Accueil Myth and Audiovisual Creation

Accueil Myth and Audiovisual Creation

Myth and Audiovisual Creation

V International Conference on Mythcriticism

V Congreso Internacional de Mitocrítica "Mito y creación audiovisual"

V. Internationale Kongress der Mythokritik „Mythos und audiovisuelle Gestaltung”

V Congresso Internacional de Mitocrítica "Mito e Criação Audiovisual"

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Publié le jeudi 05 avril 2018

Résumé

Le V Congrès International de Mythocritique “Mythe et création audiovisuelle” est une initiative du Programme de Recherche Acis&Galatea, financé par la Communauté de Madrid et le Fonds Social Européen. Le Congrès s’organisera au tour de 4 sièges selon le thème: “Mythes germaniques” à l´université de Alcalá, “Mythes classiques” à l´université Autónoma, “Mythes bibliques” à l´université Francisco de Vitoria et “Mythes modernes” à l´université Complutense. Les chercheurs peuvent envoyer leur proposition de communication à un des 4 sièges. Leur objectif consistera à analyser le rôle du cinéma, les séries télévisées, les jeux vidéo dans la création et adaptation des mythes anciens, médiévaux et modernes et notre monde contemporain. 

Annonce

Presentation

Image and sound: two of our five external senses are called into play.

As far as our Conference is concerned, we reduce the immense variety of images to a typology: the more traditional ―the image that represents an expected reality― and the more innovative, the image represented by a series of unforeseen associations with no real previous referent. Both images coexist in our imaginary world, and both can replicate (for example in a drawing, a painting, a sculpture) in the real world. We call it visual creation when, in the latter case, an image is coupled with an artistic dimension.

The same observation can be made about the immeasurable variety of sounds, with the peculiarity that sound only exists in the real world, save a few exceptions (some with a pathological origin). This “lack” of sound is compensated by the richness of the voice and by using utensils –or instruments, in the case of art– to generate noises. As with images, we call it audible creation when the generation of sounds is coupled with an artistic dimension.

As if led by the hand, this preliminary observation brings us to the Aristotelian principle of mimesis, that is, human creations (literature, visual, visual arts, and entertainment) as imitation, even when what is depicted does not seem to resemble the model. To a large extent, audiovisual creation is a re-creation of the world from images and sounds.

Audiovisual creation has undergone a spectacular change since the early 20th century: traditional forms (drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.) are now joined by cinema, whose exponential growth requires no explanation.

However, we have witnessed a new revolution since the turn of the century that entails an even greater change in terms of the standardization of content and the versatility of formats. Before, audiovisual creation had to adapt itself to the format: the drawing or the sound, crafted by hand, were retouched and put together later with digital resources. Since the digital revolution, the format easily adapts to the audiovisual creation: drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, theater, opera, cinema, video games, performances, installations and other genres are unthinkable without the support of digital resources.

Cinema –the Seventh Art– has always been intimately tied to technological advances. However, the digital revolution carries more weight than the historical incorporation of sound, color, and television, comparable only to the advance from writing on stone to writing on wood, from wood to paper and from the manuscript to the printing press. The obsolescence of traditional media demands a continuous reinvention of classic processes (production, distribution, and exhibition). It is changing the way films are produced, distributed and marketed. This profound transformation is clearly perceptible in the emergence of a new market for the exploitation of audiovisual content (internet and mobile devices), the emergence of a new consumer profile (digital natives), and the democratization of the means of production (cameras, digital editors, post-production software).

Digital technology’s impact on the process of “making” a film is obvious: it has made it possible to expand the boundaries of creativity and verisimilitude. The digitization of image and sound has created virtual characters that look irresistibly and plausibly real (Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 2001-03; the Na’vi in James Cameron’s Avatar, 2009) on both the big screen and other forms of audiovisual consumption (home TV, smart TV, HD and 3D). These technological advances have also brought forward a paradigm shift in production and distribution: the massive corporations that used to control the entire sector have been forced to make way for the internet, a platform that dissolves boundaries in favor of independent film (Paranormal Activity, Oren Peli, 2007). The versatility of digital media has clearly changed every aspect of audiovisual creation.

This transformation in cinema also affects video games. The reason lies, to a large extent, in the way in which computer communication works. Traditionally, when we produce a text, image or sound we use a traditional alphabetic, iconic or musical code. A second type of codification emerged during industrialization: with the typewriter, we could press a key with a finger to activate a mechanism that pressed a band impregnated with ink on paper. However, the computer age required a third code: the digital system processor (computer, game console, mobile, etc.) translates our keyed or tactile message into a programming language that is subsequently decoded into text, images or sounds. Thus, we use a keyboard or the screen to control the movements of characters in a video game: machine and programs are integrated in a single support. Since these numerical encryption and decryption processes are unperceivable, errors take us by surprise: we confuse the tool (the electronic apparatus) with the transmission of language (the programming code) and mistakenly think that we are the authors of the entire process. Hence the fascination with computing and, consequently, its commercial success.  The gamer is part of the “miracle”, until now only imagined, using a simple manual or tactile gesture to intervene in the adventures where until now he was merely a spectator.

However, we must not forget our main focus: the myth.

The Conference adopts, as a working hypothesis, the following definition of myth:

Explanatory, symbolic and dynamic account of one or various personal and extraordinary events with transcendent referent, that lacks in principle of historical testimony; is made up of a series of invariant elements reducible to themes submitted to crisis; that presents a conflictive, emotive and functional character, and always refers to a cosmogony or to an absolute, particular or universal eschatology.

This definition will be matched with other less canonical definitions that result from the mythification of characters, places and historical events.

At the I International Conference on Mythcriticism (“Myth and Subversion in the Contemporary Novel”, UCM, 09-11/03/11) we established that “myths accuse [the] earthquake [of] the degeneration of classical epistemology”. At the II Conference (“Myth and Interdisciplinarity”, UCM, 29-30/10/12), we saw that “myths relate well to interdisciplinary dynamism”. At the III Conference (“Myths in Crisis: The Crisis of Myth”, 21-24/10/14), we found that “the conditions of adapting” myths can lead to their distortion, subversion, transmutation or elimination. At the IV Conference (“Myth and Emotions”, UCM, 24-28/10/16), we focused on how myths affect us, their recipients. At this V Conference, we turn our attention once again to the study of the transformations of myth in our time; more specifically, we want to determine how the digital revolution ― in particular, film, television series and video games― affects mythical stories.

Scientific Committees

Germanic Myths | Universidad de Alcalá | 15 – 17 October

  • Andreas Grünewald | Universität Bremen
  • Berta Raposo | University of Valencia
  • Carlos Duque | Centro Katarina Gurska
  • Claudia Francisca Cabezón Doty | University Heidelberg
  • Ingrid Cáceres Würsig | University of Alcalá
  • John Parham | University of Worcester
  • Magda Polo | University of Barcelona
  • Marisol Morales | University of Alcalá
  • Miguel Salmerón | University Autónoma de Madrid
  • Paloma Ortiz-de-Urbina | University of Alcalá
  • Susanne Cadera | University Pontificia de Comillas
  • Carmen Flys Junquera | University of Alcalá

Classical Myths | Universidad Autónoma | 17 – 19 October

  • Antonio Alvar Ezquerra | Universidad de Alcalá
  • Anton Bierl | Universität Basel
  • Luc Brisson | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
  • Richard Buxton | University of Bristol
  • Emilio Crespo Güemes | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  • Baudouin Decharneux | Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • Paloma Díaz-Mas | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
  • José Emilio Esteban Enguita | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  • Claudia N. Fernández | Universidad Nacional de La Plata
  • Miguel García-Baró López | Universidad Pontificia Comillas
  • David Hernández de la Fuente | Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Patxi Lanceros Méndez | Universidad de Deusto
  • Esther Sánchez-Pardo González  | Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  • Angelo Valastro Canale | Universidad Pontificia Comillas
  • José María Zamora Calvo | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Biblical Myths | Universidad Francisco de Vitoria | 22 – 23 October

  • Florencio Sánchez L. C. | University Francisco de Vitoria
  • Salvador Antuñano | University Francisco de Vitoria
  • Devin Roza | Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum
  • Cristóbal Vilarroig | Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum
  • Ángel Barahona | University Francisco de Vitoria
  • David García-Ramos | University Católica de Valencia
  • David Atienza | University of Guam 
  • Belén Mainer | University Francisco de Vitoria
  • Pedro Gómez  | University Francisco de Vitoria
  • Luis Sánchez Navarro | Universidad Eclesiástica San Dámaso
  • Pablo Montenegro | University Francisco de Vitoria
  • José Miguel Mohedano | University Francisco de Vitoria

Modern Myths | Universidad Complutense | 24 – 26 October

  • Peter Arnds | Trinity College 
  • Pierre Brunel | University of La Sorbona
  • Leon Burnett | University of Essex
  • Vicente Cristóbal | University Complutense 
  • Rosa Fernández Urtasun | University of Navarra 
  • Véronique Gély | University of La Sorbona
  • José Manuel Losada | University Complutense
  • Antonella Lipscomb | University Antonio de Nebrija 
  • Francisco Molina | University Complutense
  • Carmen Rivero | University of Münster
  • Metka Zupancic | University of Alabama
  • Esther MacCallum-Stewart | Staffordshire University
  • David Wilkinson | Durham University

The Conference will take place between the 15th and 26th of October 2018. We will be holding various complementary activities, such as a film projection, a short film contest or an art exposition, among many others.

Send your abstract on the website of the Conference!

https://mythcriticism.com

Submission of Proposals

The submission deadline for registration forms and abstracts is 1st of May, 2018.

You can download the registration form in the following link: https://mythcriticism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Registration_English.pdf

The abstract of the communication will be 1000 characters (with spaces) or less.

Researchers under 25 years can apply for a grant. They need to send a copy of their ID or Passport together with the registration form. If accepted, their fee will be 50€ instead of 150€.

You will have to send the registration form to the e-mail of the venue where you wish to register:

Germanic Myths: mj.fernandezg@uam.es

Classical Myths: uam.mito@gmail.com

Biblical Myths: iai@ufv.es

Modern Myths: antonella_lipscomb@hotmail.com

For general inquiries about the Conference that are not related to a specific venue, contact Adrián García Vidal (adriangv@acisgalatea.com).

Lieux

  • Campus de Cantoblanco, Calle Francisco Tomás y Valiente, 1
    Madrid, Espagne (28049, Madrid)
  • Plaza de San Diego, s/n
    Alcalá de Henares, Espagne (28801)
  • Carretera Pozuelo a Majadahonda, Km 1.800
    Pozuelo de Alarcón, Espagne (28223)

Dates

  • mardi 01 mai 2018

Mots-clés

  • myth, mythcriticism, humanities, conference, tv series, film, movies, video games, mythology, mitología, mitocrítica, congreso internacional, cine, videojuegos

Contacts

  • García Vidal Adrián
    courriel : adriangv [at] acisgalatea [dot] com

Source de l'information

  • García Vidal Adrián
    courriel : adriangv [at] acisgalatea [dot] com

Licence

CC0-1.0 Cette annonce est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universel.

Pour citer cette annonce

« Myth and Audiovisual Creation », Appel à contribution, Calenda, Publié le jeudi 05 avril 2018, https://doi.org/10.58079/zwr

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