Part II: Essays and Research Creation
Several papers touch on movies and movie theatres. Naida Nanayakkara, in "The Interplay of Astrophysics and Emotion in Interstellar," examines Christopher Nolan's film from the perspective of its representation of science. Nanayakkara argues the film illuminates abstract theories as they shape audience perception by demonstrating complex physics into sensory experiences, therefore making the intricate and complex both visible and emotionally vibrant.
Martina Hanna's research paper on the film La La Land, directed by Damien Chazelle, "How Greta Gerwig Utilizes Colour to Represent Nostalgia In Little Women" examines how the filmmaker uses elements of mise-en-scène and cinematography as a system of visual storytelling. She focuses on the use of color, looking first at how colour functions within the film’s mise-en-scène to construct character identity and reflect the evolution of Mia and Sebastian’s relationship. She also analyzes the role of cinematography, particularly lighting and camera movement in shaping emotional tone and visual perspective. Lastly, Hanna's paper explores how shifts in visual style articulate the film's central tension between fantasy and reality in character development.
In "Evaluating Inside Out (2015): An Analysis of Characters and Techniques," Aiman Shokat studies the animated film Inside Out to consider how Riley’s emotions are affecting her. Shokat looks at the speculations offered by critics, and then closely reads the film, drawing attention to the film's language, including shot angles and other cinematic storytelling techniques.
Emilio Gonzalez Carranza, in "Digital Spectatorships and the Value of Theatrical Exhibition," studies movie theatres themselves, offering a detailed analysis of the value of theatrical exhibition at a moment when the distribution and exhibition of cinema has been radically reshaped by streaming. His work considers the economic, aesthetic, and communal aspects of movie screening, and is important at a time when more and more consumers access their movies from their phones.
Another group of writers study mass media. Maimuna Ali's "Human-Created Memes vs AI-created Memes: A Pop Cultural and Political Lens" asks if AI-generated memes are visually indistinguishable from human-created memes, what does that mean for authorship, creativity, or cultural meaning? Ali argues that although AI-generated memes can replicate the visual intricacy of human-made memes, they raise questions about authorship, cultural engagement, and the history of visual humour, challenging common assumptions about creativity in meme culture.
Emma Sutcliffe also examines memes in "Flooding the Zone: Moral Desensitization and Propaganda in Memes." She discusses how the memeification of unethical situations on digital platforms induces moral desensitization in its viewers while simultaneously acting as a form of political propaganda.
In "Men Can Fly" Callum McAllister offers a deeper understanding of the message and themes present in online fan-made sports edits. His essay's main research question seeks to understand whether the athletes depicted within the edits represent an accurate depiction of the individual and what that depiction reflects says about their perception by both the individual author and general public.
Zara Khokhar's "Sex Sells, at What Cost? Female Sexualization in Fashion Advertising" looks at the historical roots of women's sexualization, from its origins to present-day consequences, to trace how the object of a submissive woman has prioritized male power and pleasure. Khokhar studies digital advertisements from brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and American Eagle.
Fanny Yu, in "Heroine vs. Villainess: Not so Different Afterall," uses a feminist lens at the differences and similarities between DC heroines and villainesses in their respective comics, films and TV series, contrasting the way these scholars – as well as society itself – apply their thoughts on the differences between the two categories, as well as how they are not as different as one might expect, with heroines sitting within the boundaries of patriarchal society, and villainesses cast outside this standard.
And Frederic Manguerra, in "Subverting Heteronormative Gender Expectations and the Deconstruction of Gender Performance in "The Owl House","
uses Judith Butler's theories about gender to analyse the Disney animated series The Owl House, created by Dana Terrace, analyzing the characters' personalities and exploring the show’s cultural impact on queer youth and queer media.
In the next section, authors use research-creation methods to create new works and theorize them. Connie Pearson's "How to Visually Oppose Fascism" uses research creation methods to understand queer joy through the constructions of a radical zine. Pearson's work enters into dialogue with the work of other creators of zines, showing was to go about engaging with fascism at an important historical moment when fascism is on the rise.
florence Rockall's research-creation project "Strands of Love; on Reimagining Victorian Hair Jewellery" revisits a fascinating Victorian mourning practice. Recreating art with the hair of her living loved ones and friends, Rockall argues that we need to be loving our people loudly while they are still here.
Ubah Nur's paper "The Spinning Top: The Bridge Between the Old World and The New World" also studies material culture, offering a timeline of research from the spinning tops historical era, religious contexts, the literary works that reference the top and how it is still used in popular culture today. The different areas and languages that interact with the top, the importance in which the top has been made into a capitalist monopoly, and how it has transformed beyond its original usage.
Finally, some works study spaces. Leah Cassidy's research-creation project "An Indigenous Re-Invention of Romanticism and the Anthropocene" considers Crawford Lake, Ontario, the location selected by scientists to best represent the geological changes of the Anthropocene. Cassidy asks How does our perspective change when we are just looking at nature for all of the parts that compose it rather than seeking to philosophize nature? How does it change when we stop categorizing nature as a resource but as a force that demands reciprocity and continuity?
Madeleine Korn's "The Subway is not (only) an Art Gallery: A Critical Analysis of Union Station's Zones of Immersion" examines a large urban art project that lives in Toronto's Union Station. She argues that although Zones of Immersion has artistic merit, the permanent placement of the piece in Union Station distorts the message Ried seeks to convey. Instead, Zones of Immersion, through its permanence, binds viewers to a negative perspective and experience of the public transit space.
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