gracefulblogus-blog

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Showcase Reflection

The final showcase for the 9.1.36 piece named “Flow” was finished and presented on the 7th of November. It was placed in 2 blocks from both 1 - 2pm and 4 - 4:30pm. The piece was played alongside 3 other pieces as part of a program.

 The reception for both blocks was incredibly positive, and my own piece along with the other songs in the program seemed to have the audience incredibly engaged. Similarly, the turnout for both blocks was large with in both sessions filling every seat and having some sitting on the floor instead. One notable comment that I received on multiple occasions from people who had seen the previous draft had pointed out that the new session was significantly better.

 Overall, I believe that the work was successful in what I tried to achieve in evoking a sense of graceful. I believe that the movements, sound, and themes that were tied to Flow were able to be felt in the composition as the audience feedback was incredibly positive. Although there was one account from a person unaffiliated with the studio described the work as “beautiful”. However, I will interpret that as beautiful being a more common descriptive term.

 As for my personal satisfaction with the work, I don’t feel a large amount of satisfaction with finishing the work. Mainly due to the events that took place to lead to this moment and the negative associations that they bring. I’m at the very least satisfied that despite the downfalls and problems that have arisen, I managed to push through and deliver a product of even higher quality.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 15

9.1.36 Project:

The project has been completed, with both last minute music changes and lighting changes completed. The work needed a variety of changes ranging from a cut of the ending, to increased fade times for all the lights as it didn’t evoke a sense of grace.

A general sense of blue is utilised frequently as the background and highlights of the entire piece due to the reasons of the associations of water and also the widely positive associations that come with water.

One suggested change that didn’t make the cut was to add a range of variation on the violin vst to make sure that it sounded more real. I decided against this idea for 2 reasons. One being the time constraint of the change being suggested the day before the showcase and also that the more intense ends of the violin didn’t personally sound right for the term of “graceful”. As the playing of the violin was intended to be smooth, loose and flowing to match the themes I was aiming for. This being specifically during the beginning and end of the piece as it introduces the tone and gradually escalates to the larger section of the composition. That specific escalation to the large moment of the composition also relating back to a flow and change in momentum. Not only in tempo, but also fullness of sound.

Video of WIP:

This video was recorded before the final changes were made

https://youtu.be/BlVS5rkY6OQ

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 14

Music:

The work on the music has been intense but rewarding. I’ve been able to complete a good WIP and can start lighting. I have done my best to change the momentum of the music frequently and create a sense of flow as much as possible. Similarly, there were a variety of changes that were made to the music with the introduction of a variety of instruments put together and having large powerful moments at the end where all the instrumentation comes together to wrap out the piece.

 9.1.36 Project:

A major focus has come to the sense of water in the composition of light. In doing this, my plans for the lighting involve a section where the lights fade in and out with ripples between each other to create a sense of submersion and unity in the piece. Also similarly to my previous work, my plan is to emphasise every exact change in the sound. These effects and heavy details is what I hope will make up for my workload that has fallen by the wayside. Also to create a sense of grace in the work, I’m also having the lights start their cue close to each other to lead the eyes of the audience around the room and keep their attention without the risk of confusing them.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 13

Final Presentations:

The final presentations went well with Ben. I was noted to have a solid project that had successfully evoked the sense of graceful.

 File Loss:

A massive issue arrived immediately after the final presentations. That being that the USB that I kept all of my work on had disappeared on the train home. After roughly a day of looking and contacting every opportunity possible, it was confirmed that the USB was gone for good. My latest backup had been from week 11 and it purely was my fault for not thinking ahead. I’ve been advised by Ben and Darrin that I will have to start again and drop all other projects to focus on the 9.1.36 project. In doing so I scrapped together a new draft from scratch and deviated from my previous progress. The new draft was given a pass and I’ll be continuing to improve on is in the next coming weeks.

 Research/Thought Process:

Once again, the focus of the project is the concept of flow, where one movement leads to the next, with changing momentum, different speeds and gradual transitions. Thematically, I am centring back in on the aesthetics of water and how that ties into a spiritual sense of grace with baptism. These themes being a collective effort of all the previous research from the weeks leading up to the presentations. The way I plan on representing these aesthetics is to tie back into the idea of fluid aesthetic in the “State of Flux” where the movements of lights mirror water motions.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 12

Music:

Finished piece of music completed. I’m generally satisfied with the piece after all the adjustments that were made.

 9.1.36 Project:

The lighting for the project is almost completed. There’s roughly 30 seconds left of lighting to do out of the 3 minute and 30 second piece. A large interest of the work has been placed in heavy movement. This being either through colour changes, the lighting of different fixtures in different directions, or the tilt function all being tied together to create the piece. One issue that recently came up though was that the back window fixture has now stopped working which places a large amount of problems on my session that I’ll have to remedy as I heavily used said fixture for its tilt applications in tandem with the front window fixture.

https://youtu.be/brzfFKwOWT0

 Arduino Mirror Project:

This week I was still able to acquire a battery (specifically a lipo battery) for the project when another issue arose. That the battery itself needs a warning alarm to prevent it from exploding when it charges or is being overworked. This unfortunately led to more focus being put onto the coding of the project and getting the specific timings of the lighting and motor changes. Unfortunately, this will may end the project during final presentations.

 Jeremy’s Graceful Animation:

Dropped due to slow progression, uncertainty of deadlines and issues with communication.

Another reason being that I still have to focus on my own projects as they are having their own issues.

Best of luck to Jeremy with his project.

I will now be starting a Richard Grant video instead to increase my number of projects.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 11

Music:

Received criticism for music, the song needs to be smoother in movement.

By Darrin’s suggestion, I plan on creating 1 song and shifting the goal of my 9.1.36 project and my Arduino Mirror project to be a research question of “does colour or light evoke gracefulness better?”

Sketch has been chosen, WIP has been created.

What was eventually chosen to be the WIP became a final product but lost.

 9.1.36 Project:

Started Lighting, the process to the lighting is slow but manageable. I primarily have been dancing around the range of cool colours to create a sense of calm in the audience while changing it around to keep the attention of the audience.

 Arduino Mirror Project:

Recently received the LED strips that are going to be used for the project. This week, I have also been creating the stands and changing my original idea to become more compact in size so that it can easily be set up and taken down. I’ve also begun coding the motors and lighting so that I can quickly jump into getting all the electronics finished afterwards.

 Jeremy’s Graceful Animation:

This week we were given a scene by Jeremy to work on. We’ve started working on it as I’ve been primarily focused on my other projects for the time being. Sadly, neither Austin nor I know how many other scenes are going to be created, nor when we can have access to them.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 10

Music:

This week I created multiple sketches after some difficulty in understanding the plugins. Overall, as the music side of the work is still underway, I will have to wait until it is possible to work on the 9.1.36 lights. The general theme that I have created for this project is of flow. Where one movement leads to the next, and with a smooth but gradually changing momentum.

Due to an accidental loss of all materials in this stage of the process, no sketches can be shown.

 Arduino Mirror Project:

The Arduino Mirror Project has mainly involved my own research into smoke and haze for the purpose of aesthetically showing the beams of light in the project. This in which I decided to utilise haze for my project as the particles last longer and are better at catching light. As for the continued quest for parts in the project, I was able to acquire LED strips for use in the project along with extra parts that would be necessary for the project that I want to create. These parts being transistors and a button to start the whole process and with the intention to connect each section of the project together so that they’re all synced to start at the same time. As for power sources, I’ve still had difficulty finding power sources.

  Jeremy’s Graceful Animation:

In the project, we still have been waiting for any sight of the animatic or any scenes at all. Both Austin and I have focused on our other projects instead.

 Research:

Finke, M, Weltzien, F 2017, State of Flux: Aesthetics of Fluid Materials, Reimer, Berlin, Germany

 From reading this book, I found that my study into the aesthetics of water was incredibly fruitful. I found that a large amount of the fluid aesthetics are tied into flow to a great degree. Where the streams meld with one another and are more related to processes.

“We are immersed in a world of materials in which the ceaseless streams and counter-currents of materials ‘mix and meld with one another’” p.13

Tim Ingold (Bringing Things to Life: Material Flux and Creative Entanglements)

Fluidity forms improvisation, disconnected lines that never intersect (lines of becoming)

“Points are not joined so much as swept aside and rendered indiscernible by the current as it sweeps through.” P.32

“It is in these flows and counter-flows, winding through or amidst without beginning or end, and not as connected entities” p.33

Friedrich Weltzien (Fluid Aesthetics – Aesthetics of the Fluid)

The main aesthetic of fluid is to “regard reality as an ‘endless stream of becoming’”. P.39

“Liquid materials enable fluid aesthetics” p.39

Fluid aesthetics are related to processes (“fluid aesthetics would need to think in relation to processes”) p.55

 Jain-Neubauer, J 2016, Water design: environment and histories, Marg Foundation, India, Mumbai

“Running water epitomized to him the dynamics of sovereignty, and with it, the control over the environment” p.72

Step wells provide water for gardens and “enhance the very idea of paradise on earth.” P.74

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 9

Milestone Presentation:

The milestone presentation was overall quite disappointing, at least with what I was able to show. The music side of the project in 9.1.36 and the Arduino mirror project never got close to the standard I wanted. The upside of the presentation is that the in-class feedback was very helpful in finding a way forward with addressing the music. In turn, the plan forward is to start from scratch, crunch on the project, consult with Ben and Darrin, and deliver a project by week 13.

 9.1.36 Project:

9.1.36 room’s lights were utilised but now must be scrapped with the previous song. This decision was made considering the idea of resetting my thoughts to align more closely with the theme of graceful. One other reason why I am planning on starting from scratch is that I don’t want to constrain myself to what I’ve already done and harm the final product.

 Arduino Mirror Project:

Arduino Mirror Project needs more parts, set up needs to be finished. There’s set up motors, but lights still need to be added and the stands need to be created. Also, there’s the problem of needing a power source which I will have to look for a suitable fit for.

 Jeremy’s Graceful Animation Project:

Jeremy’s animation is still lacking progress. He was able to show some test footage during the milestone presentation, however his feedback indicated that he’ll have to go back and redo a lot of what he has done.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 8

9.1.36 Project:

Still struggling with music, it’s difficult to start lighting without audio. I entered 9.1.36 regardless to get a start on the lighting to get a hang of it. Sadly however, I’m still not satisfied with the final product that will be introduced for the milestone presentation. I may have to admit defeat overall and submit what I have.

 Arduino Project:

The motors have recently come in and I’ve been mainly assembling and putting together the motors.

 Jeremy’s Graceful Animation:

Created a few sounds for use in the animation, namely some more of the intense and harsh sounds of anxiety that is planned to be included in the animation as I took interest in Jeremy’s theme of exploring grace through difficulty.

Jeremy has produced a few test animations to show what direction he has taken recently. All the test animations are in After Effects and he’s shown us what the animation will look like. Both Austin and I are still waiting for a solid animatic video to understand the timing of the video. He has shown us physical storyboards in his possession but since we don’t have the timing in video form, it’s difficult to start at all since we don’t know how long the shots are supposed to be.

 Research:

Jensen, R. M 2011, Living Water Images, Symbols, and Settings of Early Christian Baptism, Brill, Boston, US

In the term of theological grace, I decided to look at a major part of religious grace and how one can build a sense of unity spiritually. That being baptism and in this specific article, the main takeaway that I received was the idea of being spiritually illuminated which is what I’d like to develop further with a dive into how water and light could be represented.

Baptism altered the spiritual status of the people who underwent it with spiritual illumination

 Zentner, M, Eerola, T, “Rhythmic engagement with music in infancy”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.107(13), pp.5768

Rhythmic effects of movement increase with auditory tempo

“the degree of rhythmic coordination with music is positively related to displays of positive affect.”

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 7

Jojo’s Project:

I have recently been approached by Jojo who has informed me that he will no longer need me to play violin project. As of now, I will be focusing on my other projects.

 9.1.36 Project:

As of now, I’ve been struggling with the music of the assignment. My main issues have involved both writing and generally being unsatisfied with my assignment. I will attempt to finish a draft by the end of the week although I’m unsure if that can be done.

 Arduino Project:

For the Arduino Project, some of the parts have arrived at the end of the week which still provides the issue of waiting for the rest of the parts available. As for the music of the project, it has also been falling behind similarly to the 9.1.36 project due to similar problems.

 Jeremy’s Animation Project:

Jeremy has had little to no contact with me and Austin. We both are unsure of what’s happening in the project.

 Research:

Diaz-Gasca, S 2018, “Super Smash Covers! Performance and audience engagement in Australian videogame music cover bands” Perfect Beat, vol.19(1), pp.51-67.

Covers rely on repetition and known understanding of a track to be successful (not always)

Nostalgia is a prominent element to engagement in cover bands

Covers don’t necessarily match the source material

Players relates to music through experiences

  Garido, S, Macritchie, J 2018, “

Audience engagement with community music performances: Emotional contagion in audiences of a ‘pro-am’ orchestra in suburban Sydney

”,

Musicae Scientiae

The difference between live and recorded music is the “presence of other audience members.”

Interactions with other audience members can also “be distracting and detract from the enjoyment of the occasion.”

“Emotion contagion can be defined as the convergence of emotions with other individuals around us,”

“Most people found that their emotional responses to the music were constrained by the situation”

“Many also reported feeling that their emotional responses were amplified by the presence of the audience around them”

 Inspiration:

Oscar Fischinger (Komposition in Blau (1935))

This animation was found during my ongoing research in the aesthetics of light and stood out as graceful to me in how the colours switch between each other. Similarly, the smooth motions tied to composition creates a engaging and graceful experience.

https://vimeo.com/89193540

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 6

Arduino Projects:

Tutorials (Lynda):

Learning Arduino: Foundations

This tutorial is primarily a beginner course where I’m attempting to learn the basics of Arduino.

Learning Arduino: Interfacing with Analog Devices

A tutorial that I haven’t gotten far in but intend to explore further.

Learning Arduino: Interfacing with Hardware

A tutorial that I haven’t gotten far in but intend to explore further.

Learning Arduino: Pulse Width Modulation

Pusle width modulation is the main form of code and utilisation for the project as there has to be micro movements that are accounted for in the final product.

 Hardware:

https://www.eralighting.com/moving-lights-work/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANB0vXLMLH4

Ideas for Motors:

Servo Motors

Stepper Motors

The main motor that was chosen for the Arduino project was the stepper motor due to both being able to move in 2 directions and universally used for most lighting equipment.

 Connectivity:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31772267/connect-multiple-ble-devices-to-arduino

https://tmrh20.github.io/RF24Network/

For the wireless devices together, the main wireless connection chosen being the NRF24 network. I also decided to not use Bluetooth as a device can only be connected to one Bluetooth device at a time.

 Example of Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANB0vXLMLH4

This project shows the rough idea of what I would like to replicate for the Arduino mirror project and a rough way to achieve it. This week was also dedicated to ordering all the materials for the project including the electronics, shipping will take from 1-3 weeks.

 Pseudocode (Code for Mirror Set-up):

Start

Input Coordinate

If Coordinate < Current Coordinate

              Then Activate Pulse in Opposite Direction

If Coordinate > Current Coordinate

              Then Activate Pulse in Regular Direction

Input Duration

Duration = Length of Time Action Occurs

End

 Room Layout:

My hypothetical idea for the room layout that I could utilise involves placing the lights and mirrors in either sides of the room. The pro of this setup being that the beams of light can cross over and spread to the mirrors.

Post Concept:

The main idea that I created for the mirror set up involves a portable setup with a stand. This is primarily from an aesthetic standpoint and the main issue will be where the electronics will fit.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 5 Summary

Added Research After Presentation:

Lange, J., Christian, N., Schnitzler, A. 2013, “Audio–visual congruency alters power and coherence of oscillatory activity within and between cortical areas”, NeuroImage, Vol.79, pp.111-120

Apart from some interesting conclusions made on lower frequencies that I could tackle later, the majority of the study focuses on the effects of speech which I haven’t necessarily considered for work.

Testing how the brain reacts to congruency in audio-visual experiences of speech.

Coherence in the Theta Band was correlated to high gamma power over time.

Auditory could be modulated by proceeding visual information.

“Coherence in the low frequencies has been found to be modulated in deep layers of the cortex”

Veroli, P., Gianfranco, V., 2017, “Music-Dance: Sound and Motion in Contemporary Discourse”, Routledge, Abingdin, UK

The main takeaway that I found in this article is that since motor areas of the brain are activated during passive listening tasks, that I could utilise that connection to create a sense of graceful movement.

Part 4: Chapter 11: Empathic entanglements

Motor areas of the brain are active during passive listening tasks

Sung, K.L. 1959, “Korea's Graceful Music”, Elmo Publishing, New York, N. Y

Upon further inspection of the genre of Ah-Ak and its similar genres, that the sound in the pieces that I listened to didn’t personally fit the topic of graceful. The article is primarily an opinion piece/essay/informative work on the perceptions of the people who created “Korea’s Graceful Music.”

Ah-ak was typically used for orthodox rituals (Religious background)

Ah-ak, Tang-ak, and Kyang-ak (3 classes)

Graceful music tranquilises the audience with melody.

Graceful music shows values of beauty and goodness.

Reedijk, S. A., Bolders, A., Hommel, B. 2013, “The impact of binaural beats on creativity”, Journal of Fronteirs on Human Neuroscience, vol. 7 pp. 786

There were interesting studies on Binaural beats, the main idea that interested me was the idea of synchronised neural states which is an interesting area to follow.

Binaural beats aren’t a one-size-fits-all strategy

People with lower striatal dopamine levels are more sensitive to cognitive-enhancement procedures

The same effect wasn’t seen with people with higher striatal dopamine levels, but also saw higher synchronised neural states

Binaural beats may increase the temporal structure of idling neural activities and thereby reduce cortical noise, which again might facilitate setting up synchronized states

Post Presentation Notes:

It’s also noted that for the 9.1.36 room will have issues with Arduino mirrors being set up either way as they are still creating shadows on the walls when the DMXIS lights are on. The solution will either have to be moving to another room or booking a block of time for them to be used alone.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 4 Summary

Lighting

DMXIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyvFXVxRJoo

The first update from this week is that I’ve been looking further into DMXIS as part of my project in room 9.1.36. From this, I’ve learned a great deal of things. Mainly that colour is controlled by 3 channels in the RGBW format. The way that the light interacts is similar to the general additive colour information where colours get lighter when they mix together.

One area to look into further with this topic is with creating aesthetically pleasing colour combinations that can add variety to a show while also smoothly transitioning between one another.

 Mechanics:

Motors:

https://www.instructables.com/lesson/Motors-and-Motion/

https://www.raproducts.com/blog/standing-desks-electric-motor/

I’ve secondly been looking into possible motor setups that could be possible for a remote setup.

This mainly being along the lines of servo motors that react only to signals passed through them. The standing desk motors on the other hand will also be explored in the event of a setup where the mirrors are situated above the ground.

The possibility of Arduinos being used is also being considered. The main challenge with Arduinos that I can see with development is with my lack of experience in electrical engineering, the specific code that requires the functions to work and the possible cost of all the parts that will add up overtime.

As for the standing desk motors, one issue that I could see with the motors involves both the use of magnets and how the mirrors could be tracked with the lights. The magnets possibly being an issue if they could mess with the electronics and ruin the equipment. As for the lights, I’m not sure where the lights could possibly be used as they’d have to be coded to move quickly with the shifting mirror.

Although I would like to utilise the 9.1.36 space, I could potentially see issues with the mirrors getting in the way of everybody else’s projects. This may need to be remedied with a contraption that can block out the mirrors when a session has completed.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

Week 3 Summary

Academic Readings:

Colour Theory:

The primary takeaway from this research is to focus on the colour harmony as positive and negative associations with colours are inherently subjective. Similarly, the idea that blue is universally liked is a difficult conclusion to come to due to the small sampling size of 50 for the ecological valence theory study.

Palmer, S, Schloss, K 2010, ‘An ecological valence theory of human color preference’, Journal of Vision, vol. 9, pp.358

Colour preferences are fundamentally adaptive, positive and negative associations of colour depend on the experiences of the person, object preferences cause colour preferences, blue is universally liked, and brown is universally disliked.

Ou, Li‐Chen ; Yuan, Yinqiu ; Sato, Tetsuya ; Lee, Wen‐Yuan ; Szabó, Ferenc ; Sueeprasan, Suchitra ; Huertas, Rafae, 2018, Universal models of colour emotion and colour harmony, Color Research & Application, vol.43, pp.736-748

Colour harmonies (similar hue, similar chroma, different lightness, high lightness). Colour emotion responses are culture specific, while colour harmony is universal.

 Aesthetics of Motion:

A strong reinforcement of elegance in the project has been highlighted once again and the added focus on harmony and effortless motion has cemented the idea.

Cordner, C 2003, The Meaning of Graceful Movement, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, vol.30, pp.132-143

Graceful movement is gentle, delicate, & tender. Having a whole-hearted sense of unity with oneself. Tied with theological grace.

Sharpe, S 2013, The Aesthetics of Urban Movement: Habits, Mobility and Resistance, Geographical Research, vol.51, pp.166-172

Habits, Mobility and Resistance: grace is in elegance and harmony. Decreasing the efforts of the body and increasing proficiency (habit). Movement become second nature.

 Valence and Arousal of Sound:

Positive valence in music relies on slow tempos restored vigilant attention which leads to the idea of making slow music to capture the audience’s attention and be related to graceful.

Howlin, C, Vicary, S, Orgs, G 2018, Audiovisual Aesthetics of Sound and Movement in Contemporary Dance, Empirical Studies of the Arts

Sound in congruent with visuals was more enjoyable as dance to the participants. Novice audience members don’t like breathing tracks. Most audiences preferred dancing visuals to a reversed soundtrack.

Baldwin, C, Lewis, B 2017, Positive valence restores executive control over sustained attention, PLoS One, vol. 12, no. 11

Positive music with slow tempo restored vigilant attention. Music not liked by participants negatively affected results (genre)

[gracefulblogus-blog]

The Definition of Graceful

The word “graceful” has a vast amount of interpretations and definitions on what the word means. One way to define graceful is through the Cambridge Dictionary which states “moving in a smooth, relaxed, attractive way, or having a smooth, attractive shape”. The word “graceful” can be dated as far back as Latin with the Latin word “Gratia” which means pleasing or kindness (Little, W, Fowler, H.W, Coulson, J, Onions, C.T 1968).

In the academic field however, there are many more interpretations for how graceful can be defined. For example, in the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, an article written by Christopher Cordner titled “The Meaning of Graceful Movement” explores the topic differently. Cordner (2003, pp.136 + pp.137) firstly addresses the area of motion being associated to grace by outlining grace as both moving in a “gentle, delicate, and tender manner” and having a “whole-hearted unity of self with activity.” More specifically, Cordner also writes that “grace involves the appearance of effortlessness,” (Cordner, 2003, pp.137) which generates a “wonderful” (Cordner, 2003, pp.142) experience for the observers.

While these descriptors are relevant for movement, the focus will be directed to the emotional reactions of graceful in media. In reference to Cordner, a graceful experience is situated in the extremely pleasant end of the circumplex model of affect by James A. Russell (1980, pp.312). Furthermore, from how graceful is referred to as delicate and gentle, it would also lead to the arousal to be slightly deactivated. To create this effect in sound, one method would involve conclusions by Jacek Grekow in his book “From Content-based Music Emotion Recognition to Emotion Maps of Musical Pieces”. In his book, Grekow states that “rhythm features are important for arousal” and that “tonal features help a lot for detecting valence.”

One final area of graceful is related to the religious connotations of the “grace of God.” A theological interpretation of the word that is even acknowledged by Cordner, (2003, pp.140) who states that there’s “a substantial link between the aesthetic and theological uses of the word grace.” The connection between aesthetic grace and theological grace possibly being how the Grace of God provided humanity with a way to whole-heartedly unify themselves with God. This tying into the aesthetic interpretation of graceful being a whole-hearted unity with their chosen activity. The theological interpretation of grace of god is widely understood as “unconditional love toward a person who doesn’t deserve it.” (Paul.Z, 2005) This in turn also provides a different definition on graceful as a message of compassion towards another human being or from a deity towards humankind. A definition that is loosely related to the Latin definition of graceful representing kindness.

To conclude, the 2 definitions of graceful that will be chosen for graceful will be a combination of the previous points. For the aesthetic interpretation, the slow, tender movements of a character being attuned to their activity, producing a presence of elegance. While for areas of kindness, the act of kindness done out of unconditional love and not expecting anything in return. To create a graceful experience, the primary method would involve the combination of slow, delicate but meaningful movement while also being accompanied by a slow rhythmic structure and harmonising tones.

References:

Little, W, Fowler, H.W, Coulson, J, Onions, C.T 1968, “Shorter Oxford English Dictionary of Historical Principles”, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, England, UK

Cordner, C 2003, “The Meaning of Graceful Movement”, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, vol. 30 issue 2, pp 132 – 143

Russell, J.A. & Pratt, G. 1980, "A description of the affective quality attributed to environments", Journal of personality and social psychology, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 311-322

Grekow, J 2018, “From Content-based Music Emotion Recognition to Emotions Maps of Musical Pieces”, Springer International Publishing, New York, USA

Paul, Z 2005, “The Christianity Primer: Two Thousand Years of Amazing Grace”, Palladium Press, Maryland, USA

[gracefulblogus-blog]

The sense of the word graceful in this image stems from 2 areas of the painting. This being the subject matter and the techniques utilised to paint this image. For the subject matter, the 4 dancers in the image are completely engrossed in their performance while also reflecting the serenity of the other dancers. As for the artwork, the artist Degas applies broad strokes to the canvas to create a beautiful artwork that seems effortless to the audience.

[gracefulblogus-blog]

The many animations of Goofy from Disney exude a different type of graceful in the movement of the character. The exact appreciation of the graceful movement of Goofy stems from the technical skill of the animators. From squash and stretch to secondary actions, the large variety of animation principles present in the collection of frames are animation marvels to behold. However, one area of weakness for this example is the fact that to appreciate the type of grace in the animation is to have knowledge of the process. However, this also highlights another area to be considered in the topic of graceful. This area being an experience that is enhanced by one’s knowledge or history with the topic.