Television Aesthetics Research Articles

“The Aesthetics of Film and Television” under the Theory of Visual Metaphor: Taking Howl's Moving Castle as an Example

Howl's Moving Castle is a film by the famous Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, depicting the story of Howl and Sophie's redemption of each other and their joint endeavour for peace against a backdrop of fighting. A large number of symbolic visual symbols are used in this film, which give visual impact on modelling through exaggeration and representation, and also better promote the characterisation and the development of the storyline. Taking Howl's Moving Castle as an example, this paper turns from the popular topic of characterisation explored at home and abroad to the visual representation technique, and explores the treatment of the film's visualisation by mining the symbolic meanings in different contexts. Vision is the most important form of the senses in cinema. This paper discusses how to perfect the visual expression effect and make reasonable use of symbolic metaphoric rhetoric, so as to enhance the meticulousness of the visual effect, enrich the amount of information in the scene, and improve the texture of the film.

Mimicking power

This article explores performances of satire as a form of journalism in Zimbabwe by analysing performances by satirists who mimic to mock journalistic conventions and political authorities. Through analyses of YouTube videos, the article explores the ways in which satire as journalism is visualised. Onscreen, satirists mimic the gestures, mannerisms and aesthetic objects connected to both political figures and state journalists on the state-run television station for ridicule. This paper argues that the parodying and mimicking of aesthetics of authority legitimises and professionalises satire as journalism, even as it seeks to critique notions of journalistic authority in an authoritarian state. Through analyses of three Zimbabwean satire shows on YouTube, the paper finds that, while satirists mimic journalistic practices and journalistic authority with the goal of mocking state media and the censorial state, a closer reading of their practices shows that they themselves become legitimate news tellers. This kind of satire plays with familiar broadcasting television aesthetics to signal authority, providing current news and otherwise censored critique.

ПРИНЦИПИ ПОРУШЕННЯ ЕСТЕТИКИ ТЕЛЕВІЗІЙНОГО МОВЛЕННЯ НА ПРИКЛАДІ ВЕДУЧИХ «24 КАНАЛУ» – КАТЕРИНИ СОЛЯР ТА АРТЕМА ОВДІЄНКА

<p><em>The article defines that <strong>the purpose of the research</strong> is to analyze the principles of violation of the aesthetics of television broadcasting on the example of the presenters of «Channel 24» – Kateryna Solyar and Artem Ovdienko.</em></p><p><strong><em>The methodological basis of the research </em></strong><em>is the systematic, comparative, and induction method. Thus, the systematic method was used in order to reveal the integrity of the scientific views of Ukrainian and foreign researchers regarding the specifics of communication and speech behavior of the presenter on television. The comparative method made it possible to analyze the principles of the violation of television broadcasting on Channel 24 hosted by Kateryna Solyar and Artem Ovdienko. The method of induction was used to study the informational material by means of the analysis of general conclusions.<strong></strong></em></p><p><strong><em>The results. </em></strong><em>According to the conducted research, the TV broadcast of presenters Kateryna Solyar and Artem Ovdienko on Channel 24 contains a significant number of linguistic and stylistic mistakes. In addition, presenters are characterized by incorrect pronunciation, they often use Russianisms and some colloquial, colloquial and slang words.</em></p><p><em>Therefore, when analyzing the principles of violation of television broadcasting on Channel 24 by presenters Kateryna Solyar and Artem Ovdienko, it is important to note that they are dominated by Russianisms and unnatural pronunciation of sounds in the Ukrainian language, their use of fragments from the Russian language.</em></p><p><strong><em>Scientific novelty. </em></strong><em>For the first time, the principles of violation of the aesthetics of television broadcasting were analyzed using the example of the presenters of Channel 24 – Kateryna Solyar and Artem Ovdienko.</em></p><p><strong><em>Practical significance. </em></strong><em>The main results and conclusions can be used for the formation of aesthetic broadcasting on television for linguistic education of all social strata of our citizens, raising the level of speech culture, fostering a respectful attitude towards the Ukrainian language.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words: </em></strong><em>aesthetics, television broadcasting, means of mass communication, lexical and morphological archaisms, information space.</em></p>

The Noise of the News: Spectral Analysis of Early Swedish Television News 1958 - 1978.

Looking back on the very first year of television in Sweden, the head of programming Henrik Hahr celebrated having brought the world into “the living room of the viewer”. From the emergence of Swedish public service television in 1956 and onwards, the medium would be lauded as a window to the world. Yet, what noises came through this window? Shifting focus away from the visual content of television, this article explores and emphasizes the sonic dimensions of early Swedish news broadcasting. In the middle of the 20th century, the look, and the sound of the news were taking shape across television stations around the world. In Sweden, public service broadcasting was partly influenced by the backdrop of the cold war, and demands were formulated on a style of television that would be distinctive from the American and Soviet alternatives. This was a matter of images and audio in equal proportions. Deciding what kind of sound was added to the previously mute newsreels was at the heart of televised journalism. With a media monopoly running two competing news shows, the Swedish case offers insight into the establishment and differentiation of public service television aesthetics in the post-war era. Prior research has investigated the institutions, infrastructures, and ideas which shaped early Swedish television, but the very signals remain unexplored. This article introduces new methods for studying aural aesthetics in audiovisual media. By conducting various types of spectral visualization on recorded television news from 1958 until 1978, this analysis traces the sonic profile of the Swedish public service. The aim is to provide historical knowledge of how the news sounded and which aural experiences were promoted within the realm of the welfare state media monopoly. However, by drawing attention to the prospect of audio signal processing as a method for cultural-historical research, the purpose is also to make a methodological contribution to television studies at large.

The limitation of the bottle episode: Hegel in Community

ABSTRACT In recent years, television has undergone an artistic and critical reevaluation. This essay aims to add to the study of television aesthetics by examining a form particular to American television: the bottle episode. The bottle episode first arose as a solution to the budgeting ‘bottlenecks’ experienced by U.S. television series in the 1950s and 60s. I find that this form presents a logic of the limit, establishing a formal, narrative, and existential aesthetic that is unique to television. Far from simply being cheap TV, a close study of the bottle episode shows that what began as a financially necessary production format works through the dialectical method of thought that unfurls in G.W.F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. I turn to NBC’s Community (2009–15), a series replete with bottle episodes, to show that by pushing through bottled confinement, the new and transformative take place. Ultimately, I argue that bottle episodes show how dynamic collectivity forms through isolation.

Finding words: Aesthetic criticism and television

Those endorsing or opposing the development of television aesthetics scholarship have exhibited an admirable willingness to reflect upon the rationales and motivations for formulating value judgements. However, very little equivalent attention has been afforded to processes that occur within this area: how scholars conduct analysis and develop claims for achievement in television. In addressing this lack, the following article surveys some of the meanings that ‘criticism’ has encompassed in Television Studies, offering ‘aesthetic criticism’ as a useful term to describe the work of analysis and evaluation, before moving to a series of close readings of aesthetic criticism in practice.

Analysis of the Characters in the Film “Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child” from the Perspective of Film and Television Aesthetics

Analysis of the Characters in the Film “Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child” from the Perspective of Film and Television Aesthetics

Chinese television at midnight: Television theory in the People’s Republic of China during the Reform Era

While most scholarship on Chinese television focuses on the medium’s development after the reform of the industry in the mid-1990s, the 1980s were a period in which different visions for Chinese television were hotly contested. This paper argues for the importance of this moment by examining the theorization of television in Contemporary Television, a publication launched in 1987 as China’s first journal of television aesthetics, and the attempt to achieve a breakthrough in television storytelling in the program Triumphant Return at Midnight (1986). Contributors to Contemporary Television proposed that the essence of the medium was a liveness that linked it to modernity and a small screen that placed it within the private individual home. They advocated for combining television’s inherent popular appeal with ambitious individual artistic visions. This synthesis seemed to be achieved in Triumphant Return, which was both popular with viewers and praised by critics for its ‘epic’ feel, but the production process for Triumphant Return proved both too inefficient for the Chinese television industry. Examining Chinese television and television aesthetics before the introduction of large-scale private funding reveals a surprising convergence in the evolution of socialist and capitalist television industries.

Aesthetic Representation of Antisocial Personality Disorder in British Coming-of-Age TV Series

TV series’ depictions of mental disorders have received considerable scholarly attention. However, few studies have considered the role of aesthetic elements in representing mental disorders. Therefore, in this study, we analysed how aesthetic features influence the representation of “psychopathy” in British coming-of-age TV series through the case study of The End of the F***ing World. We chose to analyse psychopathy due to its over-representation in the media and its often-mistaken conflation with the actual mental disorder of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). We applied an aesthetic methodology in our analysis. We analysed the series in terms of language, appearance, behaviour, music and sound, technical devices, and intertextuality, closely observing three sequences of various episodes that correspond to the character’s symptoms, diagnosis, medication, and treatment. Our findings show that the aesthetic characteristics, characters, and events of the plot can act as expressive means through which the experience of living with a mental disorder can be accurately represented and simultaneously entertain viewers with drama and suspense. The series challenges the reductionist perspective and previous stereotypes of audio–visual pieces related to ASPD, suggesting that future TV series can better represent mental disorders with the correct use of television aesthetics and cinematic devices.

Research on the Path of Integrating Ideological and Political Elements into "Film and Television Aesthetics" Curriculum from the Perspective of Cultural Confidence

Research on the Path of Integrating Ideological and Political Elements into "Film and Television Aesthetics" Curriculum from the Perspective of Cultural Confidence

Introduction: Trans TV dossier, III: Trans TV re-evaluated, part 2

This is the second more substantial part of the introduction to the final Trans TV special issue, distributed across issues 15.2 and 15.3 of this journal. As well as introducing the contents of this issue, we reflect in this introduction on the Trans TV project as it has developed since 2017, via an engagement with two key televisual texts namely Transparent (2014–2019) and Pose (2018–). We argue that this certainly reflects positive developments in terms of transgender representation and authorship but this progress is more complex when considered in terms of television aesthetics and politics. We also propose, drawing on the work of Koch-Rein et al (2020), a shift form representation towards the concept of ‘transing’ as a reading strategy, and argue that this has been at the heart of the Trans TV project all along.

User Central Content Design in the Age of Interactive Television

Bu makale, etkileşimli televizyon içeriklerinin tasarımına yönelik interaktif bir prototipin geliştirilmesini amaçlamaktadır. Etkileşimli Televizyon Yayıncılığına ilişkin prototipin geliştirilmesi süreci iki aşamadan oluşmaktadır. Sürecin ilk aşamasında Hollanda, ABD, Avustralya, Singapur ve Türkiye’den çalışmaya katılmayı kabul eden etkileşimli televizyon ve etkileşimli içerik konusunda deneyimli sekiz uzmanın görüşleri alınmıştır. Bu nedenle araştırma, nitel bir durum çalışması şeklinde desenlenmiştir. Elde edilen veriler doğrultusunda, etkileşimli televizyon uygulamalarının dört ana tema ile gerçekleştirileceği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Bu temalar; televizyonun görsel diline ve estetiğine uygun etkileşimli içerik oluşturma, etkileşimli televizyon yayıncılığında ikinci ekran uygulaması, katılımcıların bireysel farklılıklarına uygun olarak destek kontrol unsurların yer alması ve çevrimiçi uygulamalara yer vermedir. Sürecin ikinci aşamasında ise, bireysel görüşmelerden elde edilen veriler doğrultusunda etkileşimli bir futbol programının tasarımı gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak her bir program için oluşturulan içerik tasarımı, kullanıcıya etkileşimli çevrenin farklı düzeyini sunmaktadır. Pogramın televizyonun görsel diline ve estetiğine uygun olup olmama durumu, kullanıcının davranışını, sunulan etkileşimin niteliğini ve doğallığını etkilemektedir. Etkileşimli futbol tasarımında değiştirilen çevrimiçi parametrelerin sayısı ne kadar çok olursa, kullanıcının futbol programına katılım düzeyinin kalitesi de o kadar artmaktadır. Futbol programında etkileşimlilik seviyesi, etkileşim içerisinde bulunan katılımcıların iletilen kişisel semboller üzerinden anlam oluşturmasıyla ve içeriklerde karşılıklılık, yanıt verme ve yanıt verme hızı noktasında katılımcının sürece dahil olmasıyla ilgilidir.

To Reclaim Einfühlung: The Search for a Formula of Radical Empathy in Harun Farocki’s Early Work

Beginning with a close reading of Harun Farocki's Einfühlung, the author analyzes the formation of this tradition of empathy and the critical attitude towards it, with particular emphasis on the sense of failure and the retrospectiveness of the postulate of regaining the Einfühlung by the critical tradition. The author looks at the role of photographs of suffering bodies in the process of shaping the German public sphere during the Vietnam War. He tries to show the complexity of strategies critical of the mass media by reconstructing Farocki's polemics with terrorist movements. He analyses parodying the use of television aesthetics in Inextinguishable Fire (1969) and includes it into the tradition of fighting the tabloid media. He is interested in the reevaluation of the relation between the body and image, which enables reaching beyond the pattern of empathy by means of identification and the idea of “Einfühlung, which has caused the alienation effect.”

Streaming intersectionality: Queer and trans television aesthetics in post-medium transformation

Following the first Trans TV dossier, this dossier shifts the focus from transformations of television industries, institutions, fans and audiences to questions of queer and trans* aesthetics and representation in contemporary television. It entails an intersectional approach, but one that looks at what happens to intersectional genealogies in the era of streamed, internet-distributed television. Do the post-network or even post-medium transformations identified in the first dossier facilitate the opening of queer and trans spaces in the contemporary television landscape? Or is the evolution of television more cyclical than linear, offering both moments of transgression and emergence, as well as reaction, in relation to new technological and institutional configurations? While the focus of most of the work is on the level of representation and aesthetics, the questions raised are pertinent to understanding the new configurations of technologies, production, distribution and consumption that characterise internet-distributed television, which, in turn, need to be positioned in relation to the complex intersectional genealogies of televisual content presented in this dossier.

Such Schadenfreude – Unpacking The Medley of Caustic Humor and Politics in Veep

This paper discusses the intersection of humor and politics from a media perspective, particularly through the lens of television aesthetics. As a growing branch of television studies, television aesthetics tends to refer to stylistic analysis but also, more rarely, to an interest in philosophical aesthetics as applied to television (Butler, 2010; Cardwell, 2013). I will focus on the genre of political satire and identify the critically acclaimed television series Veep (HBO, 2012 – present) as a program which exemplifies the expression and underlying values of a contemporary strain of aesthetic sensibility – schadenfreude – that runs through its axes of coarse disempowering humor and the portrayal of politics. Specifically, the paper explores how Veep’s affective reception results from humorously overlapping two of the more problematic aspects that persist in the political landscape, namely, self-interest and ineptitude. This paper begins by reflecting on the universal prevalence of schadenfreude. The first section briefly traces key historical instantiations of political satire, understood as a genre that humorously derides the shortcomings and dissonances of a prevailing political milieu. The second section conceptualizes schadenfreude in satirical terms and underlies its philosophical foundations. The third section elaborates on the novelty of Veep by highlighting its gendered position as the first comedic fictional television program of a female president and outlines how its satirical modality depends on its coarse writing style and depiction of antiheroinism to make the problematic political milieu pleasurable to viewers whose normative experience of politics is frequently negative. The final section considers the ‘real world’ implications of Veep as a social commentary on unsavory political personas and perspectives. Article received: May 10, 2019; Article accepted: July 6, 2019; Published online: October 15, 2019; Original scholarly article

"Mad Men" and television aesthetics: Final shots as a tool for textual configuration

Academic studies of Mad Men confirm that television aesthetics awaken a secondary interest among scholars. The present work joins the body of critical literature that defends the importance of style to television programming. In spite of the thrust and value of the new results achieved by television aesthetics, it is enough to look into the existing bibliography about works like Mad Men to arrive at the conclusion that their scope continues to be comparatively residual. In concrete terms, a formal analysis (scale, placing, length, angle, movement, composition, etc.) of the ‘shot unit’ related to this series is proposed. This will examine the 92 units that comprise the final shot of each episode of Mad Men, to yield the quantitative and qualitative elements that help forge the ‘aesthetic of emptiness’ that characterizes the TV show created by Matthew Weiner. The final images of each installment make up a kind of unhurried ritual in which the television form portrays a man on his own, trapped in an oppressive setting and unable to progress dramatically.

Up Close and Personal: Opera and Television Broadcasting in the 1950s

AbstractThis article examines early pedagogical experiments in opera on television that were meant to attract new audiences in the 1950s. The aesthetics of early television have often been thought to run contrary to opera, particularly in its grander iterations, but I argue that television producers capitalized upon the traits of early television to personalize opera, both on and off screen. Comparing two NBC pedagogical initiatives—a 1958Omnibusprogram starring Leonard Bernstein and the 1956–57 visits of the NBC Opera Company to Saint Mary's College (South Bend, Indiana)—I explore how these efforts were meant to approximate the opera fan's experience as well as prepare audience members to enter the opera house. Ultimately, although opera on television failed to secure a strong foothold in the 1950s, it helped to re-envision the ways in which American audiences could relate to the art form and set the terms for the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcasts today.

THE AESTHETICS OF TELEVISION AND AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

The author reopens the old problem of the aesthetics of television, that is whether television is an art or not. There are aestheticians who find the field for their investigation only in art, and, on the other hand, there are those who go beyond art. Similarly, there are theorists who conceive television as a medium for content reproduction, while there are also those who attribute artistic quality to certain television creativity. Aestheticians use genre analysis as a way to explain the aesthetics of television. In this paper, we investigate the validity of this analysis and its relation with discourse analysis. The results show that both methods are valid, yet discourse analysis could be more adequate in certain cases.

As Seen on TV: Putting the NBC Opera on Stage

This article examines the relationship between opera on television and opera on the stage in America in the 1950s and 1960s. Using the NBC Opera (1949–64) as a case study, I trace both what television borrowed from the operatic stage and what television sought to bring to the stage in a relationship envisioned by producers as symbiotic. Focusing on the NBC's short-lived touring arm, which produced live performances of Madam Butterfly, The Marriage of Figaro, and La traviata for communities across America in 1956–57, I draw upon archival evidence to show how these small-scale stage productions were recalibrated to suit a television-watching public. Instead of relying on the stylized presentation and grand gestures typical of major opera houses, the NBC touring performances blended intimate television aesthetics with Broadway typecasting and naturalistic direction. Looking beyond the NBC Opera, I also offer a new model for understanding multimedial transfer in opera, one in which the production style of early television opera did not simply respond to the exigencies of the screen, but rather sought to transform the stage into a more intimate—and supposedly more accessible—medium in the mid-twentieth century.

Music television aesthetics, experimentation, and the evocation of chaos in Serbian film

The creation of the MTV channel in 1981 sparked new global trends, influencing a range of spheres from politics to fashion. Starting with a limited domestic audience in the US, the culture of MTV soon spread to young people across the globe, including those in Yugoslavia. By the late 1980s, music television aesthetics strongly influenced the works of young film directors in Belgrade, who experimented in both music and film production. I discuss how the omnibus film The Fall of Rock-and-Roll/Kako je propao rokenrol (dirs. Zoran Pezo, Vladimir Slavica and Goran Gajić, 1989) uses the aesthetics of music television and combines them with the alternative music scene. This style was replicated and built upon in the 1990s by Srđan Dragojević, in his films, We are not angels/Mi nismo andjeli (1991), Pretty Village, Pretty Flame/Lepa sela lepo gore (1996) and The Wounds/Rane (1998). By the early 1990s, however, the use of music television aesthetics had become political, as the Milošević regime tried to capitalise on this global trend by creating their own music television aesthetics.