Both Sean McGrath and Keith Bound will give short talks to the lab.
Sean McGrath
As part of the FAST project, the MRL are hosting a number of artists in residence. One of those collaborations is with an artist Ron Herrema. The talk will focus on an iPad application in development by Ron and in partnership with the MRL called Infinity. Infinity is graphically and sonically generative and follows a similar audiovisual app/artwork of Ron’s previous creation for the iPhone, Dancing Wu Wei, which is freely downloadable from the app store.
The app uses touch interaction to modify the audio/visual elements generated and to create an interactive experience. Infinity explores the concept of user experience from multiple perspectives. As a piece of art, as a tool for contemplation and as a tool for engagement. We are looking for users to engage with the app and take part in both observations and interviews relating to its uses. Expressions of interest should be e-mailed to Sean.McGrath@Nottingham.ac.uk.
Keith Bound - 'TERROR & TENSION': Psychophysiological Suspense: Defining a framework to measure suspense for 21st Century Horror Films
The construction of suspenseful sequences has been a crucial component for filmmaking to engage the viewer, especially within the thriller and horror genres. This thesis takes a new approach to understanding cinematic suspense by creating a psychophysiological model to measure cinematic suspense and viewer experience. To date film scholars and media psychologists have defined the process of suspense in terms of specific story contexts rather than first identifying the components of suspense. This makes it difficult to measure viewer experience. Such theories become selective and open to subjective interpretation and have provided misinterpretations of the phenomenon of suspense (Friedrichsen, 1996: 329). Although film scholars and media psychologists recognise that the experience of suspense involves cognition, emotion and physiology only media psychologists have carried out empirical studies with viewers. Even taking this into consideration there have only been a few psychophysiological studies about the experience of suspense (Kreibig 2010: 408). Furthermore there is a methodological dilemma, with film scholars preferring a qualitative approach, often via film textual analysis, and media psychologists primarily taking a quantitative approach, analysing data sets using statistical models, which film scholars see as offering little contribution to the complexities of film analysis (Smith. M, 2012). These methodological approaches raise the question of whether we can gain a greater insight into the viewer’s experience of suspense by drawing elements from both research methods and identifying the most appropriate methods, procedures and techniques to defining cinematic suspense. The field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) often uses mixed methods approaches to resolve such interdisciplinary differences, especially in gaining a deeper insight into user/viewer experience of narrative trajectories (Benford et al., 2009).
In this context, the thesis takes an inter-disciplinary approach that combines film studies, media psychology, HCI and psychophysiology. By drawing from film studies and media psychology it was possible to identify the components of cinematic suspense and create a framework to measure suspense. Taking an HCI experiment approach in designing and analysing the findings of the 'Terror & Tension' film experiment, 20 viewers watched 32 short film clips from 8 horror films, dispersed through 4 sub-genres and 4 suspense narrative structures, defined by film scholar Susan Smith: vicarious, direct, shared and composite (Smith. S, 2000). Triangulation was used as a mixed methods approach to capture and analyse three data sets which include: Firstly, viewer physiological responses, which were measured in terms of anxiety durability and intensity level by recording viewers’ skin conductance responses (SCRs), a component of electrodermal activity (EDA). The findings were then tested to verify the physiological framework to measure viewer experience of suspense. This then led to the development of an EDA model of suspense. Secondly, viewer feedback was captured through verbal self-reports, which were recorded after watching each film clip. Thirdly, viewers’ physiological responses and feedback were then analysed alongside textual analysis of the film clips to provide a deeper insight into how cinematic suspense is constructed through narrative elements, cinematography, sound and mise-en-scène. The research findings demonstrate that the EDA model of suspense makes a valuable contribution to film analysis and understanding viewer experience of suspense and offers psychophysiology a new framework to measure suspense in terms of anxiety durability and intensity.