During Bulgaria’s transition period (1990-2007), contemporary artistic practices were not seen as valuable symbolic capital, causing friction between the state and the contemporary artistic...Show moreDuring Bulgaria’s transition period (1990-2007), contemporary artistic practices were not seen as valuable symbolic capital, causing friction between the state and the contemporary artistic community. A museum for contemporary art did not exist, marking contemporary artists as invisible. In response, the artist Ivan Moudov expressed institutional critique towards the scarce state funding and the absence of a museum through the staging of a fake museum opening (MUSIZ) at an empty railway station. Moudov’s action amassed over 300 attendees who were unconsciously organised into a community. This thesis will argue that by affectively involving the attendees of MUSIZ into participation and granting the audience agency in relation to the setting and the public, Moudov created a ground for social engagement that empowered his audience. The presence of affect and social engagement are crucial agents in achieving positive social transformation for the contemporary cultural community, as will be discussed through the outcome of this performance.Show less
This study looks at how otaku relate to and engage works, building on previous research showing that affect is the lynchpin for otaku, the axis around which their engagement with works revolves....Show moreThis study looks at how otaku relate to and engage works, building on previous research showing that affect is the lynchpin for otaku, the axis around which their engagement with works revolves. Through mainly looking at anime this matter will be approached from a film studies perspective. This study takes the Narrative consumption and Database consumption theories, by Ōtsuka Eiji and Azuma Hiroki respectively and underpins(integrates) them with Carl Plantinga’s theory on affect elicitation, thus demonstrating that Plantinga’s theory is absolutely imperative to making these theories function and creating an ‘integrative theoretical framework’.Show less
This thesis analyses the photographic series Flesh Love (2011-) by Japanese artist Haruhiko Kawaguchi (川口晴彦) as a case study that allows the audience to involuntary confront or imagine death...Show moreThis thesis analyses the photographic series Flesh Love (2011-) by Japanese artist Haruhiko Kawaguchi (川口晴彦) as a case study that allows the audience to involuntary confront or imagine death without actually including the death of the subjects photographed in the artwork. The photographed imagery is characterised by the suffocation of people in the airless bag. By analysing the case, the thesis aims to illustrate strategies to make the audience imagine death without the existence of death. The main argument of this thesis is that although the photographic series Flesh Love does not include the actual death of subjects, it successfully creates the capacity to allow the viewers to imagine death. In order to argue this point, this thesis looks at the elements that contribute to making the audience confront death through three approaches: (1) photographic images, (2) production process and the medium of photography and (3) affective capacity of the audience.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2023-08-30T00:00:00Z
When we read a book of history, we produce a mental image of the past we read about. That mental image is informed by the text. Sometimes, when we read a book of history, the text is so vivid, the...Show moreWhen we read a book of history, we produce a mental image of the past we read about. That mental image is informed by the text. Sometimes, when we read a book of history, the text is so vivid, the descriptions so penetrating, that we are left with more than an image: emotion, thought, realisation. The text has affected us. This act of communication, the communication of ‘historical experience,' is the focus point of this thesis. To explore this fascinating concept, the main case study is Johan Huizinga's Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen. The choice for this work is twofold: one, Johan Huizinga is the first person to introduce the concept of historical experience, which he called historische sensatie; two, Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen is a work of history known for its affective use of language. Focussing on those textual elements that drive historical experience, this paper will explore how Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen is able to convey this affect of the (imagined) past. Further, the Dutch source text will be compared to the three English translations to see how historical experience transfers in a translation process.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
closed access
De BLM-protesten van 2020 als reactie op de moord op George Floyd door Derek Chauvin hebben een uitzonderlijk karakter. Door de spectrale werking van de beelden, waarin Floyd zowel levend als dood...Show moreDe BLM-protesten van 2020 als reactie op de moord op George Floyd door Derek Chauvin hebben een uitzonderlijk karakter. Door de spectrale werking van de beelden, waarin Floyd zowel levend als dood te zien is, is hij een ambigue aan- en afwezigheid bij de protesten. Aan de hand van theorieën van Butler en Derrida's conceptie van spectraliteit onderzoekt deze scriptie de werking van de viraal-gegane videobeelden in de wereldwijde protesten. Floyds "specter" opent de meervoudige potentiële loop van de geschiedenis en daarmee roept het een noodzaak voor vrijheid alsook een waarschuwing voor onrechtvaardigheid op.Show less
Empirical evidence shows that exposure to natural environments can improve affect and stress, especially for people suffering from depressive symptoms. Research on the restorative effect of natural...Show moreEmpirical evidence shows that exposure to natural environments can improve affect and stress, especially for people suffering from depressive symptoms. Research on the restorative effect of natural environments in relation to depressive symptoms may prove useful for urban populations in which depressive symptoms are relatively more prevalent while natural environments are less accessible. The present study aims to offer insight into how depressive symptoms influence the restorative effects of natural environments on affect and stress compared to urban environments. An online questionnaire was used to measure depressive symptoms as well as affect and feelings of stress before and after exposure to a series of photographs of either natural or busy urban environments. Participants (N = 230) were divided in four groups based on presence of depressive symptoms (depressed, nondepressed) and type of environment (natural, urban). A Kruskal-Wallis test with post-hoc procedures was applied to assess differences between groups in affect and stress change. Results show no difference in affect and stress change between depressed and nondepressed groups. Negative affect and stress decreased in the nature condition. Positive affect decreased while stress increased in the urban condition. The findings suggest that natural environment can indeed improve affect and stress while urban environments can be detrimental, regardless of depressive symptoms.Show less
Empirical evidence shows that exposure to natural environments can improve affect and stress, especially for people suffering from depressive symptoms. Research on the restorative effect of natural...Show moreEmpirical evidence shows that exposure to natural environments can improve affect and stress, especially for people suffering from depressive symptoms. Research on the restorative effect of natural environments in relation to depressive symptoms may prove useful for urban populations in which depressive symptoms are relatively more prevalent while natural environments are less accessible. The present study aims to offer insight into how depressive symptoms influence the restorative effects of natural environments on affect and stress compared to urban environments. An online questionnaire was used to measure depressive symptoms as well as affect and feelings of stress before and after exposure to a series of photographs of either natural or busy urban environments. Participants (N = 230) were divided in four groups based on presence of depressive symptoms (depressed, nondepressed) and type of environment (natural, urban). A Kruskal-Wallis test with post-hoc procedures was applied to assess differences between groups in affect and stress change. Results show no difference in affect and stress change between depressed and nondepressed groups. Negative affect and stress decreased in the nature condition. Positive affect decreased while stress increased in the urban condition. The findings suggest that natural environment can indeed improve affect and stress while urban environments can be detrimental, regardless of depressive symptoms.Show less
(Domesticated) animals play a remarkable role alongside human characters in the novel 'De geluiden van de eerste dag' (1975), by Dutch author Anton Koolhaas. In dominant anthropocentric discourses...Show more(Domesticated) animals play a remarkable role alongside human characters in the novel 'De geluiden van de eerste dag' (1975), by Dutch author Anton Koolhaas. In dominant anthropocentric discourses subjectivity (the active, desire driven perception and experience of reality) and individuality of non-human animals often get erased. However, this doesn't seem to be the case in 'De geluiden van de eerste dag'. In this thesis, I aim to formulate an answer to the question: 'Does the novel 'De geluiden van de eerste dag', by Anton Koolhaas, represent and thematize an anti-anthropocentric human-animal-relationship?' This study shows that the novel attributes agency and subjectivity to non-human animals, while (to a certain extent) respecting their species-specific susceptibilities, modes of communication and behavior. Overall the novel takes an ethical stance against mechanical animal exploitation and promotes an empathic relationship to other animals. I draw specific attention to the way aggression is connected to agency, the constitution of the subject and to the creative act of taking up space (Umwelt). I also emphasize how language and anthropomorphism (in and via literature) contribute to the constitution of subjectivity, agency and individuality of non-human and human animals.Show less
This thesis focuses on the contemporary queer photography of the artists Zanele Muholi, Momo Okabe, and Zach Blas. More specifically, it examines the role of different theories on gender, queerness...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the contemporary queer photography of the artists Zanele Muholi, Momo Okabe, and Zach Blas. More specifically, it examines the role of different theories on gender, queerness, and photography in connection to queer time and space, haptics, affect, and queer opacity. These aesthetic elements are treated as potentially subversive in relation to Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the society of control. The frameworks of both queer and photography theories are employed to analyze the photographs’ formal and political aspects in order to explore their subversive possibilities. My readings and analysis of the photographs suggest that each of these artists deploys aesthetic features as queer tactics to resist the society of control. Additionally, based on the analysis of my own photographic series, Showering with Glasses (2018), I provide an artist’s perspective on possible methods to approach queer aesthetics and the ways in which they might be harnessed as queer tactics. By specifically addressing contemporary queer photography, my hope is to provide insight into what this genre is capable of achieving in the real world.Show less
Aiming to develop an ecofeminist lens of lens-based art, this thesis analyses how the choice of a specific medium enhances the communication of concepts relating to the relationship between humans,...Show moreAiming to develop an ecofeminist lens of lens-based art, this thesis analyses how the choice of a specific medium enhances the communication of concepts relating to the relationship between humans, or women specifically, and nature. The implications of presenting the female body in nature are discussed through an amalgamation of (eco-)feminist theory and three established topics within media studies: representation, the moving image in the museum, and the affective turn. From representation in photography to affect in video art installation, the growing possibilities of lens-based art are argued to work towards more complex and critical artistic explorations of the relationship between the female body and nature.Show less
Jonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” is a chronological, retrospective account of Edwards’ spiritual life interposed with comments and reflections on his experiences with the Divine. He describes...Show moreJonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” is a chronological, retrospective account of Edwards’ spiritual life interposed with comments and reflections on his experiences with the Divine. He describes multiple powerful, highly emotional encounters as he recounts his religious development from his childhood to the present. It stands as a central text of eighteenth-century spirituality, a touchstone of religious thinking in this period. This thesis argues that concerns with the fallibility of language are central to Jonathan Edwards’ “Personal Narrative” (c.1740), as he struggles adequately to describe spiritual experience in words even as that experience is said to go beyond language, including in its emotional and bodily effects.Show less
This thesis focuses on vernacular photographs that have been altered by artists stitching various forms of embroidery directly into the photographic paper, creating an interplay of thread, paper,...Show moreThis thesis focuses on vernacular photographs that have been altered by artists stitching various forms of embroidery directly into the photographic paper, creating an interplay of thread, paper, and image. The combination of these opposing traits into a single work subverts the viewer’s assumptions about both mediums, and constitutes a specific spectator experience. I utilise theories from film, photography, painting, and digital media that deal with materiality and embodiment in order to examine what is at work in an embodied spectator experience with specific works from four artists using varied approaches. My hope is to provide insight into potential avenues and outcomes for embodiment with both these objects in particular and embroidered photographs more broadly.Show less
