SUPER(IM)POSITIONS: Subverting Melodramatic Representation Through Personal Unpredictability
(2024)
author(s): Emilio Santoyo
published in: Research Catalogue
This Artistic Research in and through cinema explores the possibilities of using outdated melodramatic elements of cinematic representation in a new way, dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional as a tool for creating a redemptive act of filmmaking. "Super (im) positions: Subverting melodramatic representation through personal unpredictability" delves into the transformative potential of these elements within cinematic representation. By dissolving the boundaries between the personal and the fictional, this work engages in a redemptive act of filmmaking that reimagines melodrama. The approach employs a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language to propose a new form of melodrama—one that acknowledges its inherent perversity to challenge and deconstruct its toxic narratives.
Rooted in the pervasive influence of telenovelas and melodrama, particularly within Mexican culture, this exploration questions and critiques the genre's impact on cultural and individual perceptions of love and relationships. The research was catalysed by a significant personal and professional rupture, leading to a critical examination of the genre's conventions.
By employing a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language, Santoyo reimagines melodrama as a genre capable of portraying complex, personal emotions and generating critical, boundary-pushing narratives. This self-reflective genre deviation, temporarily termed the "New Melodrama," seeks to subvert traditional melodramatic tropes by acknowledging and confronting their perverse nature. Through this approach, Santoyo aims to dismantle the toxic knowledge perpetuated by conventional melodrama, offering a sophisticated and nuanced critique from within the genre itself. His work presents a trojan horse strategy, using the familiar systems of melodramatic representation to question and ultimately transform them, proposing a relevant and self-aware cinematic experience.
Through innovative use of superimpositions and a deliberate deconstruction of melodramatic mise-en-scène, this study aims to create a critical and self-reflective genre deviation termed "New Melodrama." This method seeks to subvert traditional cinematic conventions by integrating multiple perspectives and temporalities, fostering a richer, more complex narrative experience. Ultimately, the research stands as a trojan horse within the film industry, using the very mechanics of melodrama to critique and reinvent it, offering a fresh, introspective take on a genre often dismissed as superficial.
Melliferopolis – collaborating with uncontrollable, flying, stinging insects
(2020)
author(s): Christina Stadlbauer
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition explores encounters between humans and insects, in the framework of a long term project around honeybees in urban contexts called Melliferopolis. The interventions proposed by Melliferopolis create shared spaces of encounters for Bees and Humans. The choice to work with these insects in an urban and participatory setting creates situations that are surprising, unpredictable or challenge concepts of "safety". The exposition aims to develop an understanding for risks that arise when collaborating with non human animals, explores reactions to situations that are not entirely controllable and elaborates on notions of safety, hazard and unpredictability within practice based artistic research. As the territory to investigate these questions we look at interventions, performances and installations produced in public spaces in the city of Helsinki in the framework of Melliferopolis since 2012.
Tales of the unexpected (public version)
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Hans Koolmees
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The starting point for this research was mainly practical: exploration and mapping of the possibilities of electronics, the combination with acoustic instruments, and the application of this knowledge and skills in new compositions. After one year it became clear that this original plan needed to be adjusted. An essential characteristic of electronic instruments is their relative unpredictability, and this should therefore be taken into account when investigating the integration of electronics in a composed environment. This lead to an expansion of the research field:
1. Exploring, editing and applying the possibilities of electronics in compositions.
2. How to deal with factors such as unpredictability, improvisation, freedom, coincidence, intuition and control.
As a result of this research I have expanded my knowledge and skills in working with electronics, and I applied this in a series of new compositions for electronics, and for electronics and voice. It also gave new insights on the balance between control and improvisation, and thus provided a possible answer to the research question.
An unforeseen by-product of the research is the reflection on the communication between musician and instrument, and by analogy, the communication between composer and music, or, better formulated: the role of the composer in the balance between the musical imagination and the musical result.
Beside the musical content, the topic of this research is the reflection on the process itself: it also sheds new light on the relation between composing and researching.