“The Flickering Body” describes the creation of three multimedia performances — Dawn Chorus, Loup-garou, and Red Dot. These pieces share a common interest in uncanny experiences that arise when human bodies intersect with film and video projections, seeking out these moments by placing performers into a variety of interactive audiovisual environments. The written portion of the dissertation begins by investigating the historical associations of film, video, and animation with uncanny audience reaction, particularly focusing on how the filmed and animated human body is a major source of the uncanny. The author demonstrates ways in which these associations have been utilized by experimental filmmakers, particularly those of the Structural movement, as a means of inducing audiences into a state of critical reception - a heightened awareness of film’s artifice. Several mechanisms from Structural film and Expanded Cinema are considered in light of their capacity for inducing uncanny experience, with these techniques subsequently adapted into the performances comprising the main portion of the dissertation. The performances developed as part of this work begin with Dawn Chorus, a piece based around a strobing audiovisual feedback loop between a light-sensitive synthesizer and interactive projections. This is followed by Loup-garou, an audiovisual re-imagining of Robert Ashley’s early microphone feedback piece The Wolfman, with Loup-garou reconsidering the links between transformation, feedback, and the human body that were explored in Ashley’s performances. The last piece, Red Dot, utilizes the mobile phone as an interface for exploring anxieties around the uncanniness of Big Data. The motivations, form, and technical implementation of each piece are discussed, and video documentation of each of the performances is provided.
Dupuis, Alexander,
"The Flickering Body"
(2020).
Computer Music and Multimedia Composition Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/9fd0-cb78
