| Research project title | Movement Experience Through Rhythmic Organization in Audiovisual Representational Texts (METRO_ART) |
| Fund | PRIN 2022 – Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale, Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca, Italy Finanziato dall’Unione Europea – Next Generation EU |
| Duration | 24 months |
| Main ERC field | SH – Social Sciences and Humanities |
| ERC subfields | SH5_4 Visual and performing arts, film, design and architecture |
| Research units | Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Università degli Studi di Parma |
Brief description
METRO_ART addresses for the first time in systematic terms the issue of rhythmic experience lived by the spectator of representational (i.e. non-abstract) audiovisual texts and aims at building a theoretical model supported by neurocognitive data. The research has a foundational character: it recovers the rich film theory literature on rhythm to create a general model of the audiovisual spectator’s rhythmic experience supported by some specially designed experiments and opened to subsequent checks and elaborations. The primary hypothesis of the research is that the experience of rhythm refers to that of movement; consequently, METRO_ART studies rhythm from the perspective of the cinematic viewer’s embodied experience. Hence, some questions arise: (a) Which semiotic elements of the audiovisual text are responsible for the constitution of their rhythmic profiles, and how do they combine? (b) What does the spectator’s embodied rhythmic experience consist of? How and in what time windows is it triggered and guided by the rhythmic profiles of the texts? (c) What are the relationships between rhythmic experience, affective states, and time perception? (d) What particularities characterize Virtual Reality audiovisuals?
The research includes three phases: (I) Reconstruction and exploration of the existing literature and elaboration of primary hypotheses. (II) Completion of six experiments using sets of stimuli constructed ad hoc to test the main variables identified in the previous phase. (III) Development of a semiotic model of rhythmic audiovisual experience.
The three research units will be equally involved in all the phases; their contribution differs primarily in the experimental approaches used in phase (II), though using the same sets of stimuli. In more detail, Milan Unit uses behavioural methodologies; Parma Unit adopts a neural approach with high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG); (3) Bergamo Unit investigates the specificities provided by immersive audiovisual media such as Virtual Reality.
The research benefits from the contribution of film and media scholars, psychologists and neurobiologists, and will involve junior research fellows. The dissemination of findings and results will take place both through academic channels (articles on peer-reviewed international journals, participation in conferences and organization of seminars, etc.) and by addressing a less specialized audience (through a website, as well as meetings with filmmakers, teachers, doctors and health professionals). In this way, the expected impact of the research concerns four areas: empirical studies, theoretical studies, epistemological practices of interdisciplinary dialogue, and the applications of the rhythmic effects of audiovisuals to some areas of social life.
State of the art
The METRO_ART project intercrosses topics and methods from the humanities (i.e. film theory) with those typical of the hard sciences. Consequently, we should explore the state of the art on both of these fronts. Film culture has always dealt with the problem of rhythm, both as a stylistic theme and as a tool for involving the audience. Cultural historians have shown that there is a qualifying link between the sense of “modernity” embodied by cinema and its avantgardes in the first half of the XX century and the visual rhythms with which directors and editors experimented on multiple levels (Guido 2007, Cowan 2011).
The “founding fathers” of film theory all gave ample space to reflection on rhythm, influencing subsequent debates: for instance, Béla Balázs’ film aesthetics prescribes a relationship of a musical type (harmony, counterpoint) between the “rhythm of the shots”, that is the degree of dynamism in the image, and the “rhythm of the montage” (Balázs 2010). In turn, Sergei Eisenstein has proposed the broadest and most refined reflection on cinematic rhythm, integrating these different codes into a unitary concept of vertical montage (Eisenstein 1991). The Eisensteinian perspective influenced later reflection on film’s potential for rhythmic involvement, especially in sound film (Jacobs 2015).
We can distinguish between four significant approaches: meta-psychological, phenomenological, cognitivist, and semiotic.
(a) The first, which probably arises from Christian Metz’s founding observations on the fetish of technology, finds its complete definition in Raymond Bellour (2009). For Bellour, the film has a corporeal quality that produces the constant illusion of a sensory, almost hypnotic “agreement” with the spectator’s body; in particular, rhythm, in its coordination of sound and image, defines the “transmodal character” of this correspondence.
(b) The conclusions of the authors of the second kind of approach are indeed not far off. For Jean Mitry, the phenomenological perspective accounts for the subjective and sensory value of rhythmic experience: rhythm is an intentional structure that opens up to the construction of meaning through a perceptual experience. Notably, as such, Mitry states, this experience must be interpreted with psychological tools (Mitry 1963-1965). More recently, Vivian Sobchack (2004) has stressed the embodied character of rhythmically expressed “temporal reciprocity”.
(c) The third area of study has also considered the psychological implications of the experience of rhythm. In this area, Torben Grodal (1997) has once again brought back the effectiveness of the film experience to the body rhythms (“fluctuations”) of the viewer; while Karen Pearlman (2019) has proposed to reconsider the editor’s work as an actual technique of the body or “somatic intelligence” of rhythm. These arguments relate to Walter Murch’s influential reflection on the “natural” cut, based on the actor’s movement and the blink of the viewers’ eyes (Murch, 2000).
(d) Finally, the semiotic perspective has conceptualized the textual forms of rhythm in audiovisual texts through a dialogue between film theory and general semiotics (Ceriani, 2019), and with Deleuzian influences (Nappi 1985). For example, Eugeni (2010) proposed to articulate film rhythm in three components: segmentation of the visual and sound continuum, evaluation of the reciprocal length of the segments, and detection of visual and sound accentuations. Shifting to the complementary front of experimental and neurocognitive sciences, just a small number of works specifically addressed the question of film and audiovisual rhythm. Indeed, scholars have devoted a greater interest to the topic of sound rhythm, which offers valuable contributions and paradigms to be compared both in the field of music psychology (Huron 2006, London 2004) and in neuroscientific and neuroaesthetic research (Cameron and Grahn, 2020). Nevertheless, we can find a few specific and dedicated in-depth studies on film rhythm, such as Swenberg and Carlgren (2021). Furthermore, many “neuro-filmological” research projects include rhythm among their interests; on one hand, studies dedicated to the perception of time in film experience (Eugeni et al. 2020; Balzarotti et al. 2021), and on the other hand, studies devoted to continuity effects in narrative comprehension or attentional states (see Cutting and Candan 2013, Smith 2012).
Detailed description
General premises and starting hypothesis
The general premise of the project METRO_ART is that we should consider the experience of watching films and other audiovisual products as a specific case of 4E cognition (Newen, de Bruin, Gallagher 2018): as such, it is embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended. In particular, watching movies is a 4E experience more or less broadly and deeply determined and designed by the sensory materials that make up the audiovisual texts and their internal organization. This perspective establishes the possibility of fruitful dialogue and exchange between the humanistic disciplines that study textual experience with desk methods (in particular audiovisual semiotics) and the disciplines that study specific and actual viewing experiences empirically in all their psychological, behavioral, and neural dynamics (in particular the neurocognitive sciences). Within this general framework, the question of rhythm can be relaunched and reset in updated terms; furthermore, it can contribute to the development of common concepts and models. In particular, the underlying assumption is that the rhythmic structure of the film and moving images offers vital support to the physical involvement of the viewer. As Pearlman (2019) stated, “movement is primarily what is being shaped into affective rhythms through the editing of moving images”. In other terms, watching a film can be thought of as a physical experience of movement patterns. In this view, the viewer’s physical, affective, and cognitive experience are grounded in “our kinesthetic empathy”, where movement is visible and audible in the composition of shots (Gallese and Guerra 2019; D’Aloia 2021; Pearlman, 2019).
Objectives
The objective of the METRO_ART Project is to develop a theoretical model of rhythm in film and audiovisual artifacts which, on the one hand, takes into account the theoretical literature on the subject and, on the other hand, updates this literature in the light of more recent semiotic, cognitive, and neurocognitive studies. This model should: 1) account for the semiotic and linguistic components capable of determining more clearly the rhythm of filmic and audiovisual texts (including media constructed and used in VR mode); 2) take into account the type of rhythmic experience that these texts stimulate and guide in the organism (that is, in the unity of body and mind) of the viewer; and 3) consider how and to what extent the linguistic and semiotic components can be regarded as responsible for the viewer’s rhythmic experience.
In a nutshell, we will pursue the main aim of METRO_ART by demonstrating how in film viewing, the body schemata of movement and action possess an intrinsic temporal dimension and that this temporal dimension is expressed in terms of rhythm, i.e., a controlled and structured perception of speed, repetition, and duration. Furthermore, the explaining model of film rhythm will consider which other registers of the spectator’s experience are more directly involved in rhythmic experience, with particular attention to affective states and time perception. It is essential to point out that the METRO_ART project has a foundational intent: hence, it does not intend to exhaust the analysis of rhythm and rhythmic experience in audiovisual media – given the time and budget limits within which it operates. The project aims instead to recast studies on the rhythm of movies within a “neurofilmological” framework (D’Aloia, Eugeni 2014; Gallese, Guerra, 2019; D’Aloia 2021), also by reusing expertise and results previously achieved by the research teams. In this way, the project intends to gain an overall model of cinematographic and audiovisual rhythm supported both by desk analysis and by empirical verifications, a model able to map the main issues at stake and indicate different paths for verification and in-depth analysis.
Research questions
Such an objective can be articulated into five blocks of research questions:
(a) What does the rhythm of film and other audiovisual media consist of? Which linguistic and semiotic components of the filmic text allow one or more rhythmic series to emerge? How do these components and their rhythmic effects relate to each other? If we suppose that rhythm is directly linked to the experience of movement (whether perceived through sight and hearing, or actually operated, or even simulated in embodied mode) we are obviously driven to identify these elements first of all in the dynamic elements of the film, also in light of the tradition of theoretical studies briefly outlined above. Among these elements, we should distinguish the visual ones (movement of the actors and objects, camera movement, editing), from the aural ones (voices, noises, music). However, we must ask whether the silent and static image also presents rhythmic forms, regardless of activation of movements within it; and whether these forms are actually relevant. Furthermore, we should observe, as previously mentioned, how the different series of dynamic elements can reinforce, modify or contrast each other within the audiovisual text. Finally, it will be necessary to consider whether it is possible to identify different rhythmic “styles” and “profiles”, in case corresponding to different periods or also to different authors in the history of cinema and audiovisual media.
(b) What does the rhythmic experience of watching films and audiovisual artifacts consist of? How and to what extent is it triggered and guided by filmic materials and their semiotic organization highlighted in point (a)? It can be reasonably assumed that this question receives different and complementary answers depending on the time window being considered and the method used. Within shorter time windows (from 3 to 15″) it is possible to highlight whether some semiotic components (for example certain camera movements) trigger neural responses in the premotor areas and are therefore perceived and experienced as semi-proper physical movements in an embodied simulation regime. Within longer time windows (up to 60’’) it can be assessed whether the audiovisual text synchronizes physiological responses such as heartbeat and breathing.
(c) What relationships exist between the rhythmic register, and other aspects of the viewer’s experience – especially those that the literature considers more close to the rhythmic perception? METRO_ART research focuses in particular on the reciprocal determinations between rhythmic experience, basic affective states (feelings, moods, etc.) and temporal perception. Many scholars have underlined how audiovisual texts interact with the viewer’s affective state. For instance, in the reflections of Ed Tan, cinema has been explicitly defined as an “emotion machine” (Carocci, 2018). Less is known, however, about modifications in viewers’ affective states with more specific reference to variations of rhythm in film editing. For instance, Pearlman (2019) suggested that rhythm would modulate feeling and attention into “cycles of tension and release” to “synchronize an audience to the movement of images and sounds, emotions, and events in a film”. On the other hand, some theorists have recently proposed an embodied account of time perception (see for references Eugeni et al. 2020), which claims that motor simulations and bodily states play a critical role in time judgments. Thus, it is possible to hypothesize a relationship between the embodied and lived perception of both rhythm and of time (i.e., duration and speed of transformations) grounded in a common perception and re-construction of observed and heard movements. Specifically, many scholars have argued that the conscious representation of time descends from a temporal integration of bodily feelings over time. In our previous research (Balzarotti et al. 2021), we found that editing density affected viewers’ perception of time and that this effect was mediated by viewers’ eye-movements. In this project, we aim to further address the impact of cinematographic language (here, rhythm) on viewers’ time perception considering the modifications in physiological signals. Notably, existing literature shows that time perception and affect are related phenomena (i.e., affective states can alter time perception), with the level of arousal which speeds up the internal clock system underlying the representation of time.
(d) What similarities and what differences exist between the rhythmic experience solicited and guided by traditional audiovisual media, and those dependent on the use of audiovisual content in VR? VR is a form of human-computer interaction (HCI) that exploits digital means to provide multisensory stimulations capable of inducing the sensation of presence in a 3D environment in which cognitive, sensorial and affective experiences are perceived as real (see for references Bolter, Engberg, MacIntyre 2021; Greengard 2019; Raz 2019). In this sense, VR is one of the most advanced frontiers of audiovisual development and its evolution, especially in reference to certain fundamental aspects of the psycho-physiological dimension of filmic experience, such as immersion, interactivity and empathy. The specific conformation of multimodal sensory stimuli of VR – not only audiovisual, but also tactile and proprioceptive – makes it an elective territory, 1) for the study of special audiovisual forms, only partially inherited from filmic language, with which the virtual environment organizes its own contents (including narrative); 2) experimentation and reflection on the experience lived by the subjects who use it, both for entertainment (e.g. VR cinema, video game) or communication (e.g. documentaries, immersive journalism), and 3) for therapeutic purposes for the treatment of psychological pathologies or neuro-motor rehabilitation (see at least Georgiev et al. 2021, Riva et al. 2020, Voinescu et al. 2021). VR configures a rhythmic organization that is not totally comparable to that offered by cinema: (i) With respect to framing and editing, VR is free from the traditional parameters of organization of the visual field, and segmentation of the space-time continuum and logicalnarrative recomposition. Therefore, the problem of the use of visual and sound materials emerges as strategies of spatial orientation and guiding of the user’s attention, in contrast to traditional framing and editing. (ii) With respect to the organization of the relationship between the movements of the camera, those of the character and those of the spectator, VR configures a complex system dependent on the degrees of freedom of movement granted to the user (one that can occur on 3 or 6 axes depending on the possibility of moving the head in a static position or moving the whole body in space), and the degree of embodiment with respect to space (self-location), action (agency) and self (body ownership). Therefore, what emerges is the problem of replacing the criteria of enunciation with a system of tracing the performance generated directly by the spectator’s body (through gaze, head and whole body movements), which replaces the camera in unveiling and exploring the represented world. In this sense, tracking constitutes a form of incorporation of the production of the represented world, which is therefore only partially predetermined and that, instead, emerges from the interaction between the user and the image, according to the enactive paradigm of cognition (Newen, de Bruin, Gallagher 2018). The result of the previous points is an embodied rhythmicity that differs from traditional cinematic rhythmicity in terms of i) modulation of multimodal stimuli, and ii) tuning between a multiplicity of mobile bodies. Cognitive and neuro-cognitive theories of cinema and the filmic experience have not yet begun to systematically study the implications of the specificity of the VR medium with respect to these aspects. Hence, METRO_ART aims to address this gap by extending its model of filmic and audiovisual rhythm to VR products and related experiences. In this case, some specific variables should be introduced: the extension of the visual field; the absence of traditional editing (composed by cuts and montage); the mobility of the user, as well as its impact on both the level of perceived presence (spatial, social and self-presence), and on the balance of the vestibular system and related perturbations (motion sickness).
Methodologies
As mentioned above, METRO_ART moves within the framework of a naturalized, cognitive and neurocognitive semiotics of film and audiovisual discourse. We have already defined this approach as Neurofilmology (D’Aloia, Eugeni 2014; D’Aloia 2021). On the one hand, this approach envisages a close dialogue between the analysis of audiovisual languages and their textual manifestations with both behavioral and neural empirical research on the cinematic viewer. On the other hand, neurofilmogy entails a careful epistemological investigation of the progress and results of these two methodologies, as well as the construction of new models, at a meta-empirical level, compatible with the results of both approaches. A century-long tradition of empirical sciences has investigated the evocative power of film in affecting human perception, cognition, and physiology. More recently, the advent of modern neuroimaging technology has enabled researchers to study highly complex brain activation patterns during film perception (Shimamura 2013; Nannicelli and Taberham, 2014). Studies of inter-subjective correlation (ISC) using both functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (see for instance Hasson et al. 2008) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) (Lankinen et al. 2014) have been used to provide quantitative neuroscientific assessments on widespread cortical activation patterns during film-viewing. Notably, the discoveries of mirror neurons and the direct link between perception and action, as well as embodied simulation theory, are informing a contemporary, interdisciplinary reassessment of how the brain-body system is engaged during film experience (D’Aloia and Eugeni 2014; D’Aloia 2021), and more specifically in the relationship between the spectator and the “empathic screen” (Gallese and Guerra, 2019). Considering the emerging and productive dialogue between humanities and hard sciences, the specific aspects of neurofilmology in this project are three:
(a) Neurofilmology adopts an approach derived from semiotics – that is, a discipline that analyzes how the systems of audiovisual codes are organized, and how they are used within the text to shape and guide the experience of the viewers.
(b) Neurofilmology opens a dialogue between semiotics and experimental sciences, preceding data collection and analysis, to reflect on the possibilities and limits of the methods adopted on both fronts in relation to the objectives of common research.
(c) Neurofilmolgy debriefs the results of desk semiotic analyses and empirical experiments to build a meta-empirical model of the viewer’s experience – more specifically, in this case, of the rhythmic components of this experience. Starting from these considerations, the research design foresees three phases.
(I) Preparation: starting from a systematic literature review, a semiotic analysis will be applied to a corpus of about 50 audiovisual texts of various periods and genres in order to highlight which significant elements are responsible for their rhythmic characteristics (Eugeni, 2010).
(II) Development: taking into account the results of phase (1), 6 experiments are designed and performed using different well-established empirical research methods in the field of psychological and neurocognitive sciences. To this purpose, a series of stimulus-texts will be created ad-hoc to test rhythmic experience manipulating groups of limited and controllable semiotic variables: the type of movement present in the audiovisual content (i.e., gestures and actions of actors or objects on stage, camera movement, editing) and its trends; the presence of sound, its possible composition (voices, noises, music) and its trends; the duration of the stimulus-text and therefore of its viewing experience; and the usability of the text-stimulus either in normal (that is, with a frontal screen) mode or in VR one.
The empirical methodologies used are the following: HD-EEG, to investigate neural and temporal correlates of embodied forms of rhythm perception in response to unimodal and multimodal stimuli within reduced time windows (3-10”). In particular, HD-EEG allows to measure differences in desynchronization (ERD) of the cortical mu rhythm (a marker of sensorimotor activity, see references and applications in Heimann et al 2014, 2019) and in event-related potential (ERP) in order to perform source-localization analysis. HD-EEG enables high temporal resolution and the identification of interconnected cortical areas involved in sensorimotor responses to stimuli presentation, potentially providing novel information on how multimodal integration is represented in the brain. Recording of participants’ physiological data (ECG, respiration rate, electrodermal activity, heart rate variability (HRV)) within both reduced and extended (up to 60”) time windows. Recording of participants’ ratings for emotional and bodily involvement through questionnaires (Likert scales, etc.). For VR experiences, metric detection of tactile interaction, body movements, facial expressions, and gaze behavior through head-mounted displays (HTC Vive Pro Eye VR system equipped with touch controller, eye, face and body motion tracker). Each Research Uniti will be in charge of the conduction of two experimental studies, based on their specific skills and previous research activities (see point 3).
(III) Debriefing: on the basis of the systematic review of the literature and the formulation of the basic hypotheses (phase a) as well as the results deriving from the experiments (part b), METRO_ART will attempt to construct a model that accounts for rhythmic trends in audiovisual texts, the semiotic components that determine them, the dynamics of rhythmic experience that these trends stimulate in the spectator, and the connection between the rhythmic experience and other registers of the spectator’s experience (in particular affective states and time perception).
Expected results
METRO_ART is a groundbreaking, foundational and exploratory research project: it therefore does not expect to produce a conclusive model of audiovisual rhythm and rhythmic experience. Rather, the project intends to stimulate a revival of rhythm studies. In this sense, this project’s model will both conceptualize the results of the current research and lay out exciting future research directions. The expected results of METRO_ART follow a Systematization – Relaunch – Application (SRA) model. First, the project systematizes the debate on rhythm that has accompanied the history of audiovisual media studies; then, it recasts and relaunches theoretical issues on the basis of a dialogue between film theory and film semiotics on the one hand, and psychological and neurocognitive sciences applied to the experience of experiencing films on the other; finally, it applies its results in practical sectors that use audiovisual media and VR.
Application potentialities and scientific, technological, social, and economic impact
METRO_ART presents four areas of possible application and impact:
1. Impact on empirical studies. We underlined above (in 1) how psychological and neurocognitive studies have privileged the analysis of sound rhythms while paying less attention to the issue of rhythm in the moving image and other audiovisual media. METRO_ART intends to fill this gap by relaunching a specific interest in the rhythmic experience of the viewer when perceiving films and other audiovisual products. Even if some findings concerning sound rhythm could be applied considered to movies, nevertheless the specific complexity of the audiovisual stimuli requires specific studies and analyzes. Hence, the impact of METRO_ART on empirical studies dedicated to rhythmic experience promises to be of considerable importance, as the project is able to both consolidate the results of previous research and to contribute to the paving of new research directions dedicated to rhythmic experience determined by audiovisual texts.
2. Impact on theoretical studies. As we saw in 1, the issue of rhythm still constitutes an open and compelling question in the field of film and audiovisual media studies. METRO_ART intends to create a decisive impact in film and media studies by relaunching the issue of rhythm and, at the same time, updating the dialogue with experimental sciences. From this perspective, the impact of METRO_ART on cinema studies concerns not only the re-conceptualization of the question of rhythm in light of the most recent trends in neurocognitive sciences, but also the very re-conceptualization of the figure of spectators as organisms (that is, connected and complex systems of minds and bodies) and of their experience as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended.
3. Impact on epistemological reflection and practice. One of the most important cultural events in current research is overcoming the gap between humanistic and scientific culture, which has led to a renewed dialogue between disciplines such as evolutionary biology and neurocognitive sciences and the philosophy of mind, literary theory, arts and media. In the field of film theory, these trends have led to a new wave of studies variously termed “neurocinematics” (Hasson et al., 2008), “psychocinematics” (Shimamura, 2013), etc. Some of these studies have entered the line of cognitive studies (Nannicelli and Taberham, 2014), while others dispute certain cognitive assumptions based on a new phenomenologically oriented conception of the film viewing experience (Gallese and Guerra, 2019). Setting aside various radical criticisms (i.e., “reductionism” and “naturalization” of film studies), this dialogue has lacked a strong epistemological framework in the past. Therefore, starting to think about the method of “triangulating” results coming from different approaches (such as Smith 2017) is a crucial step forward.
In line with this epistemologically founded and innovative approach, METRO_ART adopts from neurofilmology (D’Aloia, Eugeni 2014) an epistemological strategy based on two lines of action. The first one consists of making humanistic approaches controlled and intersubjectively controllable: that is to say, desk analyses would be carried out using a series of protocols that make the procedure replicable and the results controllable; hence, such analyses acquire the characteristics of empirical scientific experiments. In particular, the methods of semiotic analysis of audiovisual texts (which, starting from textual materials, intend to reconstruct a hypothetical model of the viewer’s experience) have proved particularly suitable for this methodical and systematic application (Eugeni 2010). Based on this first line of action, semiotic analysis acquires the status of empiricism similarly to hard science experiments. The second epistemological line of action proposed by neurofilmology consists in constructing a meta-empirical level of reflection, which constitutes an intermediate level between empirical analyses and (philosophical, aesthetic, semiotic, etc.) theories of a higher level of abstraction. At this meta-empirical level, the scholar’s work consists of translating the empirical level’s results into models capable of accounting for the largest possible number of findings in a coherent manner. In METRO_ART, the model of rhythmic profiles of audiovisual texts, their constitution and their effects on the rhythmic experience of the viewer is located precisely within this meta-empirical level. Conversely, these models will be capable of orienting empirical research both in requiring support and confirmation and opening new paths and hypotheses. In this way, bottom-up and top-down approaches complement each other.
METRO_ART will have a solid epistemological impact on interdisciplinary research involving film theory and neurocognitive sciences, as it aims to test a new “meta disciplinary” model of dialogue between human and hard sciences that is not direct but rather mediated by the shared reference to the meta-empirical level of interpretative models. 4. Impacts on practical areas of social life. If we assume, as METRO_ART does, that the rhythm of audiovisual media is critical to shaping different and coexisting types of movement and transformation; and that such shaping concerns both the movements observed and listened to as well as those planned, acted out and experienced proprioceptively by the individuals; it follows that there is a particular effect and a specific scope of audiovisual rhythms in the constitution of rhythmic styles through which individuals feel, think, live, and relate to the world and others. There is a relationship between the rhythmic profiles of audiovisual texts and the wide range of “acceleration” phenomena that seem to characterize contemporary social life (see for instance Rosa, 2013). Even though these aspects are kept in the background of the research, METRO_ART intends to address these social concerns through a series of seminars with creatives, filmmakers, teachers, psychologists and psychiatrists to raise mutual awareness of the potential and risks related to the management of audiovisual rhythms, and the impact of exposure to audiovisual products on, for example, the attention capacity, concentration and emotional hyper-excitement in young people.
Bibliography
Balázs, B. 2010. Béla Balázs: Early Film Theory (1924-1930). New York – Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Balzarotti, S. et al. 2021. “The Editing Density of Moving Images Influences. Viewers’ Time Perception: The Mediating Role of Eye Movements”. Cognitive Science 45, e12969.
Bellour, R. 2009. Le corps du cinéma. Hypnoses, émotions, animalités. Paris: P.O.L.
Bolter, J. D. Engberg, M. MacIntyre, B. 2021. Reality Media. Cambridge (Massachusetts) – London: The MIT Press
Cameron, J. D., Grahn, J. A. 2020. “Perception of Rhythm”. In R. Hartenberger & R. McClelland (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Rhythm. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., pp. 20-38.
Carocci, E. 2018. Il sistema schermo-mente. Cinema narrativo e coinvolgimento emozionale. Roma: Bulzoni.
Ceriani, G. 2019. Il senso del ritmo. Nuova edizione. Milano: Meltemi.
Cowan, M. 2011. Technology’s Pulse: Essays on Rhythm in German Modernism. London: School of Advanced Study – University of London.
Cutting, J. E., Candan, A. 2013. “Movies, Evolution, and Mind: From Fragmentation to Continuity”. The Evolutionary Review 4/3, pp. 25-35.
D’Aloia, A. 2021. Neurofilmology of the Moving Image. Gravity and Vertigo in Contemporary Cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
D’Aloia, A., Eugeni R. 2014. “Neurofilmology: An Introduction.” Cinema & Cie 14, 22/23, pp. 9-27.
Eisenstein S. M. 1991. Towards a Theory of Montage. London: BFI.
Eugeni, R., et al. 2020. “It Doesn’t Seem_It, But It Is. A Neurofilmological Approach to the Subjective Experience of Moving-Image Time”. In Pennisi A., Falzone (eds.). The Extended Theory of Cognitive Creativity: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Performativity. Cham: Springer. pp. 243-265.
Gallese, V., Guerra, M. 2019. The Empathic Screen. Oxford U. P. Oxford – New York.
Georgiev D. D., et al. 2021. “Virtual Reality for Neurorehabilitation and Cognitive Enhancement,” Brain Sciences 11, 2, p. 221.
Greengard, S. 2019 Virtual Reality, Cambridge (Mass.) – London: The MIT Press.
Grodal, T. 1997. Moving Pictures: A New Theory of Film Genres, Feelings and Cognition, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Guido, L. 2007. L’Age du Rythme. Cinéma, musicalité et culture du corps dans les années 1900-1930. Lausanne: Payot.
Hasson, U. 2008. “Neurocinematics: The Neuroscience of Film.” Projections 2, pp. 1-26
Heimann, K. et al. 2014. “Moving Mirrors: A High-density EEG Study Investigating the Effect of Camera Movements on Motor Cortex Activation during Action Observation.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 26(9), pp. 2087-2101.
Heimann, K. Et al. 2019. “Embodying the camera: An EEG study on the effect of camera movements on film spectators ś ensorimotor cortex activation.” PLOS ONE 4(3): e0211026.
Huron, D. 2006. Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. Cambridge (Mass.) – London: MIT Press.
Jacobs, L. 2015. Film Rhythm After Sound: Technology, Music, and Performance. Berkeley – Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Lankinen, K. et al. 2014. “Intersubject consistency of cortical MEG signals during movie viewing”. NeuroImage 92, pp. 217-224.
London, J. 2004. Hearing in Time. Psychological Aspects of Musical Meters. Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press.
Mitry, J. 1963-1965. Esthétique et psychologie du cinema (2 voll.). Paris: Éditions universitaires.
Murch, W. 1995. In the Blink of an Eye. A Perspective on Film Editing. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press.
Nappi F. M. 1985. Tempo e figurazione ritmica del film. Cosenza: Pellegrini.
Nannicelli, T. Taberham, P. (eds.) 2014. Cognitive Media Theory. New York – London: Routledge.
Newen, A. De Bruin, L. Gallagher, S. (eds.) 2018. The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition. Oxford – New York: Oxford U. P.
Pearlman, K. 2016. Cutting Rhythms. Intuitive Film Editing. 2nd ed. Focal Press: New York.
Pearlman, K. 2019. “On rhythm in film editing”. In Carroll, N. et al. (eds). The Palgrave handbook of the philosophy of film and motion pictures. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 143-163.
Raz G. 2019. “Virtual Reality as an Emerging Art Medium and Its Immersive Affordances”. In Noël Carroll et al. (eds). The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures. Springer: London, pp. 995-1013.
Shimamura, A. P. (ed.) 2013. Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at the Movies. New York – Oxford: Oxford U. P.
Smith, M. 2017. Film, art, and the third culture: A naturalized aesthetics of film. Oxford – New York: Oxford U. P.
Smith, T. J. 2012. “Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity”. Projections 1, pp. 1-27.
Hartmut Rosa, H. 2013. Social Acceleration. A New Theory of Modernity, New York: Columbia University Press.
Sobchack, V. 2004. Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. Berkeley – Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Swenberg T., Carlgren, S. 2021. “On-Beat/Off-Beat. Visual Responses to Audio-Visual Asynchrony in Music Videos”. Projections 1, pp. 28-54.
Voinescu, A. et al. 2021. “Virtual Reality in Neurorehabilitation: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses”. Journal of Clinical Medicine 10, 7, 1478.