Artistic Purposes Research Articles

<i>Otherness</i> as Basis of Artistic Chronotope: Script vs. Film

The article describes the existential category of the Other and the Otherness in V. Sorokin's screenplay for the film called 4, which was directed by I. Hrzhanovsky in 2004. The Otherness helped V. Sorokin to realize his artistic idea of post-Soviet Russia. According to Jean Paul Sartre, the Other conveys a feeling of the last days: without a single scene of physical violence, the reader develops a feeling of nausea. The essence of the Other is based on the principles of rejection, fear, and inevitability; the Other is the only verifier of one’s existence. In 4, the frightening atmosphere of the Other World is created by such artistic means as coding, dying, masking, and deconstruction of symmetry. They highlight the artistic intent to portray the chaotic nature of being and the absence of time, where human fate is meaningless, and people are reduced to functions in the game of life. The Otherness of the chronotype gives the script and the film a new code: the loss of the holy number four desacralizes existence, thus condemning the world and people in it to a life of hopeless dismay.

Understanding the Roles of Genius and Taste in the Production of Beauty: A Kantian Approach to Artistic Intention

Understanding the Roles of Genius and Taste in the Production of Beauty: A Kantian Approach to Artistic Intention

Correspondence of Linguistic Content and Creative Narratives of Composer Yuriy Shevchenko

The purpose of the article is to determine the correspondence between the linguistic content and creative narratives of the contemporary Ukrainian composer Yuriy Shevchenko, taking into account the general intentions in music as an emotional mood. It also aims to investigate the linguistic content of the composer expressed in interviews in close connection with the reading of the artistic intent of the composer's work. The research methodology is related to the study of human thinking, the consideration of narrative as a certain discursive structure that is formed on the basis of a person's own experience, and is presented by systematic and comparative approaches that help to determine the specifics of certain compositional structures in music in comparison with the author's approach to his own creativity in the linguistic content of the interview. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the disclosure of narratives in the author’s music, taking into account the composer's thinking, his feelings and socio-cultural influences on his work, for example, in the author's appeal to fairy-tale "worlds" as a sign-sound space. Conclusions. The existence of social contradictions leads to the emergence of the idea of "pure classics" among composers and is expressed in the appeal to symbolic attitudes through the synthetic genres of theatre, opera, ballet, and musical. The narratives of new thinking are also expressed in the composer's frank interviews, as opposed to the music itself, in which these directions are expressed in a veiled playful form. Key words: linguistic content, creative narratives, intentions in music, symbolic settings, synthetic genres.

Размышление об этических аспектах принятия аналитической философской концепции в романе У. Гэсса «Тоннель»

The aim of the study is to determine the significance of the philosophical problem of language and speech in William Gass’s novel “The Tunnel” as central to understanding the ideological and artistic intent of the work. The scientific originality consists in demonstrating the conceptual importance of the writer’s use of the foundations of an analytical philosophical approach to the interpretation of language in the creation of characters’ artistic images and emplotment. The main character’s focus on the word as the only true reality leads him to philosophical insights, but at the same time to loneliness, solipsism, loss of moral criteria in reasoning about man and history. The central image of the tunnel in the novel becomes a symbol of life in linguistic reality as a world that gives a sense of freedom within itself, but does not allow going beyond its limits. As a result, we prove that it is the problem of language, interpreted in the light of the author’s contemporary analytical tradition, that acts as the key one in understanding the idea of the novel, which gives the work a genuine philosophical depth. Gass shares the opinion of the followers of analytical philosophy about the primary role of language in the formation of a person’s worldview, but at the same time, he points out the importance of preserving traditional ideas about morality and ethics.

Мастерство концертмейстера и аккомпаниатора как феномен современного музыкального искусства

Nowadays, the mastery of the concertmaster and accompanist is one of the most important criteria of modern musical art. The concertmaster strives to realize the artistic intent of the composition and becomes a full partici-pant of any musical ensemble, realizing the figurative content of the performed composition. Despite all the versatility of this figure, the number of studies examining the concertmaster’s performing activity in contempo-rary music-performing practice is currently insignificant. Nevertheless, there is reason to argue that scholars need to scrupulously investigate this phenomenon of contemporary musical art in order to further understand and actualize the activity of the pianist-concertmaster-accompanist in performing practice. For these reasons, the present work is of indisputable scientific novelty and relevance. The author stresses that a concertmaster combines many functions, and is primarily focused on creating a harmonious interpretation of the musical work being performed in conjunction with the pianist or vocalist. The versatility of the concertmaster figure ensures his demand as a specialist in the musical environment, and hence, this profession should be in demand among students as well.

Shakespeare and the New Palace of Westminster (1834–1927)

ABSTRACT This article explores how the art and architecture of the New Palace of Westminster (home to the UK’s Houses of Parliament) evoke a theatrical experience underpinned by ‘Shakespearean’ aesthetics. Over a series of artistic commissions from the 1840s to the 1920s, artists instrumentalised Shakespeare both explicitly and implicitly as part of the wider schemes within which they worked. Doing so, they visualised and even theatricalised the political and artistic aims of their commissioners and sought to project a unified sense of national history and contemporary aesthetic taste. The three case studies from within the Palace discussed here therefore offer a concentrated reception history of Shakespeare. This reading of the Palace’s visual arts thereby sharpens our understanding of Shakespeare’s developing roles in British national conception. It brings together print, theatrical, and art history with attention to architecture and design, as well as archival details, to offer an interdisciplinary analysis of Shakespeare’s role in constitutional expressions of British identity – not least during a major period of imperial activity and at the very seat of parliamentary power.

Colloquiality as a concept of the history of language

Speech phenomena have long been the object of consideration in the history of literary language. They were interpreted as phenomena of vernacular speech, since the subject of this branch of linguistics is the study of the ways of formation of literary language against the background of interaction with spoken language, which has areal and social differentiation. The need to use the terms vernacular language, vernacular element, vernacular style disappeared due to two factors: 1) the researchers linked these concepts with a certain abstract model in the general picture of the history of the literary language, the formation of the Ukrainian literary language based on written sources and the influence of the language of folklore; 2) in stylistics, a colloquial (colloquial and everyday) style of literary language was distinguished, which is based on oral colloquial everyday language with territorial and social variants. The purpose of the article is to describe the relationship between the functional and stylistic category "vernacular" and the historical-linguistic concept "vernacular". Materials and methods. The use of the term "eloquence" in modern linguistic stylistics is interpreted through the use of methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization of scientific theories. Conclusions. Colloquiality is a category that unites units of literary and non-literary oral conversational and everyday sphere of use in their stylistic function (nominative, emotional-expressive, socio-cultural and communicative-pragmatic). The appearance of language units with a colloquial register in this or that micro-context is motivated by the writer's artistic intention, the chosen theme of the work, stylized communicative situations in which it unfolds.

Kafka’s Ape Meets the Natyashastra

To the Academy is a multi-media performance work that makes poignant and humorous commentary about education, common paradigms of diversity, and the oppressive nature of institutional labor. Created through a dialogue between myself, an Indian American with training in various forms of physical theatre and Indian dance, and Guyanese-Canadian actor Marc Gomes, it has been performed at several universities and arts centers since 2015. In this essay, I will interrogate the ways in which we place select elements of “Indian tradition” at the service of the piece’s overarching theme of histories of European domination, asking whether making these cultural materials subservient to our political agenda constitutes a form of appropriation. I examine three components of the work: the character of the classical Indian dancer who appears in the first section of the show, the explicit references to the ancient Sanskrit treatise on performance, the Natyashastra, and the framing of both these elements within our adaptation of Franz Kafka’s story, “Report to an Academy,” about an ape who learns to impersonate humans. In so doing, I explore the ethical responsibilities artists of color have in working with intercultural aesthetics. Furthermore, I assert the inevitably ambivalent nature of activist performance, even if artists aim to resist hegemonic structures.

The image of water in the Ukrainian postmodern novel

The purpose of the article is to define and systematize the artistic features and functions of water images on the material of Ukrainian postmodernist novels, in particular, in the novels “Twelve Hoops”, “Moscovyada” and “Radio Night” by Yu. Andrukhovych, “Mesopotamia” and “Voroshylovgrad” by S. Zhadan, “AMtm” by Yu. Izdryk, “Tango of Death” and “Lutetsia” by Yu. Vynnychuk. The authors trace how artistic and figurative codes rooted in the oldest layers of Ukrainian culture are transformed into author’s models of the image of water, which are subject to the artistic purpose of the novels, combine with other images, form more complex image combinations, and fulfill artistic tasks on the verge of artistic genres. The similarities and differences in the use of water images in a number of novels are revealed. The images of the river, the sea and water as element and substance are interpreted as frequently used, multilayered, multifunctional, multigenre and those that create a genre accent of mysticism in the novels, actualize mythological levels of perception of the depicted, emphasize the connection with the otherworldly and transcendent, manifest the extraordinary abilities of the person interacting with it and testify to the possibility of endowing with these properties, of being a trans-level means of moving through the worlds and a source of life.

Baudelaire, Manet and the Visual Object

ABSTRACT This article begins by providing a contextual account of the different ways in which contemporaries of Baudelaire and Manet subscribed to a widespread, though not universal, assumption that the two shared common artistic aims. The article then seeks to establish aesthetic parallels between Manet’s La Musique aux Tuileries (1862) and Baudelaire’s ‘Le Thyrse’ (1863). Sidestepping the vexed question of the extent to which Manet may be seen as an embodiment of Baudelaire’s peintre de la vie moderne, the analysis focuses on the heterodox function of the visual object in triggering a self-reflexive representation of an act of seeing.

INDIVIDUALITY OF WORD USE IN MARKHABAT BAIGUT'S PROSE

The article shows the artistic purpose and aesthetic, cognitive functions of the use of dialect, obsolete words and neologisms (author's neologisms) in Markhabat Baigut’s works, and their specific stylistic features are determined by examples. On the basis of the writer's works, the place of language usages, which are the subject of research, in the general Kazakh literature and writer's creativity is determined. Markhabat Baigut often talks about his characters not because of their origin, wealth, or career, but because of their morality, conscience, spiritual and moral harmony, individual qualities, and character traits. This is a unique aspect of the writer's skill. The writer skillfully and comprehensively uses the lexical wealth of the common language. It is proven that the writer used dialect words to describe people's living conditions, to show more clearly the spiritual and cultural skills unique to a certain region, and to depict the true nature of ordinary people. During the analysis of the old words used by the writer, who found a shortcut to convey the truth to his students without any coloring, in detail, in natural state, the credo of the author is revealed, which glorifies the national value and supports the renewal of the old. The meanings of historical and archaic words with a predominant stylistic color are revealed, and their artistic function and content load are analyzed. Apart from the neologisms that entered our language with the breath of the times, the order of use and expressive tone of author's new words are described in a broad way. As a result, it is proved that the lexical groups found in the language of the character, in the author's narrative, play an important role in explaining the individual characteristics of the master’s style.

Gambiarra and the In(ter)dependent Condition

This article analyzes the relationships of interdependence between musicians and natural or artificial agents of their environment. Considering processes of recycling and refunctionalization of materials with artistic purposes, such relationships are observed in the construction of instruments involving gambiarra in their manufacturing, with a focus on the specific case of an experimental music duo, Senyawa. The paper is theoretically and epistemically grounded in studies focusing on gambiarra, media and ecology, and media archaeology. The methodological procedures encompass analyses of instrument manufacturing processes developed by Wukir Suryadi, one of the members of Senyawa. As a contribution to studies of sound and culture, the article concludes that, through creative practices involving obsolete media materialities, gambiarra processes allow us to observe the continuous relationships between technology and nature in the design and manufacturing of technical artifacts.

Present Pasts of Colonial Modernity: Embroideries by Lucie Kamuswekera

Present Pasts of Colonial Modernity: Embroideries by Lucie Kamuswekera

STYLISTIC FEATURES OF SOUND PRODUCTION IN PIANOFORTE MUSIC OF WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

The article deals with the basic stylistic features of the sound production technique in the interpretation of piano opuses of the brilliant Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Its specific features are outlined in the context of the basic stylistic features of the artist’s piano heritage and typical performance tradition. The main features of sound production technique are related to the following basic stylistic elements of Mozart’s piano works: the laconicism of expressive means, the accuracy of all records of performance instructions, the transparency of the substance and at the same time the super-rich sense, the extraordinary expressiveness of the melody line in its slightest pitches; balance of emotions and logic and inexhaustible variability of images; logic of the chosen tempo-character of the work, accuracy of articulation, adequacy of the dynamics, quality and tonal beauty; clavier polytimbral. The character of sound production technique is also revealed on the basis of an analysis of Mozart’s performance style, which was characterized by perfect technical competence, accuracy of detailed nuances, exemplary highly artistic performance in the absence of any exaggerations, transparency of “grainy” sound, cantilenity and extent of the dynamics of the piano of the XVIII century. The sound production work in the play of Mozart’s works is determined by the specific tasks caused by specific musical and artistic content of each particular work. In general, the nature of pianistic techniques is associated with at excellent, brilliant finger technique, which excludes the excessive use of large arm levers, its excessive weighting. Under common kind of articulation, the finger rises from the key just before pressing the next one. The article provides exercises for the formation of this basic key touch, which is necessary for the gentle sound of “demilegato” play, the production of grainy sounds; emphasizes the need for rational organization of movements of the sensitive fingers for a detailed performance nuance, delicate “messa di voce” of the dynamics of the volume due to the recitative-declamatory nature of vocal plastic art in Mozart’s piano works. The development of Mozartianism will motivate researchers to analyze the wealthy palette of music styles of Austrian genius. At the same time, a deep understanding and, above all, mastering the art of interpreting a musical piece should also take into account the nature of a deliberate and appropriate pianistic embodiment of the performer’s artistic intentions.

«Когда над полем зеленеет…» В. Хлебникова: память жанра vs. эксперимент

The paper analyzes the poem by Velimir Khlebnikov “When over the field glow green...” (1911–1912) concerning the issue of how the sonnet genre functions in the author’s verse. This genre, present in the works by futurists and their followers, has been scarcely studied and requires serious scrutiny. The chosen text is a French type sonnet with relatively small formal deviations from the form (a change of the meter in verse six, occasional caesures in verses two, three, ten, and fourteen, the extra-pattern stress in verse ten, the absence of a recurrent rhyme in the second stanza, and misalignment of the syntax and stanza structures). All the deviations from the strict pattern of the sonnet are directly connected with the lyric story and are markers of important/critical events. The advent of the evening followed by the night in Khlebnikov’s universe is shown as spatial-temporal palimpsest, in which all the phenomena may occur both sequentially and synchronously, and the individual correlates with the universal based on the principle of “metaphoric tautology”: dawn <sunlight> – stars – a candle – fire. The violation of formal rules creates a structural tension; all the changes occur according to the principle of accumulating static energy, followed by a dynamic shift. However, in general, the sonnet framework is retained, and, in the final, a harmonic point dominates – the last verse is written with the strict iambic tetrameter. The logical sequence of the sonnet – thesis, thesis development, antithesis, synthesis – is retained with certain variations, whereas the sonnet’s subject does not contradict the tradition of the philosophic verse based on landscape descriptions. The death of a moth in the candle flame means reincarnation and return to the natural elements. Special emphasis is placed on the optical aspect, which presents the world to the eye as an object that is seen through, and the vision becomes super-vision, which can perceive existential truth. Generally, V. Khlebnikov follows the traditional rules of composing a sonnet, and all the deviations from the canon are connected with the artistic intention of the futurist poet.

The Role of Spatial Design in Implementing the Immersive Experience of Gaming Quest Rooms

The purpose of the article is to clarify the role of spatial design in the embodiment of the immersive experience of escape rooms and to identify the figurative, stylistic and technical factors characteristic of such design. The research methodology is based on an interdisciplinary method used to compare and contrast certain cultural, social, and artistic aspects of the topic, due to the synthetic nature of the problem under study; a comprehensive method is also used to reveal the essence of the spatial design of immersive theater. The scientific novelty of the article is to distinguish the spatial design of the quest space as an independent part of the immersive theater, to identify the features of the spatial design of quests based on the principle of immersion, in particular, taking into account the use of VR technologies that compete with the usual design of space, replacing it with virtual. Conclusions. As a result of the study, we conclude that spatial design plays a crucial role in creating immersive quests. It can range from simple scenery to complex multisensory environments, and should also take into account the ability to create various puzzles and tasks based on interaction with the room and its objects. Often, innovative technologies that involve the use of virtual or augmented reality, 3D modeling, sound design, multimedia, and other interactive elements play a crucial role in the design of escape rooms. Stylistic analysis shows that realistic style is most often preferred in the design of quests. Design in a stylistics that combines real and fantasy worlds is less common. The reason for the preference of realistic approaches is the desire to bring the environment closer to the real world. To provide a realistic atmosphere, the quest uses visual effects that can be successfully synchronized with identical sound effects. Consequently, the aforementioned figurative, stylistic, and technical criteria of the quest design process are especially conducive to achieving immersiveness, which, in fact, means creating a feeling of complete immersion of the user in the experiment. In this way, the design of physical and virtual space affects the way the audience interacts with the quest plot and can enhance or diminish the artistic intent of the production.

Interactive Depixelization of Pixel Art through Spring Simulation

AbstractWe introduce an approach for converting pixel art into high‐quality vector images. While much progress has been made on automatic conversion, there is an inherent ambiguity in pixel art, which can lead to a mismatch with the artist's original intent. Further, there is room for incorporating aesthetic preferences during the conversion. In consequence, this work introduces an interactive framework to enable users to guide the conversion process towards high‐quality vector illustrations. A key idea of the method is to cast the conversion process into a spring‐system optimization that can be influenced by the user. Hereby, it is possible to resolve various ambiguities that cannot be handled by an automatic algorithm.

Quality of the singing voice in sopranos. Influence of the text and the musical accompaniment in the opera singing

Introduction and objectivesOpera singing voice uses different technical tools for artistic purposes. We want to define if the quality of the sung sound is affected by an aware work on the musical accompaniment and the text. We analyse the acoustic signal and the subjective perception. The pitch studied in the soprano voice is A4 (880 Hz) with the vowel /a/. We have chosen a tone and a vowel that can be generated by different strategies in terms of phonoresonance adjustments. Materials and methodsWe have carried out a prospective study with 20 sopranos, without voice pathology, who have sung a phrase from the aria Deh, vieni non tarda and another from the aria Dove sono i bei momenti from the opera Le nozze di Figaro, by W.A. Mozart. First, each phrase sung spontaneously was recorded and then a second time, after a proposed work on the content of the text and musical aspects of the accompaniment such as: rhythm, harmony, texture and direction of the phrase. The participants prolonged the emission of the A4 for more than three seconds, maintaining the context of the sentence. The acoustic signal has been analysed using the PRAAT programme and a VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) questionnaire has been used to collect subjective perceptions. ResultsThe mean age was 36 ± 11 years (range between 20 and 58) and the mean number of years singing was 17 ± 12 years (range between 3 and 35). No statistically significant differences were found, although an improvement in the VAS was seen in the second sentence after the intervention. ConclusionsThe acoustic analysis parameters are stable, and the VAS tends to improve when an awareness of the text and the instrumental accompaniment is carried out.

Using the Colouristic Possibilities of the Ready-Select Bayan in the Folk Songs Accompaniment

The purpose of the research is to analyze the use of the ready-select bayan (button accordion) flavour in the arrangements of folk songs by V. Marchenko for the collections “Wide Roots” (Issue 1 and Issue 2). Research methodology. The following general scientific methods were used: analysis (to identify the flavour possibilities of the ready-select bayan); formal-analytical (to compare technical performance and musical-expressive means); generalization (to formulate conclusions). Scientific novelty of the research. For the first time, the pieces from V. Marchenko’s collections “Wide Roots” (Issue 1 and Issue 2) are analyzed, the colouristic possibilities of the instrument are characterized, and the specific features of the ready-select bayan in the folk songs’ accompaniment are revealed. Conclusions. The research is based on the author’s own long-term artistic experience. The article highlights the peculiarities of instrumental accompaniment on a ready-select bayan and reveals the regularities of combining a folk melody and bayan accompaniment to reflect the artistic intent of the song in depth. The process of composing bayan accompaniment for pieces of folk art from different local regional traditions of Ukraine poses complex tasks for the author, and the main one is to preserve the traditional regional melodic flavour. A thoughtful approach and attention to the subtleties of the recording interpretation process, which together determine the artistic value of the works, and penetration into the essence of the song should become significant aspects of the composer’s interpretation process.

Creative Narratives of Contemporary Ukrainian Composers as a Subject of Musicological Analysis

The purpose of the article is to determine the creative narratives of contemporary Ukrainian composers from the point of view of musicological analysis taking into account structuralist and poststructuralist intentions in music as a postmodern attitude. The article also aims to investigate the existing compositional structures (at their various levels) in close interrelation of intellectual and hermeneutic reading of the composer's artistic intention with the physical parameters of the work. The research methodology is related to the analysis of the sphere of expression of human thinking and the communicative process, with the consideration of the narrative as a certain discursive structure formed on the basis of a person's own experience, presented by the analytical mechanisms of musicology, in particular, systemic and comparative approaches that help determine the specificity of certain compositional structures in music in comparison with others, to trace the change of approaches of different composers to systems of symbolism in musical art, communication with the listener or appeal to closeness at the level of inner feelings and mystical suggestions. The scientific novelty consists in revealing the specifics of forming narratives in music as a process that combines an appeal to the social component or the inner feelings of the composer, his/her isolation from society, a negative and ironic attitude towards modernity, the search for virtual mystical «worlds» as a sign-sound space. Conclusions. The rigidity of authoritarian thinking in the field of culture leads to the appearance among composers and musicians of supporters of the idea of «art for art's sake», fascination with avant-garde technology, and orthodox maxims of lovers of «pure» classics. It is obvious that the new way of thinking about musical art should consist in the restoration of sincere, true creativity and the understanding of beauty as the basis of art, what it should serve, in particular, the musicological analysis of works from the standpoint of narrative technologies as a system of complex interdisciplinary research.
 Key words: musicological analysis, poststructuralist intentions, mystical suggestions, social component, narrative technologies.