This thesis attempts a paradigmatic shift in the focus of ballad study towards embodiment, moving from ‘representation’ towards ‘experience’ and with an emphasis on ‘process,’ as opposed to ‘product.’ The originality lies in the development of a new approach which explores words, music and embodied aesthetic experience as they come together and create meaning in performance, conceived of as ‘presence’ (Porter 2009). Ideas from philosophy are connected with concepts from ethnomusicology and folklore and brought to bear upon broad issues in the study of expressive culture. While the focus here is on the ballad experience in a Scottish context, ultimately the questions asked attend to dimensions of experience that do not emphasise cultural-boundedness. The emphasis is not on my experience as a fieldworker, nor on fieldwork descriptions, but rather on the development of new theoretical methodologies that can be extended and applied to other cultural forms. To that end, I am little concerned with texts, variants and versions, transcriptions and collections which traditionally constitute the subject matter of ballad studies. What is presented is a convergence of contemporary disciplinary approaches, pushing the boundaries of the existing framework of ballad and folksong studies to include dimensions of cultural experience rarely considered in this field. Working within the wider interpretative framework of hermeneutic phenomenology, theories of embodiment are used as a means to introduce ideas from embodied cognition. The development of ideas is concerned with describing how our embodied experience of the world informs the processes of meaning-making, how human cognitive capacities are at work in the experience of ballad singing and how the structure of the ballad reflects and shapes these capacities. Embodied philosophy and contemporary theories of metaphor are central in this endeavour. Ultimately, this work seeks to find a legitimate way of talking about the ephemeral, intangible yet real quality of embodied aesthetic experience—the shivers and chills of the Maysie—that avoids metaphysical explanations and that makes sense in a secular, humanistic framework. The aim is not to demystify experience in a reductionist sense, but to offer an interpretation that is less about ‘transcendence’ and more about the creative processes present.

This thesis explores the discourses that surround psychopharmacological stimulant use in the online forum on reddit.com. The focus is on the negotiations of variable effects that people ascribe to the medication use. In the collective search for explanations and remedies, individuals become responsible for different aspects of their life in order to reach a balanced state. This state is constantly at flux and dependent on many variables, that are to be taken under control. Users thus have to monitor themselves and acquire self-knowledge, that is a based on listening to their embodied experience, and they have to adjust their bodies and daily routines. The idea of finding the right balance, that is informed by the embodied experiences, is closely connected to the ancient humoralist forms of governmentality. However, unlike in ancient humoralism, where balance necessarily meant adapting to the environment, biotechnologies have expanded the horizon of posssible modulations of bodies and selves, that may be achieved by the individuals themselves.

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Submitted by Diego dos Santos Borba (dborba@uffs.edu.br) on 2017-04-13T20:17:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JEREMIAS.pdf: 1290468 bytes, checksum: 911798db957a7a07487d5a06e4da71ba (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-13T20:17:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JEREMIAS.pdf: 1290468 bytes, checksum: 911798db957a7a07487d5a06e4da71ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-27 / Esse trabalho apresenta uma proposta de descri??o da polissemia das preposi??es ?de? e ?para? do portugu?s brasileiro, atrav?s da abordagem localista de Jackendoff (1983; 1992). De acordo com nossa pesquisa, as preposi??es ?de? e ?para? podem ser consideradas como itens poliss?micos, pois cada uma dessas preposi??es, individualmente, pode atribuir diferentes significados ao seu objeto de refer?ncia, e esses significados podem estar ligados cognitivamente por meio de uma representa??o espacial conceitual de trajet?ria. Segundo Ilari et al. (2008), as preposi??es ?de? e ?para? s?o preposi??es que ocupam posi??es de ponto de origem e ponto final, respectivamente, em uma trajet?ria espacial de eixo horizontal. No entanto, o uso b?sico dessas preposi??es, ou seja, aquele em que conseguimos interpretar um significado diretamente ligado a um espa?o f?sico, pode ser estendido para outros significados, que podem ser interpretados conceptualmente como espaciais. Para uma interpreta??o metaf?rica do esquema imag?tico de trajet?ria, Jackendoff (1983; 1992) prop?e a Hip?tese de Rela??o Tem?tica, em que os significados espaciais conceituais das preposi??es, podem ser explicados atrav?s de campos sem?nticos distintos. Essa possibilidade de extens?o, para significados espaciais conceituais, ? baseada na experi?ncia corporificada dos falantes, pois quando interpretamos, de maneira conceitual, um item lexical, afirmamos que o mundo real nos fornece o substrato para nossas percep??es sensoriais e as conceitua??es decorrentes dele. Atrav?s dessa experi?ncia, constru?mos inconscientemente experi?ncias estruturais de significados, que s?o esquemas imag?ticos, e proje??es metaf?ricas (JOHNSON, 1987). Desse modo, levantamos a hip?tese de que os diferentes significados estabelecidos pelas preposi??es ?de? e ?para? podem ter rela??o entre si, isto ?, o mesmo esquema de imagem, corroborando a ideia de polissemia dessas preposi??es. Propomos que, atrav?s da corporifica??o, o falante ? capaz de estender, cognitivamente, o significado de um item lexical para outros significados conceituais, ou seja, o uso espacial b?sico de uma preposi??o pode ser estendido para usos metaf?ricos, cuja interpreta??o, de car?ter espacial, pode ser resgatada atrav?s dos campos sem?nticos propostos por Jackendoff (1983; 1992). Os campos sem?nticos que tratamos nessa pesquisa s?o: Temporal, Possessional, Identificacional, Circunstancial e Existencial. Desse modo, estabelecemos como objetivos de pesquisa: a) a apresenta??o das rela??es de significados estabelecidas pelas preposi??es ?de? e ?para?; b) a apresenta??o do processo cognitivo de experi?ncia corporificada; c) a apresenta??o do esquema imag?tico dessas duas preposi??es e d) a conex?o dos campos sem?nticos n?o espaciais, das rela??es de significados dessas preposi??es, com uma abordagem localista. Como metodologia de pesquisa, faremos an?lises das rela??es sem?nticas de senten?as do portugu?s brasileiro, em que as preposi??es ?de? e ?para? estabelecem rela??es de significado, buscando identificar, por meio da teoria de Hip?tese de Rela??o Tem?tica, a rela??o dos significados conceituais, de seus respectivos campos sem?nticos, com os significados espaciais de base. / This work employs Jackendoff?s localist approach (1983; 1992) to advance a proposal for a description of the polysemy of prepositions ?from? and ?to? in Brazilian Portuguese. According to our research, prepositions ?from? and ?to? can be considered polysemic items, given that each of these prepositions, individually, can attribute different meanings to its object of reference and these meanings can be cognitively related by a spatial-conceptual representation of trajectory. According to Ilari et al. (2008), the prepositions ?from? and ?to? occupy the origin and the final positions, respectively, in a spatial trajectory of the horizontal axis. However, the basic use of these prepositions, that is, the one in which we are able to interpret a meaning directly related to a physical space, can be extended to other meanings that can be conceptually interpreted as spatial. For a metaphoric interpretation of the imagetic scheme of the trajectory, Jackendoff (1983; 1992) proposes the Thematic Relation Hypothesis, according to which the spatial-conceptual spaces of prepositions can be explained through distinct semantic fields. This possibility of extension for spatial-conceptual meanings is based on the embodied experience of the speakers, because when we interpret conceptually a lexical item, we state that the real world furnishes us a substratum for our sensorial perceptions and for the conceptualizations that follow from it. Through this experience we unconsciously build structural experiences of meanings that are imagetic schemes, and metaphoric projections (JOHNSON, 1987). Thus, we hypothesize that the different meanings established by prepositions ?from? and ?to? can be related among themselves, that is, they have the same image scheme, corroborating the idea of a polysemy for these prepositions. We propose that through embodiment the speaker is able to extend cognitively the meaning of a lexical item to other conceptual meanings, that is, the basic spatial use of a preposition can be extended to metaphoric uses whose interpretation, of a spatial character, can be recovered through the semantic fields proposed by Jackendoff (1983; 1992). The semantic fields we shall deal with in this work are: Temporal, Possessional, Identificational, Circumstantial and Existential. Thus, we establish as the goals of our research as follows: a) to present the meaning relations established by prepositions ?from? and ?to?; b) to present the congnitive process of the embodied experience; c) to present the imagetic scheme of these two prepositions and d) the connection of non-spatial semantic fields, of the semantic relations of these propositions, within a localist approach. As our research methodology, we will analyze the semantic relations of Brazilian Portuguese sentences in which prepositions ?from? and ?to? establish meaning relationships, trying to identify, through the theory of the Thematic Relation Hypothesis, the relation of conceptual meanings, their respective semantic fields, with special base meanings.

In this thesis I study representation of disability and people with disabilities in cinema today by critically analyzing parts of a movie called Penguin Bloom for the way the main character’s identity and embodied experiences are represented and the possible reasons for that representation. Since the movie is based on a book that is in turn based on a real-life story of a person who acquired disability after sustaining an accidental fall, I have used certain quotes from the book and have also referred to a couple of published media interviews to support my arguments while analyzing the movie. To be able to critically view the movie for representation of people with disabilities, particularly relating to their identity, and embodied experiences, I have used theoretical frameworks of feminist disability studies, feminist visual theories, and feminist intersectionality to uncover how and why the main character in the movie, Sam Bloom’s – who is the person in a wheelchair – identity as a mother, and a disabled person, and her embodied experiences are expressed in the movie. The analysis reveals that the societal normative stereotypes relating to people with disabilities are reflected in the movie even though the movie has been created in close collaboration with Sam Bloom and the director of the movie has also kept the book as a reference point while working on the movie.

Closer to the walker is a project exploring different needs connected to the walker. Based on a human-centered design approach it includes methods such as observation, embodied experiences, workshops, interviews with users and stakeholders. Within this project different aspects are touched upon, such as posture, visual appearance, vibration and breaks. Resulting in a redesign of a walker for outdoor use, situating the product in an urban setting, exploring methods of manufacturing and needs of the users in today’s society.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology : Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2014. / The motivation for this research results from the notion that art-making is a regenerative enriching process that can counteract the sense of dislocation that one suffers as a consequence of depression. The study has two objectives: to open a discourse around the transformative function of art for a person suffering depression; and challenge notions of dominant constructed ideals of normality by presenting alternative realities of the performative mind. From the earliest memories of my life, I knew I did not fit in, I was not part of the crowd. Depression has been my companion ever since I can remember. The intention for this self-study is to interrogate the ways in which art can become a self-actualising process in coping with depression. The content for this research deals with narratives of the mind, that is, my understanding of who I am. I have therefore, positioned myself as the pivot for this research, drawing on authentic personal experiential knowledge. This autobiographical phenomenological study is thus a self-reflexive exploration addressing concepts of difference and belonging in relation to social constructs of acceptability. The study looks at contemporary concepts of multiple selves, relationality and the application of therapeutic methodologies within art practice. Art-making becomes games of truth, mind games that offer alternative realities and possibilities for the construction of complex, multi-faceted narratives as dialogues between the self and the inner critic. Of importance is the concept that self is not a fixed conclusive notion but one that continues to unfold, shift and become a multi-layered construct. These new narratives examine how creativity enables or creates a sense of belonging or re-positioning of one’s states of mind. The overall intention of the art-making process is its potential for transformative self-recovery processes – the re-construction of who we are, rather than how we are perceived. This research thus examines the notion of belonging in this world through body/land enactments of ritualised behaviour. The body as metaphor investigates rites of passage as the re-tellings of one’s story within specific body/site/space relationships. The ideal of connection to site is central as a means of renewal and recovery – these performative relationships become the creative meaning-making processes of locating or positionality. In support of these ideas and concepts, the work of Ana Mendieta, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Suzanne Lacy are considered in relation to ideals of positionality and as reflecting each artist’s ethics or paradigms of equality. Artworks are examined against the notion of locating oneself within social contexts. The aim is to question the intention and outcomes of art-making as social function in dealing with issues of marginalisation and stigma. Performativity, personal writings/reflections and memory drawings are the quintessential tools of my art-making. The written psychological renderings and unravellings of my mind, questionings that are both reflexive and critical, are intentionally presented in dialogical, conversational and direct modes. This personal tone aims to allow a scope into my mind – it is my perspective from the inside, my voice, my personal understanding of the potential of art as a metaphorical process of transformation. Lacy asserts that the artist becomes a witness, reporter and analyst for socio-culturally biased concerns; a performance gives public articulation and permission to speak out loud, gives voice to internal dialogues, reveal information that requires questioning and that personal individual experience has profound social implications. Lacy believes that it is an innate human need to reflect on the meaning of one’s life and one’s work (2010:176-177). Central to the findings of this study, are both the transgressive and transformative functions of art. / M

This case study based on a fieldwork carried out in a Day-Care Center tries to describe the process of the transition from mothering to wider society which is represented by a classroom of preschool children. Within this process we can note and describe specific ways of parent's, teacher's and especially children's actions. These activities are repeatedly produced. The point of departure is the Hirschfeld's article "Why Don't Anthropologists like Children?" (Hirschfeld, 2002) and his affirmation that children are active participants within process of accepting of social regulations and values and that they create their own culture, "children culture". This study ilustrates that the process of the transition from mothering to wider society is in the first place the process of the separation of child and mother. Within this process we note the function of the "object transitional" that compensate the absence of mother. And we can also observe how the group of pupils is formed and how their group identity is created. This group is situated in a specific place and time. And we observe that all individual actions concerning child are "embodied"- it's because we talk about an "experience that involve the whole person, including the body" (Abu-Lughold, Lutz, 1990 cit. in Ben-Ari, 1998: 138).

Identity always presupposes a sense of location and a relationship with others and the representation of identity most often occurs precisely at the point when there has been a displacement (Bhabha cited in Papastergiadis 1995:17, emphasis added). In this study I focus on the condition of displacement, placing emphasis on the disjunctures of identity arising from temporal and physical dislocations and relocations in historical and postapartheid South African contexts. Displacement, and the attendant senses of dislocation and alienation it may evoke, is explored with reference to three selected female personae. For each persona, displacement is shown to provoke transmutations in subjectivity and identity, resulting in disjunctive identities and relationships with place. Their individual narratives raise questions around the consequences of displacement for a sense of (un)belonging and the (re)making of identities across geographical, cultural, temporal, ethnic and environmental borders. The pivotal role displacement plays in the processes of formation and transformation of subjectivity and identity is foregrounded. Familial histories of diasporic displacement, together with colonial legacies that have shaped my subject position as a white, middle-class, female South African woman, are interlaced with a recounting of personal experience of displacement in postapartheid South Africa. This personal sense of displacement, experienced between the years 2000 to 2006, is extended to a discussion on what is argued to be collective forms of white, English-speaking South Africans’ dislocation during the same time period. I suggest that their sense of displacement was experienced in relation to the uncertainty of their subject positions in postapartheid South Africa. In the practical and theoretical components of the degree, I consider how the three personae’s subjectivities are practiced and lived from their different space-time continuums. This exploration prompts further questions around how the effects of displacement on subjectivity and new identity formations are contingent upon each persona’s relation to the Other of colonial discourse, or the other-strangerforeigner within. Although there are marked differences between their colonial, diasporic and postcolonial contexts, a central theme that underpins the study is that the three conditions of displacement are linked by disjunctures arising from processes of dislocation, alienation, relocation and adaptation. Each persona’s epistemological reality is shown to comprise multiple ambivalences and ambiguities, and is marked by processes of cultural contestation and inner conflict. Their ambivalences and ambiguities encompass slippages between positions of inclusion and exclusion; insider and outsider; inhabitant and immigrant; alienation and belonging; placelessness and locatedness; homely and unhomely that the experience of uprooting and relocating foregrounds. While displacement is understood in terms of trauma and conflict, this condition is also regarded as a generative space of possibility for the emergence of new identity formations. Using my experiences of self-transformation and renegotiation of my identity through processes of cultural contact and exchange as a departure point, I consider ways in which collective white, English-speaking South Africans’ cultural identities are being reformulated, renegotiated or ‘hybridised’ in postapartheid South Africa as a transforming, postcolonial society. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the Swedish government allocated specific financial support to cultural practitioners, however, excluding curators from this assistance. As a result, a group of engaged professionals formed the Swedish Curators’ Association, marking a recent effort in curatorial self-organization. This study aims to understand and illuminate the phenomenon of curatorial self-organization and how the experience of self-organizing is understood by curators in 2022. It investigates the past and current personal lived experiences of four curators through phenomenological methodological, and theoretical approaches. Next, the study explores how their perception correlates with the current curatorial lifeworld. At the core of this study is the hypothesis that in a consolidated lifeworld, curatorial self-organization becomes a model of a joint phenomenological body, functioning as a mechanism of sustainability, balance, and orientation due to the diversity of curatorial practices and experiences of its members. Archival materials and four interviews are at the core of the research. Study results showed that curatorial self-understanding and perception of self-organization are formed very individually; therefore, it would be inaccurate to generalize the phenomenon without having that in mind. Additionally, several internal and external factors played a significant role in the latest formation and perception of the phenomenon. The study also revealed that previous experiences of curatorial self-organizations have not been present in today’s active curatorial lifeworld, existing as familiar yet distant memories. Finally, the study goes beyond its initial hypothesis to find that the current attempt to self-organize curatorially in Sweden can be equated to a tool for curators to self-define, articulate the changing curatorial roles, and re-understand the essence of the profession.