Emotional Machines - Composing for Unstable Media.

Thorolf Thuestad

Emotional machines – composing for unstable media. Thorolf Thuestad In partial fulfilment of PhD in artistic research The Grieg Academy, Department of Music, Faculty of Art, Music, and Design, University of Bergen, 2021 The artistic research project Emotional machines - composing for unstable media explores how non-representational kinetic objects may afford affective and emotional responses, in particular experiences of kinship and relation between an audience and animated objects. Further possibilities for artistic expression are opened through composition and dramaturgy, in works where the animated objects perform alongside human performers and other media, such as light and sound. How may such animated non-representational physical objects be developed? How does animating the physical objects change the potential for experience of kinship and relation between audience and object? How does context modulate the potential for experience of kinship and relation between audience and animated physical object? How does the potential experience of kinship with the animated object differ for the creator of the object, and audience? These questions have been investigated through the creation of a set of animated kinetic figures. These figures have performed in a series of artistic presentations such as gallery exhibitions and stage presentations. The artistic research concludes with two complementary public artistic presentations taking place in bergen in June/July 2021; a time-based stage production at Cornerteatret and a gallery exhibition at Lydgalleriet. The presentations are considered connected and have the common title For one – for many – for all. This is an exposition of the research that presents the kinetic figures, the process of developing them, the questions they have contributed to explore, resulting artistic works (with particular emphasis on the final artistic presentations taking place in June/July 2021), the additional artists contributing to these public presentations, and a series of reflections resulting from the research. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emotional machines – composing for unstable media Thorolf Thuestad. Denne eksposisjonen presenteres som del av gjennomføring av doktorgrad i kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid ved Griegakademiet, Institutt for musikk, Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design, Universitetet i Bergen, 2021. Emotional machines - composing for unstable media utforsker hvordan ikke-representative kinetiske objekter kan skape affektive og emosjonelle responser hos mennesker. Spesifikt opplevelse av slektskap og relasjon mellom et publikum og animerte objekter. Det åpnes ytterligere muligheter for kunstneriske uttrykk gjennom komposisjon og dramaturgi i verk der de animerte objektene opptrer sammen med menneskelige utøvere og andre medier, som lys og lyd. Hvordan kan animerte ikke-representative fysiske objekter utvikles med dette startpunktet som inspirasjon? Hvordan endrer animasjon av de fysiske objektene potensialet for opplevelse av slektskap og relasjon mellom publikum og objekt? Hvordan modulerer konteksten de animerte objektene presenteres i potensialet for opplevelse av slektskap og relasjon? Hvordan er den potensielle opplevelsen av slektskap med det animerte objektet forskjellig for skaperen(e) av objektet, og publikum? I Emotional machines – composing for unstable media har spørsmålene har blitt undersøkt ved hjelp av en gruppe animerte kinetiske figurer. Disse figurene har opptrådt i en rekke kunstneriske sammenhenger hovedsakelig galleriutstillinger og scenepresentasjoner. Prosjektet ble avsluttet med to utfyllende offentlige kunstneriske presentasjoner som fant sted i Bergen i juni/juli 2021: En tidsbasert sceneproduksjon vist på Cornerteatret og en galleriutstilling vist på Lydgalleriet. Presentasjonene er tilknyttet hverandre og har fellestittelen For one – for many – for all. Denne eksposisjonen presenterer de kinetiske figurene, prosessen med å utvikle dem, spørsmålene de har bidratt til å utforske, resulterende kunstneriske verk (med særlig vekt på de endelige kunstneriske presentasjonene i juni/juli 2021), kunstnerne som bidro til disse offentlige presentasjonene samt en rekke refleksjonstekster drevet frem av arbeidet med prosjektet.

Narrative

Narration in this exposition describes the potential for ascribing intent to the animated figures' physical movements and, by extension, experiencing the movements as part of a context creating a personalized experience of narrative framework.

In 1944 in their paper An Experimental Study in Apparent Behaviour,1 psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel presented a study that made use of a simple animation film consisting of two triangles, a circle and a larger rectangle making various on-screen movements. The participants were asked to interpret what was happening as simple shapes roamed about the screen, and the study revealed how the participants quickly interpreted the shapes' movements as a story unfolding. The shapes became characters with emotions, motivations and purpose. As the triangles and circle entered the rectangle, almost everybody watching the film would interpret the simple geometric shapes as animate beings, in most cases humans (in a few instances as animals), and the rectangle their habitat or house. The participants assigned agency and motivation to the geometric shapes. The participants in the study would develop narratives describing complex interpersonal relationships between the shapes, and in most cases, vivid backstories for what was perceived as their actions. The two triangles and the circle were seen as harbouring specific personality traits and states of mind.

For me, the experiment demonstrates the human instinct to form relational bonds to (moving) objects, even abstract ones, by a seemingly innate tendency for humanization. I find the most intriguing aspect of the experiment to be the tendency for creating strong narrative momentum when interpreting what happens in the film and that these narratives, for the most part, strongly differed from observer to observer. I believe this experiment demonstrates the possibility of creating the experience of an engaging narrative that is different for each person, despite them encountering the same material, in this case, a film.

Narrative in this project is the individual creation process of those who experience the figures as they create their own interpretation. I hope that anyone encountering the figures and compositions in which they are featured will experience forming relational bonds, imagining what the figures may be or want. I do not purport to transmit narrative specifics, such as a storyline for an audience to have a shared understanding of. But it is my hope and ambition that each mind either consciously or subconsciously forms its own narrative around what the figures and performers are and what they are doing.

In creating the figures, I have intuitively gravitated towards making shapes that are ambiguous and unfamiliar. I hope that this reticence on the figures' part can create the desire to engage imaginatively in those who experience them. That their vagueness can serve as a vessel for a multiplicity of narratives as different minds create different frameworks in which the figures' presence and actions occur. I consider the possibilities inherent in ambiguity as an important artistic expressive means, and a core field of enquiry within this research project.

Still from animation film used by Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel in An experimental study in apparent behavior.2

Tip

Tip

Narrative