines its value for individuals, societies, and governments.
In “The Exorbitant Lightness of Bodies, or How to Look at Superheroes”, Scott C. Richmond analyze... more In “The Exorbitant Lightness of Bodies, or How to Look at Superheroes”, Scott C. Richmond analyzes three main relations of ilinx (vertigo), identification (closeness), and mimesis (imitation) that audiences may have with the superhero in Spider-Man 1. However, I suggest that we cannot understand audiences’ identification or dis-identification if we do not first attend to the relations of bodies on-screen with each other which determine audiences’ relations with them. My thesis is that analyzing narrative, characterization, and iconography through the glasses of Lacan’s mirror stage, Metz’s secondary cinematic identification, and Freud’s Oedipus complex may help with expounding the relations of on-screen bodies with each other and with an audience in Iron Man 3.
In this Paper, I will use discourse analysis to analyze Dave’s presentation of his Salespreneur s... more In this Paper, I will use discourse analysis to analyze Dave’s presentation of his Salespreneur system in the Shark Tank TV show as a multimodal text consisted of verbal and non-verbal components. I will use discourse analysis to analyze this presentation as according to Fairclough (1997), “Discourse analysis is generally taken to be the analysis of texts in a broad sense—written texts, spoken interaction, the multimedia texts of television and the internet, etc.” (p. 348). Therefore, focusing mostly on the verbal part of Dave’s presentation, as Fairclough (1997) recommended, “We can continue regarding a text as a primarily linguistic cultural artefact, but develop ways of analyzing other semiotic forms which are co-present with language, and especially how different semiotic forms interact in the multisemiotic text” (p. 4). I will also employ Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which, according to van Dijk (1998), “is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias” (as cited in Sheyholislami, p. 1). I will use CDA to identify power relations which operate in Dave’s presentation before the Sharks and also within their conversation. This might indicate some of the reasons why Dave could not impress Daymond John and subsequently did not get a deal from him or the other Sharks, although he learned a big lesson from Daymond. Now, I will include the transcript of a part of Dave’s presentation and his conversation with the Shark Daymond.
To identify and classify dynamics and agendas underlying the narratives of Avesta, Khoday-namag(s... more To identify and classify dynamics and agendas underlying the narratives of Avesta, Khoday-namag(s) and Shahnameh in relation to the oral history, subconscious memory and existed artifacts of the people who composed them, this research proposes frameworks such as Metanarrative, Monumental History, Possible Worlds, and Narrative History. This may help with examining Shahnameh's mythical, esoteric, and narrative elements as zipped information of the past and their composers' projection of the future.
This paper aims to briefly introduce and review the current literature discussing PowerPoint pre... more This paper aims to briefly introduce and review the current literature discussing PowerPoint presentations. After rendering a brief history of PowerPoint, this review indicates PowerPoint’s limitations and advantages. By reviewing relevant researches, this paper also shows that PowerPoint’s defective use ends in results ranging from the audience’s passive reception and confusion to financial and fatal damages. More importantly, it reviews major existing theoretical frameworks that have been employed, or may help with, investigating PowerPoint presentations ranging from communication, theatre and film studies to cognitive science, rhetoric, and critical discourse analysis. This review, also, reflects some of the recommendations by theorists on how to improve PowerPoint presentations.
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The main subject of this essay is Shahnameh, aka The Persian Book of King(s), which is a rewriting of Khoday-nameh, The Book of the Lord(s), as its primary source. To have a better understanding of Shahnameh, as a text written solely for being performed by naqqals (traditional story-performers) and Shahnameh-reciters, and to explore ways for performing it, this paper proposes certain frameworks such as Metanarrative, Monumental History, Possible Worlds, and Narrative History. They may be used to find out the main dynamics, formulas, and agendas underlying the summary plot of Shahnameh, which is also reflected in its every individual story. Gaining such knowledge would be a precondition for exploring ways to perform Shahnameh successfully and effectively. Failure in understanding this plot results in performing Shahnameh in the wrong or opposite way in comparison to the intentions of its authors which would be like performing a tragedy as comedy or a mysterium play as a realistic performance. While, identifying Shahnameh’s underlying dynamics, formulas, and agendas would help with increasing the success of its performance in regards with its messages being communicated effectively and its audience relating to it more deeply at intellectual and emotional levels. By looking at the plot summaries of some of the main stories of Shahnameh, as a mostly faithful adaptation of Khoday-nameh, this paper will attempt to identify starting points for finding the reasons why the creators of these two books chose to create or recreate the Iranian myths in the way they did. This will help with identifying what was the philosophy and dynamics behind their esoteric representation, and with exploring what elements are embedded in these books that allowed them to be performed every day throughout the Persian empire for millennia, as well as after its collapse by the Arab invasion in 1,365 YA (years ago) until modern day Iran.
* http://oneworldfilmfestival.ca/about-one-world-arts/
The main subject of this essay is Shahnameh, aka The Persian Book of King(s), which is a rewriting of Khoday-nameh, The Book of the Lord(s), as its primary source. To have a better understanding of Shahnameh, as a text written solely for being performed by naqqals (traditional story-performers) and Shahnameh-reciters, and to explore ways for performing it, this paper proposes certain frameworks such as Metanarrative, Monumental History, Possible Worlds, and Narrative History. They may be used to find out the main dynamics, formulas, and agendas underlying the summary plot of Shahnameh, which is also reflected in its every individual story. Gaining such knowledge would be a precondition for exploring ways to perform Shahnameh successfully and effectively. Failure in understanding this plot results in performing Shahnameh in the wrong or opposite way in comparison to the intentions of its authors which would be like performing a tragedy as comedy or a mysterium play as a realistic performance. While, identifying Shahnameh’s underlying dynamics, formulas, and agendas would help with increasing the success of its performance in regards with its messages being communicated effectively and its audience relating to it more deeply at intellectual and emotional levels. By looking at the plot summaries of some of the main stories of Shahnameh, as a mostly faithful adaptation of Khoday-nameh, this paper will attempt to identify starting points for finding the reasons why the creators of these two books chose to create or recreate the Iranian myths in the way they did. This will help with identifying what was the philosophy and dynamics behind their esoteric representation, and with exploring what elements are embedded in these books that allowed them to be performed every day throughout the Persian empire for millennia, as well as after its collapse by the Arab invasion in 1,365 YA (years ago) until modern day Iran.
* http://oneworldfilmfestival.ca/about-one-world-arts/