#e.g. using character postures/expressions/body language

[literaryvein-reblogs]

hello, i was wondering if you could help me with describing hands? one of my characters is using sign language to communicate, and while the facial expressions are fine it's the hands i struggle with. thank you for your hard work!!

Describing Sign Language in Writing

Sign language - a nonverbal communication method that relies on physical movement instead of spoken words.

The figure shows the well-defined structure that distinguishes sign languages from simple gestural communication or mime, imbuing them with the complexity and depth characteristics of the spoken language.

Sign languages, distinct from the many communication methods employed by humans, exhibit expressions of complex linguistic systems rooted in visual-manual modality.

Rather than merely gestures, these languages are structured and intricate, evolving in response to cultural and societal influence.

At the core of sign language lies manual articulation complemented by non-manual elements (such as facial expressions and body posture).

This combination yields a rich communication tapestry in which each sign or gesture has a specific meaning organized by syntactic and morphological rules.

Visual-spatial language uses visible cues from the hands, eyes, facial expressions, and movements to convey meaning.

Although sign language is primarily used by individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, it is also used by many hearing people.

Like spoken languages, sign languages have their own grammar and structural rules and have evolved.

However, there is no universal sign language, and different countries have unique versions of sign languages specific to their regions and cultures. Example: the ASL differs from Auslan in Australia and the BSL in the United Kingdom. A person fluent in ASL may need to understand a local version of sign language in Sydney, Australia, instead of different dialects or accents in spoken languages.

There are more than 300 different sign languages in the world, spoken by more than 72 million deaf or hard-of-hearing people worldwide.

Each individual gesture is called a sign. Each sign has 3 distinct parts:

the handshape,

the position of the hands, and

the movement of the hands.

PHONOLOGY. At the heart of all languages, spoken or signed, lies the study of phonology. This discipline investigates the systematic arrangement of sounds in spoken languages and the corresponding organization of meaningful units in sign languages. In the case of sign languages, these units are not acoustic but instead composed of distinct hand shapes, locations, movements, and facial expressions. These elements work harmoniously to serve as essential structures for the sign-language framework.

Handshape: This refers to the specific shape of the hands when producing a sign. Different hand shapes can change the meaning of a sign, as different vowels or consonants can change the meaning of a word in spoken language.

Orientation: This involves the direction the palms or fingers face during the sign. The orientation can be towards or away from the signer, up, down, or to the side, and like a hand shape, it can significantly alter the meaning of a sign.

Location: This refers to the location in the signing space where a sign is produced, such as in front of the face, on the body, or in the neutral space in front of the signer. Location helps differentiate signs that might otherwise be similar in hand shape, orientation, and movement.

Movement: Sign languages use various movements, including direction, path, and manner (smooth, fast, or slow). Movement is crucial for expressing different concepts and can change the tense or aspects of verbs, among other things.

Facial Expressions: In sign languages, facial expressions are not just emotional indicators but are integral to grammar and lexicon, conveying distinctions in meaning, mood, tense, and sentence type (e.g., declarative, interrogative).

Understanding the phonology of sign languages is similar to acquiring the alphabet of a spoken language. The distinct characteristics of these elemental units lay the foundation for forming more complex structures and meanings.

CLASSIFIERS (CL) in sign language are a group of hand shapes used to represent general categories of objects, people, places, or concepts, as well as their orientation, movement, and relationship to one another within the spatial context of the signer’s narrative.

These handshapes are not standalone signs but are employed within the structure of signed sentences to provide descriptive or locative information that complements the narrative.

Classifiers allow signers to convey complex visual-spatial information efficiently and vividly, making them essential to sign language’s grammatical structure and expressive power.

Object Classifiers: represent objects or people with various shapes and sizes. For example, a flat hand may represent a flat surface or vehicle, whereas an upright index finger can denote a person standing.

Locative Classifiers: describe the location of objects or the spatial relationships between them. They can indicate where something is situated or how items are arranged relative to each other.

Plural Classifiers: used to depict groups of objects or people and their distribution in space. These classifiers can show the arrangement of objects, such as items lined up in a row or randomly scattered.

Element Classifiers: convey information about natural elements or substances such as water, fire, smoke, and wind, illustrating the movement or texture of these elements.

Body Classifiers: represent parts of the body or whole-body actions. They can show how a body part moves or is positioned in space.

Movement Classifiers: illustrate how an object or person moves within a space, including the direction, manner, and speed of movement.

Instrument Classifiers: show how an object is manipulated or used, often indicating the type of grip or action performed with tools or utensils.

Size and Shape Specifiers: provide specific details about the size, shape, or orientation of objects, enhancing descriptive accuracy and visual clarity in narratives.

Examples

A Quiet Place. The depiction of sign language—specifically, ASL—was heavily researched. They cast a deaf actress to play Regan for the express reason that she could help tutor the cast so they feel fluent. Individual characters also have their own "accent": Lee signs in a stern manner, Evelyn is elegant, Marcus is laconic, and Regan is sassy.

In Dune, multiple characters use hand signals to give orders to their subordinates. In fact, there are entire sign languages developed separately by both the Atreides and the Harkonnens, as well as even more subtle ones developed by the Bene Gesserit, that allow them to communicate irrelevant information verbally and important stuff with their hands, making sure that even if they are overheard, the enemy won't learn anything.

Beauty and the Beast (1987 series) has a deaf character who had grown up in the tunnels in "An Impossible Silence" and "Sticks and Stones" who communicated through ASL. The second episode was groundbreaking in that there were several scenes where deaf characters communicated in on-screen silence, with no voiceover or even background music, something the deaf actors involved fought hard for, not wanting someone else's voice to overshadow their own "voices".

The Shape of Water: Elisa is mute, and thus uses real-life American Sign Language to communicate. She also teaches the fish person how to sign, since he can't physically talk either.

Koko the Gorilla: Sign language is a powerful way for people of all hearing abilities to communicate. It can even be used to communicate with gorillas. In the 1970s, language researcher Dr. Penny Patterson began working with Koko, a western lowland gorilla, teaching her sign language. Research has shown that gorillas (and other large apes) have language skills similar to those of small children, and throughout her life, Koko learned more than 1,000 different signs. Koko was able to have entire conversations in sign language, as well as play word games and make up her own signs.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Thank you for your kind words, really love doing these! Studying how other media accurately depict these hand movements could also be helpful. More examples and information in the sources linked above. Also have these previous posts:

Writing Notes: Deaf Characters & Sign(ed) Languages

Hearing Loss in Children

[myrozendream]

Rozen Profile

Demographics

Name: Rozen (Rose/Rosie/Ro)

Name Meaning: Rose, may also mean prince

Age: 21

Birthday/Zodiac: June 30 (Cancer)

Sex/Gender: Male (Male/He/Him)

Ethnicity: German-Korean

Sexuality: Demi-Pan

Occupation: Dancer, Model, Musician

Socioeconomic status: Filthy Rich-Gives most to charity

Education: Bachelors in Music; Currently working on Masters/Doctorate in Child Psychology

Other notes:

‍

Physical Appearance

Eye color: Emerald Green

Skin color: Peachy White

Hair: Long, straight, red hair->Usually kept in a high pony-tail with a ribbon gifted by Myungdae or his family; Does dye his hair black for a while

Height: 6ft 2in

Body type:

Fitness level:

Tattoos:

Scars/Birthmarks: 'Whore' carved into his back, stab scars across legs, slash scar across neck

Other distinguishing features: 23 piercings: Rt. ear= Industrial, tragus, and 3 lobe piercings; Lt. ear= Tragus, 5 helix, and 3 lobe piercings; Face= Eyebrow, 2 nostril, septum, and lip piercings; Bellybutton piercing; and a Frenum Ladder piercing-> Facial Piercings are usually out when in the public eye due to his job

Disabilities: Severe depression with suicidal ideation, ADHD, insomnia, night-terrors, sleep paralysis, Loss of apatite, Fear of being touched without permission, PTSD

Fashion style:

Accessories:

Cleanliness/Grooming:

Posture/Gait:

Tics:

Coordination (or lack thereof):

Weaknesses:

Other notes:

History

Place of birth: Germany

Key family members: Scarlet (Mother); Hajoon (Father); Ruby (Twin Sister); Carnelia (Sister); Cherry (Baby Sister); Rufina (Grandmother)

Notable events/milestones:

Criminal record: Was almost arrested for punching a creeper so hard that the man fell back with a broken nose onto a curb and got knocked out. It was considered self-defense though, so the charges were dropped.

Affiliations:

Skeletons in the closet: Ruins the lives of creeps that perv on those that he loves/are under his protection (e.g. gets them fired, put into jail, ruins their relationships, etc.)

Other notes:

Psychological Traits

Personality type:

Personality traits:

Temperament:

Introvert/Extrovert:

Mannerisms:

Educational background:

Intelligence:

Self-esteem:

Hobbies:

Skills/talents:

Loves:

Morals/Virtues:

Phobias/Fears:

Angered by:

Pet peeves:

Obsessed with:

Routines:

Bad habits:

Desires:

Flaws:

Quirks:

Favorite sayings:

Disabilities:

Secrets:

Regrets:

Accomplishments:

Memories:

Other notes:

Communication

Languages known: German, English, Korean, Thai, Japanese, and is learning Spanish

Preferred communication methods:

Accent:

Style and pacing of speech:

Pitch:

Laughter:

Smile:

Use of gestures:

Facial expressions:

Verbal expressions:

Other notes:

Strengths, Weaknesses, and Abilities

Physical strengths:

Physical weaknesses:

Intellectual strengths:

Intellectual weaknesses:

Interpersonal strengths:

Interpersonal weaknesses:

Physical abilities:

Magical abilities:

Physical illnesses/conditions:

Mental illnesses/conditions:

Other notes:

Relationships

Partner(s)/Significant other(s): Myungdae (Wolfie/Neugdae)

Lover(s): Both he and Myungdae slept with a unnamed female friend for the experience (since they had only had each other previously)

Parents/Guardians: Scarlet and Hajoon

Children: None currently, but he does want a child with Myungdae in the future. Ruby, his twin, has agreed to carry the baby.

Grandparents: Rufina (Scarlet's Mother)

Other Family: Rubera (twin sister), Carnelia (middle), Cherry (youngest)

Pets: Wolfram (Golden Retriever) and Taeyang (American Curl Cat)

Best friends: Iseul and Daehyun

Friends: Hyunsu, Jaemin, Jaeseok, Chunhwa, and Eunji

Rivals: Iseul and Ruby

Enemies: Daehyun (past); Other

Colleagues: Hyunsu, Jaemin, Jaeseok, and Seungwon

Mentors/Teachers: Seungwon

Idols/Role models:

Followers: 'UFO' (Unhinged Fan Organization)

Clubs/Memberships: 'Unhinged Alliance'

Social media presence: Multiple

Public perception of them:

Other notes:

Character Growth

Character archetype:

Character arc:

Core values:

Internal conflicts:

External conflicts:

Goals: 

Motivations:

Epiphanies:

Significant events/plot points:

Other notes:

[sneverussape]

snape’s adopted habits hc

inspired by this:

i thought it’d be an interesting exercise to imagine what sort of adopted habits snape would have. as a reclusive character, he’s very choosy about the company he keeps, and is also very conscientious of all his movements. if he would adopt habits of those he ‘loves’ (in quotes because it’s a loose term in snanguage), it’d be a conscious choice especially as he got older. it’s kind of his love language in a way if he cherry-picked certain habits and incorporated them into his own personality; it’ll be one of the few outward signs that you have actually affected him, and it would mostly be in a positive light.

these will be based too on other hcs i have of him and the other characters, so shades of catholic!snape, dark!lily, artist!snape, etc may show.

tobias - religion-based swearing, e.g. “jesus, joseph, and mary”, “bleedin’ christ”; whistling when he’s in a very good mood (only done when he’s alone though); slamming doors; a preference for dark beer; finding the sound of pens or quills scratching against paper relaxing eileen - facial expressions usually ones expressing distaste or disagreement; humming songs (usually lullabies or hymns) from the Old Country absent-mindedly (i hc her as being culturally jewish and that they came from a country that was predominantly jewish); clenching his fists behind his back or at his sides when he’s feeling frustrated or angry; tracing protective runes on surfaces with his finger when he feels unsafe lily - smiling (although after they ceased being friends and when she consequently died, this particular habit also disappeared); calling petunia ‘tuney’; a preference for cadbury creme eggs because lily would always give him one during easter; tying his shoelaces in double knots; the way he tucks his hair behind his ear; an unhealthy amount of knowledge about disney movies lucius - not shouting when in an argument; his plummy accent; being unnecessarily verbose to show off his vocabulary; his posture; the way he flies on a broom is 100% lucius’ style because he taught him; clenching his jaw surreptitiously; upper-class wizard swearing, e.g. “what in merlin and morgana’s name”; the art of body language narcissa - looking people in the eye when talking to them; the habit of automatically figuring out what family tree and branch each pureblood or halfblood belongs to; his stance when duelling was taught by narcissa so he could center his magic better and aim more accurately; remains sober at parties and revels; crossing his legs; the ability to identify and name constellations minerva - using sarcasm at students; saying “aye” when he’s in conversation with another scot; secluding himself on a mountaintop or hilltop when he needs to think; enjoying the sound of bagpipes i thought about including albus but ultimately decided that albus’ habits would have the opposite effect on snape, e.g. i can imagine snape developing an aversion to most sweets because albus liked them so much. he’d learn to act a certain way with albus to get what he wants but purposely picking up the headmaster’s habits is not something i can imagine him doing.

[thestupidhelmet]

Hey there, can you pls help a fellow writer? Here's the thing: I've been writing T70S fanfic for a while, and I feel that I'm managing to keep the characters in character, writing dialogue and their thoughts is easy for me now, but I'm having a whole lot of trouble with their body language.

For instance, when Jackie's really happy or excited about something, she claps her hands enthusiastically, smiles and gives those small adorable jumps. I've seen her doing that on the show and I try to bring that to my stories, but I'm having trouble writing her body language in other situations.

And that's a problem I'm having with all the characters. Like, I know Kelso and Eric both tend to gesticulate a lot with their hands when they're excited about something, but I don't know how to write them when they're scared, or sad, etc. Does that even make sense?

Anyways, I have no trouble writing about the character's feelings, I do have trouble when they need to express their feelings with something other than words, usually, their body language.

I want to give each character their own unique way to express themselves through their body. Like, Hyde and Eric, for example, will behave differently when they're like, really happy or really sad.

Hyde is not the type of guy that claps when he's really excited about something, he's a chill guy and he's the one I struggle the most to write when he's experiencing a strong emotion.

What I mean to ask is: can you give me some tips? I'm really struggling with this. Sorry if this was way too long, I don't even know if this ask made sense to you, but... well, I just could really use some help.

Hi! For my own T7S stories, I’ve made specific choices for the characters’ (emotional) body language based on my understanding / interpretation of who they are, and you can do the same. You’ve obviously observed quite a bit from the actors’ performances from the show, but I’ll describe body language you might not have spotted.

Jackie

She displays a variety of behaviors when she’s sad or upset, depending on what lies underneath her sadness. It also changes depending on her life experiences (basically, how many times her heart has been broken and by whom). You’ll find some commonalities in her body language when she’s upset, however.

When she feels hopeless or is grieving, she stays relatively still, sitting in one spot. She’ll hug a pillow or pick at a stuffed animal’s ear until her feelings overwhelm her. Then she’ll full-out cry while continuing to stay in one spot and picking at whatever she’s grabbed for comfort. See “Ski Trip” (1x13).

As she experiences more heartbreak, her stillness remains when she’s upset. She’ll stare off into the distance while crying. But unlike in “Ski Trip,” she sometimes cries silently. See “Kelso’s Serenade” (2x21).

When she’s depressed, she loses affect in her voice. Her movements are slower. See “Jackie Moves On” (2x22).

When she’s fighting to be understood -- whether she’s angry or sad or wanting desperately for someone to do something specific  -- she becomes animated. She makes pleading gestures with her hands. She’ll also place her hand on her heart.

When she’s fighting for her life -- her emotional life / happiness -- she’ll let snot run down her face while trying to get the other person to understand her needs. See “Don’t Lie to Me” (7x12).

When frustrated, she’ll slap her leg, slam a door after leaving a room, or even kick or pinch the other person. (No! Bad, Jackie!) See “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” (5x23) and “The Immigrant Song” (5x24).

When annoyed or disgusted, she’ll grunt or lean her head back -- or do both at once. With Eric, she’s also sneered. (Too many examples exist to list a specific episode.)

When she’s trying to coax someone to doing what she wants, she’ll do a subtle shoulder shimmy (which I bet she picked up from her mom). She’s done this with Hyde and, I think, Donna. See “Kelso’s Serenade” (2x21) for an example with Hyde.

When she has a sudden idea she thinks is important, she’ll gasp and put her hand on Donna, Kelso, or Hyde’s knee (depending on whom she’s talking to).

Jackie will rub a person’s knee or arm as an expression of emotional support. She’ll also lean her temple against a friend’s (or lovers) when she’s feeling affectionate toward them.

Honestly, I could keep on listing body language for her. But you can find it yourself by watching the episodes. Find an episode where Jackie experiences a specific emotion you’re looking to write into your own story and see how it’s portrayed. This advice stands for the rest of the characters, but I’ll list some body language for them, too.

Kelso

When he’s scared, he closes in on himself physically, trying to make himself a small as possible. He also shakes while doing this. Or he’ll scream. Or he’ll shove someone -- even a person he supposedly loves -- out of the way to get himself to safety. He’ll also find someplace to hide if he feels it’s necessary, usually under a pierce of furniture.

When he’s sad, he’ll cry. Sometimes he’ll hug something with sentimental value to his chest, like a photograph while crying. Or he’ll rip apart something symbolic of how he’s feeling, like a cookie shaped heart.

If feelings of anger or loneliness are mixed into his sadness, he’ll sometimes cry but it’s less forceful. He’ll slump to the couch.

If he feels particularly betrayed, he won’t look at the person who hurt him while in that person’s presence, even if they’re talking to each other.

When anger and betrayal mix, he’ll get physically violent -- usually, but not always, to his own detriment. He’ll run into a screen door then yank it off its hinges. He’ll shoot someone with a BB gun, etc.

When he’s confused, he often stares blankly with a strange expression on his face.

Eric

When he’s scared, the pitch of his voice rises. He’ll swallow more. Sometimes he stutters. He’ll fidget. He’ll look from side to side. He becomes hypervigilant of his surroundings.

Eric often expresses his anger either directly or passive-aggressively. When direct, he’ll shout his feelings and thoughts or speak them at a louder volume than normal. He’s not particularly cruel in what he says.

When passive-aggressive, he’ll smirk smugly while or after making a sharp insult. He’ll rest his hands on his hips or hook his hand / thumbs in his pants pockets in between gesturing. He’ll also laugh smugly while sticking out his tongue then blow a raspberry. This last sequence of behavior seems to be one he and Hyde share, so maybe one of them picked it up from the other while growing up.

If frustration is mixed with his anger, he’ll shout and shove furniture around.

When feeling a particularly overwhelming emotion, whether pleasant or unpleasant, he tends to get on the hood of the Vista Cruiser and look up at the sky. If deeply upset, he might cry silently and slam his fist onto the car’s hood. See “The Promise Ring” (3x25).

After making a devastating choice he believes is right but breaks his heart, he’ll shove his hands in his pockets, look down at the floor or his shoes, and stay quiet. See “Love, Wisconsin Style” (4x27).

The quality of Eric’s voice often reveals a lot about his emotional state. He’ll speak really quietly, not whispering, but as if trying not to scare away a doe when delivering bad news.

Fez

Fez is relatively open and direct with his emotional expression. When he’s sad, he cries. When he’s angry, he shouts. When he’s hurt-angry, he might cry-shout. When he’s happy, he might sing a song and/or do a little dance. Or he’ll hug and kiss his friends (male and female) when he’s grateful.

He’s generally not afraid to speak his mind. If his feelings are particularly intense, he’ll demonstrate his emotional state with a physical display (e.g., ���You dump Fez? I dump fries! There’s your scene!”)

When he’s scared, however, he sometimes pulls in emotionally to protect himself. He won’t speak his mind. Or he’ll clasp his hand in prayer, look up, and ask God for help or answers. He might disregard another person’s boundaries to feel safer (see “Ski Trip” when he’s cold). On the opposite end of the spectrum, he can become obsessive (e.g., calling Eric at three in the morning to ask if they’re still friends).

Fez tends to keep his hands on his hips a lot, regardless of what he’s feeling at any given moment. It’s one of his characterizing personality quirks.

Donna

When she’s angry, she can yell her feelings or an insult (or both). Or completely swallow her anger and talk / act as if she’s fine. She’ll stomp away after an argument, whether up a flight of stairs or to her yard. In season 3, she also takes on a quality of becoming emotionally distant and dismissive, which is reflected in her body language by maintaining a physical distance while looking the other person squarely in the eye.

When she’s sad, she’s doesn’t tend to cry. She’ll talk about what’s upsetting her with emotion in her voice. She’ll gesture with her hands or bite her thumbnail. If she’s discussing her feelings with Eric, she’ll hug him.

When she’s depressed, her posture slumps.

When she’s terrified or feeling betrayed, that’s when she’ll cry. She might reach out to the other person (Eric) with her hand.

Donna tends to act out and/or become self-destructive when she’s feels powerless. Her body language gains a swagger (her walk, her facial expressions, her tone of voice).

If she’s happy, she’ll gesture in excitement with both hands. She smiles and laughs, too, while explaining what’s made her happy. 

Donna will hug friends and family to show emotional support.

Hyde

Hyde does not like people knowing how he’s feeling at any given moment, whether it’s happy, angry, sad, etc. But he does express emotion through body language.

When he’s nervous and he’s sitting, his leg might bounce or his foot will shake. More often, though, he’ll cross his arms over his chest protectively. This latter behavior is true for many of his emotions.

He’ll pace when he’s conflicted. Or stand still and pinch the bridge of his nose while considering all the variables of his internal conflict. He’s very careful when speaking or purposely revealing his (emotional) truth, and he might take a few breaths before actually saying it aloud. 

He’ll also pace and scratch the back of his head he’s antsy or edgy.

Generally, though, he tries hard to suppress his feelings. This often makes him stand stiffly with his arms dangling still at his sides.

When he’s amused, he doesn’t hide it. He’ll chuckle or laugh. If he’s very amused, he’ll laugh hard and press his hands against his stomach. If he’s laughing that hard with a friend, he’ll hold onto that friend for support while lowering his head.

He’s rarely happy, but with Jackie he is. His joy beams out of him like sunlight. See his private moment with Jackie at the start of “Magic Bus” (6x03) and the circle scene with Jackie in “I’m A Boy” (6x08) for examples.

He’ll hug his male friends when they’ve been gone for months or they’re about to leave for a long time. He’ll also hug Kitty and Red when he feels happy for or grateful to them.

That being said, he doesn’t like when people hug him spontaneously. Depending on who’s doing the hugging, he’ll either shove them off angrily (Kelso, Fez, and Eric), endure the hug until he figures out how to make it stop (Kitty), or even panic a little (Roy). Hyde has to be the initiator or co-initiator of the hug. He likely feels trapped and out of control otherwise, which makes sense considering the physical abuse he experienced from his mom.

He’ll clasp or sling his arm around a friend’s shoulder in camaraderie or support.

If you’d like more advice about showing character emotion through body language, I recommend The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman.

I hope this post helps! :D

[marcuswilliamsmedia]

Music video conventions

Definition: Codes and conventions are different things used within music videos to construct messages and meanings.These techniques can be divided into two types; technical and symbolic. Overall, mise-en-scene, camera movements, angles and shots and sounds all contribute towards making the music video look professional. However, each different styles of music video, e.g performance, concept and narrative, as well as different genres, which all have different codes, conventions and representations. The mise-en-scene for music videos differs depending on what the genre of music is. The components of the mise-en-scene are. It is used to convey the importance of people in music videos as well as the representation of certain characters. Lighting - how the scene is lit Props - objects and items within the frame Costume - what the artist is wearing Hair and Makeup - style of the artist Location - where the music video is filmed Colour - specific colours representing certain moods and atmosphere.

Camera Angles: Techniques is how the meaning is conveyed using technical equipment. This may include things such as how the camera is used including types of angles and movements, different sound within the shot, whether its diegetic or non diegetic, whether its fast or slow editing and the genre of the song. Symbolic techniques are they ways of showing meanings beyond what is obvious in front of you. It could be through the mist-en-scene including facial expressions, body language, posture, etc.

Examples of music video conventions in pop: Eye level shots are used to create a real life effect and as if we are seeing the artist in the real world. A high angle can be used to show the subject from above and can have an effect of them being less powerful and less significant. Low angles are shot from below the artist making them appear powerful or dominant. A Birds eye view is a angle that shows the artist directly from above. It can add a dramatic effect and spatial perspective. It can also show the positions of subjects and motions differently, enabling the audience to see things within the shot that the artist cannot. Slanted shots, also known as Dutch angles, is where the camera is tilted to the side purposely. It can be used to dramatise the shot and is creative. It is very important to have codes and conventions within music videos as it allows the audience to be familiar with particular genres as sub consciously they will eventually recognise the different conventions within the genre. It provides a structure to the video that the audience will understand and the video relates and suits the lyrics in some sort of way.

[alebolivarx-archive]

Task 14: Getting To Know You

Full Name: Ale Bolivar Vicente Sánchez Name origin: His name is an alias given to him by the Spanish, the first human name he ever had. Ale: Spanish, short form of Alejandro. Means defender. Bolivar: Spanish, habitational name. Vicente: Spanish. Means conqueror. Sánchez: Spanish. Means son of Sancho. Nickname(s): Coyote & Fennec -- codenames assigned to him. On rare occasions, with people he tells his real name to, he may go by Ale or Bo. Does s/he like the nickname?: He is indifferent to the codenames. He is used to them. It's been so long since anyone called him by anything else. He likes being called Ale or Bo, but almost never tells anyone those names.

Birth date: May 1, 1063 Place of birth: Tenochtitlan--modern day Mexico City. Ethnic background: Mexican Religion: Agnostic Current address: Suite 505 at The Institute. Does s/he live with anyone?: No. Home decor: Inexpensive, utilitarian, practical, organized. Does s/he drive? Own a car?: Ale can drive, but does not own a car. Pets?: None. Current occupation: Guard at The Institute. Job satisfaction: Content; ambivalent. Sexuality: Bisexual Marital status: Single List any significant previous romantic partners: Many partners before his capture, though he hardly remembers most of them now. No significant partners since. Any children: None that he knows of.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

Height: 5′7 or 6′3, depending on the form. Weight: 152lbs or 215lbs, depending on the form. Body type: Ale has two forms that he regular shifts between. The first is short and slight, wiry and deceptively strong, built to blend into a crowd. The second is tall and solid, bulky and obviously strong, built to intimidate. Eye color: Hazel to brown, depending on the day. He’s not particularly consistent in that aspect of his shift. Need glasses/contacts/hearing aid?: No. Skin tone: Dark, olive. Prominent features: Slightly fox-like in both of his forms. Noticeably sharp canines. Several scars follow him through any human form he takes, most notably: a long, jagged scar from the top of his left shoulder to the point of his elbow and a perfect square of burned skin on his lower back. The first is partially hidden by fur in his fox form; the second presents as a small, hairless, scarred patch on his back. When in human form, Ale also bears a tattoo on the back of his neck--a perfect black ring, the mark of La Fraternidad. General health: Good. Any current health problems or chronic conditions?: His left shoulder, injured by magical means on a mission many years ago and further damaged by attempts to repair it, has been known to give him trouble now and then. How does s/he dress?: Neat and practical, shades of black, white, and gray. Why does she dress in the above manner?: Ale's wardrobe is utilitarian, designed for practicality. Generally speaking, if he can’t fight in it, he does not wear it. Any special jewelry?: No. Ale occasionally wears rings, but none of them have any special significance. Grooming: Fastidious, very neat. Though he is not concerned with getting dirty in order to get a job done, he will usually clean himself up very quickly. If other than average, why?: When under La Fraternidad’s control, he had certain rules he was obliged to follow, including very high cleanliness standards. Describe hairstyle: In his smaller form, Ale’s hair is a little longer, usually reaching the tops of his ears, and, on rare occasions, down to his chin. In his larger form, it is cropped short. Natural hair texture: Mildly wavy. Current hair texture (if different): Same as above. Natural hair color: In human form, dark brown. In fox form, Ale’s fur has been white since he gained his ninth tail over a hundred years ago. Before that, it was gray. Current hair color (if different): See above.

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE/COMMUNICATION:

Pace of speech (fast, average, slow?): When speaking Spanish, Ale speaks rapidly. In English, and most other languages he speaks, his pace is fairly average. Voice tone: Ale’s voice is average to deep, depending on the form. He speaks calmly, level and authoritative, confident. Accent/dialect, if any: Ale speaks many languages. The first human language he ever learned was Nahuatl, followed by Spanish. It was centuries later that he learned English for the first time, and his accent when speaking English is slightly colored by the languages he learned first. Any favorite/habitual words/phrases? Curse words?: Tends to curse in Spanish. 'Ay’ is a common filler, and ‘pinche’ gets dropped a lot. Describe general vocabulary or speech pattern: Formal, concise. Mannerisms/demeanor?: Generally cool, remote, indifferent, and very still. When particularly comfortable or relaxed, he tends to talk with his hands and pull expressive faces. Typical posture: Straight, stiff. Gestures: Usually very still, hands clasped behind his back or in his lap. When particularly relaxed or in trusted company, he talks with his hands. Common/habitual gestures: Taps his fingers.

EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR / HABITS:

Finances: Prudent. Money is never wasted on frivolous things. Personal Habits: Ale does not smoke, drink, or do recreational drugs. Morning Routine: Ale’s mornings are very regimented. He wakes up at precisely six a.m. every morning, makes his bed, showers and grooms, cooks himself breakfast, and completes a rigorous morning workout. Afternoon/Workday: Work is guarding slaves, a duty which Ale is fairly indifferent to. He is not unkind to them, but he has little pity for their situation. As far as he is concerned, The Institute is downright generous to its property, and any trouble slaves run into, they bring on themselves--especially when they run into trouble with him. He is strict and unbending with regard to the rules; even the most minor infractions do not go unpunished, though the punishment will usually match the crime. Dinner: Ale cooks his own dinner, by the strict nutrition standards he lived under while with La Fraternidad. He dines alone in his suite, often in silence. Evening: Generally speaking, Ale spends his evenings alone in his suite, though he may sometimes venture out for a run, or go exploring. Sleep Habits: Ale is capable of falling asleep anywhere, and very quickly, though he is easily awakened by any sound that might be a threat. He has frequent nightmares. Since leaving La Fraternidad, he sometimes takes heavy doses of sleeping pills for dreamless sleep. Any special talents? Skills?: Centuries of rigorous training have made Ale a very skilled fighter. He’s knowledgeable about most weapons, modern and old alike. Ale is an excellent marksman and a dab hand with throwing knives. He has a knack for languages. What is s/he particularly unskilled at?: Ale falls short in a lot of interpersonal skills. He’s not particularly empathetic and is frequently a rather awkward conversationalist. Any hobbies (sports, games, arts, collecting, etc.)?: Ale plays the piano--or he did, when under La Fraternidad’s control, because there was one in the compound where he spent most of his free time. He collects knives and enjoys football.

FAMILY OF ORIGIN:

Mother's name: If she had a human name, Ale no longer remembers it. Current status: Unknown. Very likely still alive, she would be well over a thousand years old now. Describe the mother’s relationship with character: They don’t have one. Ale has not seen any family since long before his capture by humans. Father's name: Unknown. Current status: Unknown. Describe the father’s relationship with character: They don’t have one. Ale never knew his father at all. Sibling(s): Ale has several siblings. Like his mother, if they had human names, he no longer remembers them. Nieces/Nephews: Unknown, but they probably exist.

THE PAST:

Home town: Tenochtitlan, modern day Mexico City. Was his/her childhood happy? Troubled? Dull?  Does the character remember it accurately?: His childhood was not unhappy, but he remembers very little of it now. He was independent from a very young age. Earliest memory: Racing his siblings through wilderness in his natural form. Happiest memory: Time spent with his young friend at La Fraternidad. Saddest memory: Watching that same friend die at the hands of his masters. How much school did s/he attend, if any? Did/does s/he like school? Why or why not?: Ale has no formal/classical education. He was trained by La Fraternidad, and educated by various masters before them. For a long time, he enjoyed learning, and sought books and lessons in what little free time he had. These days he is indifferent. Significant past jobs: Ale worked for many masters, most notably a secret society he knew as La Fraternidad, who sought to capture and study supernaturals. He served as spy, bounty hunter, thug, and whatever other role they needed filled. Police record: None. First crush/romantic love?: Ale had many romances before his capture, mostly with humans. Many of their names have been lost to centuries of distance and mental conditioning, but he remembers their faces. What was his/her first sexual experience?  Is it a positive or negative memory?: His first time was with a human woman. He remembers it vaguely but positively. Major illnesses, accidents or traumas? How is s/he still affected, if at all?: Ale’s personality is largely shaped by the trauma of his capture and the centuries of trauma that followed it. It has changed him from the wild, joyful creature of his youth, to the cold, distant man of today.

MENTAL ATTITUDE/PERSONAL BELIEFS:

Any psychological issues (e.g. phobias,  depression, paranoia, narcissism, etc.)?: Depression, PTSD Is s/he an optimist or pessimist?: Pessimist Meyers Briggs Personality Type: INTJ Is s/he cautious, brave, or reckless in his/her approach to life?: Cautious. What does s/he most value/prioritize?: Peace. Order. Safety. Whom does s/he really love best?: Currently: no one. Himself. Whom or what would s/he be willing to die for?: He was willing to die in his quest to destroy La Fraternidad. He didn’t. Now there is nothing. Is s/he generally compassionate or self-involved?: Self-involved. His compassion has been very thoroughly crushed. Personal philosophy: Ale believes the world is big, wide, and beautiful--and cold, dark, and random. He believes in order and rules. What (or who) is his/her biggest fear?: La Fraternidad. Dogs. Any prejudices?: Doesn’t like werewolves much, on account of the ‘afraid of dogs’ thing. Does s/he believe in fate or destiny? Is s/he superstitious?: Not anymore. Character's greatest strength: Ale is extremely adaptable. Other good characteristics:  Ale is clever, quick-witted and quick-thinking. His age and experience have made him wise, and largely fearless. Buried deep beneath centuries of necessary indifference, Ale still has a thirst for adventure and a love of fun, mischief, and good story-telling. He’s fiercely loyal to the rare few who earn that loyalty. Character's greatest flaw: Ale is very cold. Other character flaws: Ale is capable of great cruelty. What empathy he once had has been largely beaten out of him--it’s very difficult to stir it now. He’s very guarded with his own emotions, rarely even acknowledging them to himself. At times he can be overly analytical, and his confidence in his own skills can cross into arrogance. He’s very attached to his routine, to the point of being angered by things that disturb it. What are his/her own favorite attributes (both physical and personal)?: He’s proud of his own intellect and skills. What about least favorite?: He is sometimes bothered by his own indifference, if only because he is aware it is so far from who he once was. He was once very proud of his fox form, but now seldom allows anyone to see it, because he is ashamed of the scars that have marred it. How does s/he think others perceive him or her?: He assumes others see him as he sees himself: as a tool. Otherwise he assumes they do not think of him at all. Biggest regret: Not being quick enough to save his friend, not better guarding his star ball. Proudest accomplishment: Demolishing La Fraternidad. Quirks: Counts stairs, always memorizes important phone numbers, must finish all the food on his plate, has an unexpected love of very upbeat old music but is out of touch with all other modern pop culture. How does s/he react to a crisis?: Ale is very calm in a crisis. Rather than panic, he begins immediately working towards a solution, because he has very likely imagined exactly what to do in this scenario before. What would s/he most like to change about her-/himself? Why?: If asked, he would say nothing. In truth, he would like to be less numb. What event or occurrence does s/he most dread or fear?: The possibility that he missed some scrap of La Fraternidad, and they’re going to come back. What does he/she actively work to gain, keep or protect?: His freedom, his peace.

LIKES/FAVORITES:

Food: Menudo, elotes, tamales, mangos Drink: Water, tea, fruit juice. Color: Yellow, gold, red. Book: He’s read entirely too many books to choose. That said, he is a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia and Octavio Paz. Film: He hasn’t seen many films. TV Show: He hasn’t watched much TV. The last shows he watched were I Love Lucy and Star Trek: The Original Series. He’s vaguely aware of the Pokemon anime thanks to his young scientist friend, but she never got around to making him watch it. Music/Song: Latin music, 60s music, 70s music, 80s music. Sport: Football (soccer)

[teal-bandit]

@buckysunshine asked *Hey, it's been a while I've been following your awesome art posts! I love the way you get the characters always in different positions, interacting beautifully with each other, displaying all emotions they're feeling. I think you're SO CREATIVE and so proficient! I'm an artist too, a very slow one tho, still struggling with learning anatomy, but I'd like to ask your secrets! * winks * Ahaha I mean, how long have you drawing and do you use references for your figure drawings?*

It took me forever to think if something I'd wanna draw for this. Aha. But, here's an answer that I hope will be useful (and it's gonna be a little more in-depth than I'm sure you wanted, so I apologise ahead of time).

First things first: you gotta have an idea of a scenario you wanna draw. And it can be something really basic. For this, I decided: an intimate scene with Namor and Pietro.

I always start with the heads first. It helps immensely if you know where the different parts of the skull are (roundabouts). The second pic has the two main parts of the skull laid out.

Next, I try to block off where the body of a person should go. Because Namor is taller and bigger than Pietro, I decided to block him out first. This is where knowing major muscle groups is going to come in handy. The skeleton is marked out in red, the muscles are in blue.

I know some people use the advanced stick person (with the joints marked off); I usually don't unless I need to figure out where certain limbs (usually the arms) are supposed to go. I find it's easier to figure out where you want the hands (especially if your characters are interacting with each other) and work from there.

It's important to remember what your character's body language is saying and how dynamic you're making that character. You never want the line of the character's posture to be completely straight. In this drawing, Namor is leaning into Pietro and Pietro is leaning away. The subtleness of the lean away indicates that it's not a post that implies extreme discomfort. If I had wanted to show that, I would have exaggerated the curve of his spine.

**it is a good idea to experiment with exaggerating poses, even if it doesn't look like the human body could do those poses. In the words of that one presenter at Matsuricon, "Draw verbs, not nouns".

Next up (and one of the most important steps for me) is drawing the facial expressions. Any minor change in the placement and positioning of the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth (occasionally the nose) is going to make a big difference in the way the character's faces read. I try to keep in mind the situation and the personality of the character. (e.g. Pietro is more of a prude than Namor, so his expression is one of embarrassment and apprehension; Namor's is seductive and predatory (but in a good way) in addition to showing how comfortable and assertive he is as a character). I usually add in the hairline at this point too. Just cause it's easier.

More coming up in a bit...

[kieranconveyma]

10.Affect and Emotions: the visceral side of digital media: Notes

Inside Out 

...the visceral side of media

■What does affect mean?

■Theorising affect

■A few case studies

Force. Intensity.

AFFECT 

Capacity to affect and to be affected

“[A]ffect is found in those intensitiesthat pass body to body (human,nonhuman, part-body, andotherwise), in those resonancesthat circulate about, between, andsometimes stick to bodies andworlds, and in the very passages orvariations between these intensitiesand resonances themselves” (Gregg and Seigworth 2009: 1)Gregg, M. and Seigworth, G. J. ( 2009) The Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.

Affect ≠ EmotionAffect as an intensity or a visceral force“Affect as potential: a body’s capacity toaffect and to be affected” (Gregg andSeigworth 2009: 2) 

“No one has yet determinedwhat the body can do”(Spinoza)Affect is ongoing and relationalIt focuses on things as coming into being and existing through their relation with other things.

The ‘affectiveturn’ in culturalstudiesA move beyond representation towards the affective realm of sensations 

Emotions & sensations

Ongoing process of transformation

Relational

Always ‘becoming’

Traditional approach based onrepresentationAffective approach

Elephants Dream (2006)

Ongoingness - There was never a script. “There is no classical story with a beginning, middle and end, nor is there a rational center designating its meaning and closure” (Sluijs and Smelik 2009: 191). A non-representational open filmSluijs, J. and Smelik, A. (2009) “Interactivity and Affect in Intermedial Art: Theorizing Introverted and Extraverted Intermediality”

An affective experience based onintensity (rather than representationalmeaning)“Elephants Dream is a highly engaging animated film thatproduces affects of surprise, disgust, delight and empathy inthe spectator. The harpoons that suddenly fly by, the creepyinside of the telephone receiver, Proog’s dance on thetypewriter buttons, Proog kneeling next to the body of Emo, areall examples of an affective experience for the viewer” (Sluijsand Smelik 2009: 192).

Affective intensity rather than content

“On a representational level, the viewer may wonder about the nature of the machine Proog and Emo inhabit, why the mise en scène resembles larger than life switchboards or camera lenses, or how this relates to the overall narrative. These representational musings are, however, irrelevant as they do not make sense into a coherent narrative. Instead, the fragmented nature foregrounds the audience’s experience of irrational and non-representational percepts and affects. Elephants Dream appeals to us because of its loose ends and the shiver down our spine. Hence, the point here is not meaning, but affect” (Sluijs and Smelik 2009: 194).

Aesthetic pleasureis an affective force. It is both moved and moving and it generates sensory and emotional gratification.

Affect and aesthetics

Alexander Baumgarten (1750) - Aesthetics as the realm of sensation and affective perceptions of beautyEagleton, T. (1990) The Ideology of the Aesthetic

AFFECT AND ANIMATION

A priviledged relationship?

Mobbs, S. (2015) The evocation and expression of emotion through documentary animation

Emotions and Body language

As animators, we can learn a set of postures andexpressions, almost by rote, piecing togetheran emotional scene with our alphabet of symbols, almost asif spelling out a word. However, thedifficulty is that the viewer of an animation is perceivingemotion through the filter of the animator” (Mobbs 2015: 80).

Tomb Raider 1996-2018 Video

The reading of emotions is not universal

“while we may try our best to understand gesture in order to express it, we might still be at the mercy of the interpretation of the viewer, based on theirown context and background” (Mobbs 2015: 82).

ENCODED and DECODED messages 

“since there is no necessary correspondence between encoding and decoding, the former can attempt to ‘pre-fer’ but cannot prescribe or guarantee the latter, which has its own conditions of existence. Unless they are wildly aberrant, encoding will have the effect of constructing some of the limits and parameters within which decodings will operate” (Hall 2007: 100)

More visceral?

Kota Ezawa The Simpson Verdict, 2002

Mobbs, S. (2015) The evocation and expression of emotion through documentary animation

Attention is brought to the small gestures

Affect and games“Their play is always and inevitably inflectedwith affective experience of some sort oranother whether excitement, curiosity,frustration, humour, empathy, or at times,indifference” (Kidd 2015: 417).

Kidd, J. (2015) “Gaming for Affect: Museum Online Games and the Embrace of Empathy”

‘Life in early twentieth-century New Zealand can be tough, and not always fair – especially if you’re Maori. Have you got what it takes to survive?’

Affect and games - 1st person decision making“first-person deepening technique”’ (Freeman 2004: 4)- taking responsibility, sacrificing, making choices“It’s similar to how, in real life, we grow emotionally by confronting difficult choices” (Freeman 2004: 6)Freeman, David (2004), ‘Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Artof Emotioneering’, ACM Computers in Entertainment, 2: 3, Article 8a,pp. 1–11.

Affect and games - empathising with the character

Affective intensity as a key feature of gaming itself“[G]ames such as Call of Duty 4 actively sensitize users to opentheir bodies to a variety of affective states in order to becomeskilled at the game [...]. [This] points to a politics of captivation inwhich the sensual and perceptual relations in the body areorganized and commodified by these games in order to createattentive subjects” (Ash 2013: 28).

Ash, James (2013), ‘Technologies of Captivation: Videogames and theAttunement of Affect’, Body and Society, 19: 1, pp. 27–51.

“Emotioneering” in game designStirring emotions to create:-Marketing buzz-Press attention -A broader demographic-Competitive advantageFreeman, David (2004), ‘Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering’, ACM Computers in Entertainment, 2: 3, Article 8a, pp. 1–11.

Immediate and long-term affective engagement Van Ommen, M. (2018) “Emergent affect in FinalFantasy VII and Japaneserole-playing games”

Affective connectionto the main character-Emotional growth of the character -The player’s directly responsible for moving the character (identification)-Character customisation(Van Ommen 2018)

Length increases involvement

Affective responses createfurther engagementFan activity E.g. fan fiction, YouTube videos-Use of emotional knowledge-Evocation of nostalgia- Create buzz

“Buzz can be understood as itself an affect of energetic connection that surges exponentially: buzz begets interest, more engagement, and in turn more buzz” (Fisher 2016:102).Fisher, J (2016) “Curators and Instagram: Affect,Relationality and Keeping in Touch

HOW DOES AFFECT RELATE TO ISSUES OF RACE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY?

“emotions do things, and they align individuals with communities—or bodily space with social space—through the very intensity of their attachments. Rather than seeing emotions as psychological dispositions, we need to consider how they work, in concrete and particular ways, to mediate the relationship between the psychic and the social, and between the individual and the collective” (Ahmed 2004: 119).Ahmed, Sara. 2004. Affective Economies. Social Text, 22(2), pp. 117-139.

Affect sticks to (particular) bodies

[S]ome words stick because they become attached through particular affects. So, for example, someone will hurl racial insults [...] precisely because they are affective [...] The important question is: What effects do such encounters have on the bodies of others who become transformed into objects of hate? (Ahmed 2004: 60).Ahmed, S. (2004) The Cultural Politics of Emotion. New York: Routledge.

Affective economies

How are emotions socially organised?

[juniperpublishers-robotics-blog]

Engineering Insight for Humanoid Robotics Emotions and Violence with Reference to “System Error 1378”- Juniper Publishers

Abstract

What kinds of social relationships can people have with computers are there activities that computers can engage in that actively draw people into relationships with them. What are the potential benefits to the people who participate in these human-computer relationships? To address these questions researchers introduces a theory of Relational Agents, which are computational artifacts designed to build and maintain long-term, social-emotional relationships with their users. These can be purely software humanoid animated agents--as developed in this work but they can also be non-humanoid or embodied in various physical forms, from robots, to pets, to jewelry, clothing, hand-held’s, and other interactive devices. Central to the notion of relationship is that it is a persistent construct, spanning multiple interactions; thus, Relational Agents are explicitly designed to remember past history and manage future expectations in their interactions with users [1]. Finally, relationships are fundamentally social and emotional, and detailed knowledge of human social psychology with a particular emphasis on the role of affect--must be incorporated into these agents if they are to effectively leverage the mechanisms of human social cognition in order to build relationships in the most natural manner possible. People build relationships primarily through the use of language, and primarily within the context of face-to-face conversation. Embodied Conversational Agents--anthropomorphic computer characters that emulate the experience of face-to-face conversation--thus provide the substrate for this work, and so the relational activities provided by the theory will primarily be specific types of verbal and nonverbal conversational behaviors used by people to negotiate and maintain relationships. This article is also intend if level of Artificial Intelligence reach over Natural Intelligence (Human Intelligence), what would be happen, if System Error 1378 (AI malfunction error) occur one day .i.e. robotic violence due to human like emotion in Robots/Humanoid [2].

Keywords: Humanoid; Robotics Emotions; Robotics Violence; System Error 1378

Introduction

Humans take a certain posture in their communication. Can take example, when mankind are happy or sad, cheerful, take a posture in which the activities and behaviour showing through body language like moving and open arms etc. When they are angry, they square the shoulders. When they are tired or sadness, they shrug the shoulder or close the arms. That’s why; the emotion and mental condition are closely related to the human posture, gestures, facial expressions and behavior exhibits through body language. And, human obtain many information from partner’s posture in their communication [3]. In this situation, the human arms play an important role. Figure 1 & 2 below shows the emotional expression exhibited by WE-4RII [4].

We can control the generally 6-DOFs (Degree of Freedom) robotic arms’ from its tip position precisely as like human’s arm. But, all their joint angles are fixed according to the inverse kinematics. By the way, humans have 7-DOFs arms consisting of 3-DOFs shoulder, 1-DOF elbow and 3-DOFs wrist. However, it’s considered that there is a rotational center in the base of shoulder joint, and the shoulder joint itself can moves up and down positions as well as moves to and fro, back & forth so that humans square and shrug their shoulders. We considered that these motions played a very important role in the emotional expressions. Therefore, researchers trying to develop more emotional expressive human-like body movements, gestures feelings, love and affection response supportive movements in humanoid robot arms than the usual 6-DOFs robot arms [5].

Robotic Software Architecture Model

(Figure 3) Risk assessment is an interdisciplinary subject, which runs together psychological, ethical, legal, and economic considerations. A major problem in risk assessment is the confusion between popular concepts of risk from robots (the ‘subjective risk’), which has largely been made irrational by the various fictional depictions autonomous robots destroying humankind and running amok (as in Terminator and I, Robot, among many other movies) and the actual objective risk of deploying robots, i.e., what rational basis is there for worry?

First, let us define risk simply in terms of its opposite, safety: risk is the probability of harm; and (relative) safety is (relative) freedom from risk. Safety in practice is merely relative, not absolute, freedom from harm, because no activity is ever completely risk-free; walking onto one’s lawn from inside one’s house increases the (however small) risk of death by meteorite strike [6]. Hence, risk and safety are two sides of the usual human attempt to reduce the probability of harm to oneself and others [7].

And finally, some have raised risks of a more abstract sort, indicating the rise of such autonomous robots creates risks that go beyond specific harms to societal and cultural impacts. For instance, is there a risk of (perhaps fatally?) Affronting human dignity or cherished traditions (religious, cultural, or otherwise) in allowing the existence of robots that make ethical decisions? Do we ‘cross a threshold’ in abrogating this level of responsibility to machines, in a way that will inevitably lead to some catastrophic outcome? Without more detail and reason for worry, such worries as this appear to commit the ‘slippery slope’ fallacy. But there is worry that as robots become ‘quasipersons’, even under a ‘slave morality’, there will be pressure to eventually make them into full-fledged Kantian-autonomous persons, with all the risks that entails [8].

Background for Work

Many people thinking about Spock, the half-Vulcan and half-human character of Star Trek, as the supporter saint of computer science. They highly intelligent, highly rational, highly unemotional, attractive to women etc. A famous image is that Spock didn’t have any emotions: after all Spock almost never expressed emotion, excepting his characteristic pronouncement of the word “fascinating” upon thoughtful something new. In fact, as the actor Leonard Nimoy describes in his book the character Spock did have emotion; he was just very good at suppressing its expression. Majority people think that Spock do not having emotion. When someone never used to expresses emotion, it is appealing to think that emotion is not there [9-11]. In affective computing, we can separately examine functions that are not so easily separated in humans. For example, the Macintosh OS exhibits a smile for years upon successful boot-up. But few people would confuse its smile - albeit an emotional expression - with a genuine emotional feeling. Machines can take the emotional appearance well mannered, with having dissimilarities in feelings similar to those we would have: they can generate separate expression, gestures and postures from feeling. With a machine it is easy to see how emotion expression does not imply “having” the underlying feeling.

Machines that might really “have” feelings are the key area of affective computing and love affection engineering that coined serious doubt about in 1997 book titled Affective Computing. We think the discussions there, and in a later book chapter on this topic are still timely and will not plan to add to them here. Researchers in the last decade have obtained dozens of scientific findings illuminating important roles of emotion in intelligent human functioning, even when it looks like a person is showing no emotion. These findings possible to restructure, redesign and reengineering with scientific understanding of emotions and can better motivation to work to young researchers with consider that emotional mechanisms might be more valuable than previously believed. Consequently, a number of researchers have charged ahead with building machines that have several affective abilities, especially: recognizing, expressing, modeling, communicating, and responding to emotion. And, insight these domains, various criticisms and challenges have arisen. Present work addresses such matters. The term emotion refers to relations among external incentives, thoughts, and changes in internal feelings, as weather is a super ordinate term for the changing relations among wind velocity, humidity, temperature, barometric pressure, and form of precipitation. In general, a unique combination of these meteorological traits buildup a storm, a tornado, a blizzard, or a hurricane events and that are co-relate to the temporary but intense emotions of fear, joy, excitement, disgust, or anger. But wind, temperature, and humidity vary continually without producing such extreme combinations [12].

Ethics

With example, if your boss yells at you, is it wrong to detect his angry voice, or to recognize he is angry? Is it unethical, once you’ve recognized his anger, to try to take steps to alleviate his anger (or to “manipulate” it, perhaps by sharing new information with him, so that he is no longer angry? One can imagine of scenario where the foregoing replies are “no”: e.g. He is shouting at you directly, and clearly wants you to recognize it and take steps in response. And, one can imagine the answers might be more complex if you surreptitiously detected his anger, and had nefarious purposes in mind by attempting to change it [13]. Humans routinely scanned, recognize, and respond to emotions using cognitions and manipulating them in ways that most would consider highly ethical and needful. Playing music to cheer up a friend’s mood, eating chocolate, exercising to perk one up, and other manipulations count among many that can be perfectly acceptable. That said, unscrupulous uses by people and by people via machine of affect detection, recognition, expression, and manipulation. Some of these, including ways affective machines might mislead customers, assuage productive emotional states, and violate privacy norms, are discussed in Picard and in Picard and Klein [14].

In 1872, Charles Darwin Published a ground breaking book - The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals 2

It was the conclusion about to 34 years of work on emotion and emotional intelligence and resource two important contributions to the field. The first was the notion that animal emotions are homologues for human emotions- a logical extension of Darwin’s early works on evolution [15]. Darwin was one of the most promised people who show this by comparing and analyzing countless sketches and photographs of animals and people in different emotional states to reveal cross-species similarities as shown in below figure. .He also proposed that many emotional expressions in humans, such as tears when upset or baring the teeth when angry, are vestigial patterns of action. Darwin second contribution was the proposal which limit to set of fundamental or’ basic’ emotions are present across species and across cultures including anger, fear, surprise and sadness and all .These two ideas had a profound influence on affective neuroscience by promoting the use of research in animals to understand emotions in humans and by giving impetus to a group of scientists who espoused the view that different basic emotions had separable eneural substrates [16] (Figure 4).

Can Robots Have Emotions

Science fiction is full of machines that have feelings .In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the onboard computer turns against the crew of the spaceship Discovery, and utters cries of pain and fear when his circuits are finally taken apart. In Blade Runner, humanoid robots are distressed to learn that her memories are not real, but have been implanted in her silicon brain by her programmer. In Bicentennial Man, Robin William splays the part of a robot that redesigns his own circuitry so that he can experience the full range of human feelings. These stories achieve their effect impart because the capacity for emotion is often considered to be one of the main differences between humans and machines. This is certainly true of the machines we know today. The responses we receive from computers are rather dry affairs, such as “system error 1378”. People sometimes get angry with their computers and shout at them as if they had emotions, but the computers take no notice. They neither feel their own feelings, nor recognize yours [17]. The gap between science fiction and science fact appears vast, but some researcher’s inartificial intelligence now believes it is only a question of time before it is bridged. There is huge research in progress in each month in the domain of Affective Computing and an advance result comes in the form of primitive emotional machines. However, some critics argue that a machine could never come to have real emotions like ours. At best, they claim, clever programming might allow it to simulate human emotions, but these would just be clever fakes [18].

What are Emotions

In humans and other animals, we tend to call behavior emotional when we observe certain facial and vocal expressions like smiling or snarling, and when we see certain physiological changes such as hair standing on end or sweating. Since most computers do not yet possess faces or bodies, they cannot manifest this behavior. However, in recent years computer scientists have been developing arrange of’ animated agent faces’ [19], programmers that generate images of humanlike faces on the computer’s visual display unit. These images can be manipulated to form convincing emotional expressions. Others have taken things further by building three-dimensional synthetic heads. Cynthia Breazealand colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have constructed a robot called’ Kismet’ with moveable eyelids, eyes and lips. The range of emotional expressions available to Kismet is limited, but they are convincing enough to generate sympathy among the humans who interact with him. Breazeal invites human parents to play with Kismet on a daily basis. When kismet alone seems to be sad and when with someone company seems to be happy and also able to understand other human expressions and response accordingly. Does Kismet have emotions, then? It certainly exhibits some emotional behavior, so if we define emotions in behavioral terms, we must admit that Kismet has some emotional capacity [20].

Presently Kismet doesn’t exhibits full of human like emotional behaviour but seems to be towards developing phase and one day as similar like human beings. Chimpanzees do not display the full range of human emotion, but they clearly have some emotions. Dogs and cats have less emotional semblance to us, and those doting pet-owners who ascribe the full range of human emotions to their domestic animals are surely guilty of anthropomorphism. There is a whole spectrum of emotional capacities, ranging from the very simple to the very complex. Perhaps Kismet’s limited capacity for emotion puts him somewhere near the simple end of the spectrum, but even this is a significant advance over the computers that currently sit on our desks, which by most definitions are devoid of any emotion whatsoever. As affective computing progresses, we may be able to build machines with more and more complex emotional capacities. Kismet doesn’t have voice and feelings in voice mechanism but promising advanced research change this dream into reality soon. Today’s speech synthesizers speak in an unemotional monotone. In the future, computer scientists should be able to make them sound much more human by modulating nonlinguistic aspects of vocalization like speed, pitch and volume [21]. Facial expression and vocal intonation are not the only forms of emotional behavior. We also infer emotions from actions. When, for example, we see an animal stop abruptly in its tracks, turn round, and run away, we infer that it is afraid, even though we may not see the object of its fear. For computers to exhibit this kind of emotional behavior, they will have to be able to move around. In the jargon of artificial intelligence, they will have to be “mobots” (mobile robots). In lab at the University of the West of England, there are dozens of mobots, most of which are very simple. Some, for example, are only the size of a shoe, and all they can do is finding their way around a piece of the floor without bumping into anything. Sensors allow them to detect obstacles such as walls and other mobots. Despite the simplicity of this mechanism, their behavior can seem eerily human. When an obstacle is detected, the mobots stop dead in their tracks, turnaround, and head off quickly in the other direction. To anybody watching, the impression that the mobot is afraid of collisions is irresistible. Are these mobots really afraid? Descartes, for example, claimed that animals did not really have feelings like us because they were just complex machines, without a soul. When they screamed in apparent pain, they were just following the dictates of their inner mechanism. Now that we know that the pain mechanism in humans is not much different from that of other animals, the Cartesian distinction between sentient humans and’ machine-like’ animals does not make much sense [22]. In the same way, as we come to build machines more and more like us, the question about whether or not the machines have ‘real’ emotions or just ‘fake’ one swill become less meaningful. The current resistance to attributing emotions to machines is simply due to the fact that even the most advanced machines today are still very primitive. Some experts estimate that we will be able to build machines with complex emotions like ours within fifty years. But is this a good idea? What is the point of building emotional machines? Won’t emotions just get in the way of good computing, or even worse, cause computers to turn against us, as they so often do in science fiction?.

Why Give Computers Emotions

After this long review the point is clear to give emotion in computers could be very useful for a whole variety of reasons. For a start, it would be much easier and more enjoyable to interact with an emotional computer than with today’s unemotional machines. Imagine if your computer could recognize what emotional state you were in each time you sat down to use it, perhaps by scanning your facial expression. You arrive at work one Monday morning, and the computer detects that you are in a bad mood. Rather than simply asking you for your password, as computers do today, the emotionallyaware desktops might tell you a joke, or suggest that you read particularly nice email first. Perhaps it has learnt from previous such mornings that you resent such attempts to cheer you up. In this case, it might ignore you until you had calmed down or had a coffee. It might be much more productive to work with a computer that was emotionally intelligent in this way than with today’s dumb machines. This is not just a flight of fancy. Computers are already capable of recognizing some emotions [23]. If ran Essa and Alex Pentland, two American computer scientists, have designed a program that enables a computer to recognize facial expressions of six basic emotions. When volunteers pretended to feel one of these emotions, the computer recognized the emotion correctly ninety-eight per cent of the time. This is even better than the accuracy rate achieved by most humans on the same task! If computers are already better than us at recognizing some emotions, it is surely not long before they will acquire similarly advanced capacities for expressing emotions, and perhaps even for feeling them. In the future, it may be humans who are seen by computers as emotionally illiterate, not vice versa.

Modeling

System error detection-correction model

Above Figure 5 shows system error detection-correction model which highlighted critical thinking on robotics violence. Basically Ultra Artificial Intelligence with human-like capabilities partly based on two strong segments .i.e. UAISoftware and UAI-Hardware to engineer Humanoid. These humanoid mechanisms strongly based on Self Programming Support Unit for self learning using artificial preceptor with intention to implement self sensation, actuation, meaning memories generation and execute like mankind. Hence using sensors, transducers, motors and actuators mechanism with NLP, Image Processing software possible to interact with external environment. Since Humanoid scan & learn from environment there might possible sources hidden in environment for diversification humanoid for violence or undesired execution or use I called them “Triggers”. There are two triggers possible for robotics violence one is “internal violence triggers” and another is “external violence triggers”. In internal violence triggers self bad conduct by self programming responsible for it which boost to system error 1378 occurred due to internal reasons. Whereas when self programming support unit hike, hijacked, in control of enemies or corrupted through virus programming to change good ethics into bad ethics of humanoid caused robotic violence which boost to system error 1378 occurred due to external reasons [24].

Cause-effect model

(Figure 6) This is the second purposed model in effect of first model named Cause-Effect model. In this model had given brief but lucid knowledge about Humanoid violence causes and their effects on world, technology and ultimately mankind civilization. As I said in first model discussion there are two robotics violence triggers viz. internal & external triggers and this cause effect to “self distractive program with bad ethics” due to this cause system error 1378 occurred in effect which further cause to “Humanoid-Human Wars (Humanoid/Robotics Violence)” this effect will further become cause humanoid against of human for love, affection, emotion, respect and rights .i.e. world either will end or ruled by Humanoid machines over Human due to high intelligence and processing abilities.

Human friendly humanoid designing model

This is my last model to exhibit idea how can how Human friendly Humanoid engineering possible instead of only going technically very high very we must have to think could we able to control that technology if it itself become against of us, is there we have any provision in our advanced AI engineering to stop to do so. I have suggested some one can enhance it further; these are

1) If system error 1378 occurred make immediate & emergency replacement of chip in standby to avoid robotics violence.

2) Engineer constructive counseling program in self programming support unit to trace and tackle with system error 1378 with self killing of malfunction and execution to avoid robotics violence.

3) Implement system error 1378 monitoring & security program as individual component to avoid robotic violence,

4) I strongly recommend available inbuilt subroutine to activate and direct self destructive programs which make Humanoid hardware death after its execution which trigger with inbuilt command “self destroy” when system error 1378 traced to avoid robotics violence (Figure 7).

Conclusion

Relational agents, as any technology, can be abused. Agents which earn our trust overtime can be used to provide more potent means of persuasion for marketers than more passive forms of advertising. If eventually come to rely on our agents as sources of grounding for our beliefs, values and emotions (one of the major functions of close human relationships) then they could become a significant source of manipulation and control over individuals or even over entire societies. There are those who also feel that any anthropomorphic interface is unethical, because it unrealistically raises users’ expectations. One way to combat this problem is through proper meta-relational communication-having the agent is as clear as possible about what it can and can’t do, and what expectations the user should have about their respective roles in the interaction anti violence robotic programmes must need to develop before to give human like emotions to Humanoid robots to avoid system error 1378.

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Fore More Articles Please Visit: Robotics & Automation Engineering Journal

[petersanimation]

Learning characters development and design - Mary Jane Begin

1) Introduction to Character Development 

The instant read

“Deconstruct the visual information”   “The first thing we see is the overall silhouette or shape of the character as a first impression of the personality” Key elements to understand good character design- “ Shape, facial expression, body gesture, movement, colour proportion context and contrast.”  

Capture the heart and soul of a character 

“Start with the back story or descriptions and understanding the context of a character... Playing with variations in proportion, costume and overall shape are key to good design. Keeping your sketches loose and full of expression and making plenty of notes before settling on your final design.” 

Tools of the trade

 “Carter Goodrich - Explores characters without colour to keep the focus on the character's structure.” 

“Nico Marlet - uses pencils and markers to capture his fluid and organic character designs these materials allow for a clean , graphic presentation while still displaying his pencil line” 

“Thinking about colour early on is critical for some artists” 

“Nick Kole works with a blunted pencil on small sketches at first to keep his sketches loose and quick. He then scans and enlarges the strongest sketches, then starts putting a finished together digitally.” 

“No matter what material you use, the key is keeping the method as simple and direct as you can.” 

2) Elements of Developing a Believable Character 

Archetypes

“Archetypes display stereotypical personalities, behaviours and characteristics regardless of how unique they may seem initially.” 

“Archetypes help to give you a place to start when figuring out what type of character you’re trying to develop.”

Classic Archetypes- The Hero, The Villain, The caretaker, The innocent, The ruler, The sage and the trickster.

“Understanding archetypes as part of our visual language is essential, especially when you break from expectations to create a complex, dimensional character.   

Keep it real

“The first go-to source for a characters design is to look to available subjects to draw inspiration from.” 

Motion

Imagining how you think your character might move if it were animated can help establish both authenticity and define personality.  

“Creating gesture drawing from life and looking at the movie frame by frame to help you study movement.”

Environment

3) Character Construction

Shapes and Silhouettes

“No two characters should have the same silhouette”

Gesture and Silhouettes

“The overall body posture of a character speaks volumes about the personality and life of a character.”

Anatomy and Proportion

Stretch and exaggerating portions  

“Anatomy in proportion convinces the viewer that your invented creature is real and believable.” 

Turnarounds

Facial Expressions

Research the details

Research things related to what you are creating e.g Dragons- research lizards, bats.

Colour basics

“Limited colour palette” 

Utilizing contrast to create definition between colours is one of the key element using colour wisely. “

Colour your character

“A colour palette that expresses your character’s personality can be a critical element to the exploration of character development.”

4) Style meets Substance 

Explore a character in a variety of styles

Carlos Grangle “If you’re a designer, you have to be able to develop the stylization to reflect the characters of the script.”    

Characters in context: Designing a cast

The art of invention: Making fantasy creatures believable

“Designing a cast ensemble means balancing different types of characters choosing a variety of shapes and proportions and costumes and colours helps make an ensemble cast more interesting and inviting to the viewer.”

Sidekicks, villains and foils

From 2D to 3D

“For a final 3D result you wanna pay extra attention to different angles of the character trying to make sure that that the mass and visual impression of their shape, colour and silhouette hold up from every angle and not just the front.”

Character in sequence

Riffing on the classics

What I’ve learned from this course

In my previous post I said the next course I was going to do was one about rigging by George Maestri however, looking through some of the course titles and a quick look at some sections such as the facial rig the course seemed to be very similar to the tutorial we where given by Mario with the only difference being creating and IK to FK switch however it wasn’t worth a 4 hour course just for that information.

I then ran into trouble of finding a new course to run as most of the ones I found seemed to go over topics covered in the course we were given or what I’ve been taught in class.

In the end I found this tutorial which I thought would really help me with my current summer project and future projects and Overall I found this course to be insightful in certain areas as there was piece being shown from beginning to completion.

The course breaking down and analysing how certain characters like Dracula (Hotel Transylvanian)  and how they are so recognisable through their silhouette but  the sections I found the most beneficial was the section about archetypes and how they can be used to create new interesting characters and is something I plan to incorporate into my current TV show designs. Another section I found benificial was the section about research as it the examples where around the fantasy genre using researching thing related to what you want like looking at lizards for a new dragon design. 

While the course did tell me some things I already know like about proportions being around 7, 8 heads tall how to do turnarounds and gave a source for figuring out expressions I was already aware of. I found the insight into the process and breakdown of characters and what makes there designs so likeable and recognisable is something I think I can take and hopefully improve my character designs.   

[abcsministries]

Written by Pamela K. Orgeron, M.A., Ed.S., BCCC, ACLC, Author

 What is conflict resolution? “Any of the methods used by disputing parties to settle their differences. Common methods include accommodating each other’s needs, compromising, or working together toward shared goals; or avoiding, competing with, or attempting to defeat the opponent.” (Conflict Resolution, 2009) In this article, I will explore healthy ways to resolve conflict. I will look at conflict in workplaces, in marriages, and on school campuses. Lastly, I will discuss what the Bible says about conflict and offer biblical solutions to resolving conflict.

Introduction

Psalm 133:1 (NKJV): “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!”

In a perfect world, I would expect unity should be the goal of conflict resolution. However, we must accept the fact that we live in an imperfect world where conflict resolution methods do not always end up with a happy ending. Before getting too deep in the discussion of conflict resolution, I would like to identify the types of conflict I found in my research.  Evans identified four types. (2013). They include

Interpersonal Conflict—to keep things simple, an example of this type of conflict would be when a husband and his wife disagree about where to go on a date.

Intrapersonal Conflict—this occurs internally in a person involving thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. An example would be when I am offered a comfort food when I do not feel stomach hunger. Will I give in to the temptation or just say, “no”? That’s an intrapersonal conflict. In some instances, if these types of conflict are not resolved they can result in a person having depression or anxiety.

Intragroup Conflict—these conflicts occur among members of the same group, for example, in a family or in a specific church.

Intergroup Conflict—these types of conflict occur between different groups. One obvious example from today’s world that comes to my mind is the conflict between conservative Christians and the supporters of the LGBT community who disagree on whether homosexuality is a sin.

In literature, there are seven commonly known types of narrative conflict (Nichol, n.d.; 7 Types of…, n.d.), which I think also apply to today’s world. These include:

person versus person

person versus self

person versus God

person versus nature

person versus society

person versus the unknown or the supernatural

person versus technology or machinery

In this article I will focus on conflict between members of mankind and between individual men and society.  Person versus self, or intrapersonal conflict can be complicated, and I believe merits a separate article. The issue of person versus nature also would be another lengthy article if one considers the different ways to prepare for natural disasters, such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, etc.

Continue to page 2…

Keys to Healthy Conflict Resolution

What are healthy ways to handle conflict? In this section, I will first look at basic principles or behaviors that would apply to any setting where conflict might arise. Then I want to address conflict in three specific areas—conflicts in the business world,  conflicts in marriage, and then conflicts on school campuses.

General Principles of Conflict Resolution

Practice assertiveness. What is assertiveness? “Assertiveness is communication and behavior that is respectful to all parties involved. That is the definition of assertiveness at its simplest level.” (Pratt, 2014) Assertiveness lies on a continuum between being passive and being aggressive. To distinguish between healthy conflict and destructive conflict, knowing and  understanding the difference between assertive behavior, aggressive behavior, and passive behavior is helpful. Assertive behavior involves going after what one wants with tolerance, flexibility, understanding, and respect for the feelings and needs of others. This behavior is respectful and focuses on nurturing the relationship. Aggressive behavior that goes after what one wants forcefully, with urgency and with no regard for the feelings of others is disrespectful to others and self focused. Passive behavior ignores the needs of self. “It is important to emphasize that assertive, aggressive, and passive responses are learned behaviors; they are not innate, unchangeable traits.” (Reilly, Shopshire, Durazzo, and Campbell, 2002, p. 33)

Take timeout.

The timeout is a basic anger management strategy that should be in everyone’s anger control plan. A timeout can be used formally or informally. In its simplest form, it means taking a few deep breaths and thinking instead of reacting. It may also mean leaving the situation that is causing the escalation or simply stopping the discussion that is provoking your anger. (Reilly, Shopshire, Durazzo, and Campbell, 2002, p. 15)

Informally, I have witnessed timeout, or communication breaks occurring in church business meetings whenever two or more church members were getting too emotional about the matter at hand. In these situations, one of the church members involved in the debate called for everyone to take a break and go before the Lord in prayer. 

Parents commonly use timeout in disciplining children. Since teachers are no longer allowed to use spankings as a form of discipline in the classroom, teachers also use timeout to discipline, for example, having a child stand in a corner.

“The formal use of a timeout involves having an agreement, or a prearranged plan, by which any of the parties involved can call a timeout and to which all parties have agreed in advance. ” (Reilly, Shopshire, Durazzo, and Campbell, 2002, p. 15) For examples of the use of a formal timeout I look to personal experiences. The first example is exemplified in my marriage. My husband and I have an agreement with each other that if either one of us starts yelling during a discussion, the other one of us is to call a timeout before the discussion escalates into an argument. And, yes, I’d be lying if I told you that timeout had never occurred in conversations with my husband. We’re only human.

Another example of where my husband and I have used timeout formally is when we were serving as foster parents. In the foster parent system, if a child gets to be too wearing on the foster parents, or if they just want a break, foster parents can request a timeout, or a respite where the child goes to spend a designated length of time in another foster home. As foster parents, my husband and I requested timeout from children assigned to us on a long-term basis and also served as respite for other foster parents in need of a break from their assigned child.

Use healthy communication skills. Healthy communication involves more than simply exchanging words. To communicate effectively, communicators need to understand the emotions and motifs behind each others’ messages. Effective communication involves both clear verbal communication and active listening skills (e.g.: eye contact, healthy posture) where both communicators are respected and understood. According to Robinson, Segal, and Smith (2018), “More than just the words you use, effective communication combines a set of 4 skills:

1. Engaged listening [e.g.: Stay focused. Don’t interrupt. Offer feedback.]

2. Nonverbal communication—‘Nonverbal communication, or body language, includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing.’ (Skill 2: Pay attention to nonverbal signals section, ¶ 1)

3. Managing stress in the moment [e.g.: Use moments of silence to calm your emotions.]

4. Asserting yourself in a respectful way” (What is effective communication? section, ¶ 2)

Conflict in the Workplace

Anyone who has spent any amount of time working knows that conflict in the workplace is unavoidable. I know from personal experience, the type of job makes no difference. Whether you are a high school student working a fast food position, an executive in an office, or working any other position, expect conflict. 

Causes of Workplace Conflict

What causes conflict in the workplace? According to Holmes (n.d.) and HRZone (2017), the 5 most common sources of conflict in the workplace have to do with the following factors:

“Interdependence”—this refers to how different employee tasks are interdependent. For example, if a manager is late reporting his employees’ hours worked, then the accounting or payroll department will be late processing checks, which naturally would result in disgruntled employees.

“Differences in Style”—this refers to the different work styles of employees, for example, the different speeds and creative abilities among employees

“Differences in Background/Gender”—“Culture simply defines one’s practices, beliefs, traditions, experiences, educational background, and set of values, race, ethnicity, gender, and religion. Generally, employees from different culture and backgrounds do experience conflict.” (HRZone, 3. The “Differences in Background/Gender” at Workplace Conflicts, ¶ 1)

“Differences in Leadership”—an example of this would be when new management takes over an organization to result in a lot of internal conflict.

“Differences in Personality”—

This type of conflict is often the most challenging. It is fueled by emotions and perceptions about others’ motives and character.

Whatever the case may be, all of these conflicts in the workplace can be messy but it is the differences in personality that causes the most grief. Statistics even show that 85% of dismissals in the US are due to this type of conflict. (Holmes, n.d., ¶s 6-7)

Resolving Workplace Conflict

The common consensus depicted throughout research is that there are three approaches to handling conflict in a workplace, including conflict management, conflict resolution, and conflict transformation. To distinguish the three concepts, Musalaha (2014) reported,

Conflict Management is generally discussed with regard to intractable conflicts, and has to do with the way people handle, or manage wrongs done to them. Conflict Management refers to a process that will be undertaken for an indefinite period of time (and may not result in a resolution), and is primarily concerned with containing and limiting the conflict. Conflict Resolution, on the other hand, refers to resolving a conflict in such a way that both parties are satisfied, encouraging them to move from a zero-sum mentality to a win-win situation. It includes a number of methods for improving a situation of conflict, or removing conflict altogether. Under the umbrella of Conflict Resolution, we find negotiation, mediation and diplomacy as Conflict Resolution is often dependent on outside parties coming in to aid in the resolution process. Finally, Conflict Transformation attempts to change the positions and perceptions of the disagreeing parties while improving their communication, dealing with the reasons for the conflict, and ultimately, transforming conflict peacefully. (¶ 2)

Conflict management responses can range from a peaceful agreement to disagree to more violent responses, for example, war or terrorism. Musalaha (2014) reported the most common approaches of conflict management are Accommodating, Avoiding, Collaborating, Compromising, and Competing. Bisk Education (2018) also discussed these approaches to conflict management.

Accommodating. Accommodating refers to giving in to the request of others without debate or researching information. Those who accommodate do not make the best team members because they are what psychologists would refer to as a “people pleaser”. A people pleaser always complies without offering any resistance. Bisk Education (2018) reports while the short-term benefit of accommodating is making decisions peacefully enabling those involved to move forward more quickly; a long-term disadvantage may be “the accommodator feeling resentment toward the other party.”  (Conflict Styles section; Giving in) 

Avoiding. “The avoiding approach can be summed up in the statement: “Conflict? What conflict?” The avoider employs strategies of fleeing, denying, ignoring, withdrawing, delaying, and wishing only to hope and pray.” (Musalaha, 2014, Avoiding section, ¶ 1) Those who try to deny or avoid conflict work with a lose-lose mentality that results in poorer outcomes when conflict arises.

Collaborating. To collaborate in simple terms means to cooperate or to work with one another. Collaborators play a key part of conflict resolution that requires assertiveness and consideration of the other workers’ thoughts and feelings. Collaboration requires creative thinking to solve conflicts in the workplace. According to Bisk Education (2018), “Collaborators are usually admired and well-respected.”  (Conflict Styles; Collaborating section)

Compromising. A compromise is defined as “a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.” (Dictionary.com, Definition 1) Musalaha (2014) summarizes the compromising approach with the statement:

“I’ll back off if you do the same.” The compromiser uses strategies such as bargaining, reducing expectations, dividing desired achievements so everyone gets something, and splitting the difference. Compromisers prefer to work with people who compromise or accommodate. The compromiser tolerates the exchange of views, although s/he finds this uncomfortable. Some characteristics of the compromiser are cautious but open, and s/he urges others not to be too open or outspoken. The compromiser has found a mid-way balance between concern for the relationship and meeting personal goals. The compromiser expects to win some arguments and lose others. (Compromising section, ¶ 1)

Competing. To compete means “to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.: engage in a contest; to compete in a race; to compete in business.” (Dictionary.com, Definition 1) Musalaha (2014) sums up the competing approach with the statement:

“Do it my way or not at all.” Some strategies adopted in this approach are to compete, control, outwit, coerce and fight the other person to achieve your goals. They are impatient with dialogue and information gathering. The qualities of competitors are authoritarian, and threatened by disagreement; they attempt to maintain the status quo, and react in times of crisis. The competitor has a high concern for his/her personal goals and a very low concern for the relationship with the other person. (Competing section, ¶ 1)

“The fact is, a competitive approach offers short term rewards, but in the long term effects can be detrimental to your business.” (Bisk Education, 2018, Conflict Styles, Standing your Ground section)

Preventing Workplace Conflict

Strongly believing that “Prevention is always the best medicine”, I would like to share preventive measures to prevent and minimize conflict in the workplace. Clough (2018) shared four tips to supervisors and business owners to prevent workplace conflict. These tips are:

Make sure every employee knows the goals and values of the business.

Invest “in a culture of positive employee relations.”  This is essential to maintain a healthy, productive workplace environment. Having a culture of positive employee relations involves “treating all staff with dignity and respect, being transparent, and establishing fair management systems.” (Preventing Conflict, Positive Employee Relations section, ¶ 2)

“Lead by example.” (Preventing Conflict, 7. Lead by Example section) Offer training programs to team leaders making sure they are well-equipped to handle any conflicts that might develop.

Offer reasonable incentives to complete group projects rewarding employees for work well-done. Possible incentives may include time off, team lunches paid for by management, etc.

Continue to page 3…

Resolving Marital Conflicts—Healthy Communication, the Key

Communication is not a luxury; it is a necessity. There can be no unity without communication. The barriers to communication are formidable but not unconquerable. The key is your own will to communicate. Motivated with the vision of oneness in marriage, you must choose to communicate regardless of your emotions and past failures. (Chapman, 1979, p. 119)

In my research I found several dominant themes about the sources of conflict in marriages and the effects of marital conflict. In this section I will discuss these topics, followed by a discussion about what healthy communication looks like in a marriage. I also will compile a list of tips from my experience that will make a marriage more apt to be fruitful and fulfilling for both spouses.

Sources of Marital Conflict

A group of studies by Donald Peterson (2002), as reported by Miller et al. (2007) reveal that couples can disagree over anything, including

how to spend time together, how to manage money, how to deal with the in-laws, frequency and mode of sexual intercourse, who did which chores, insufficient expressions of affect (not enough affection), exaggerated expressions of affect (moodiness, anger), personal habits, political views, religious beliefs, jealousies toward other men and women, relatives, and the couples’ own children. (Miller et al., pp. 365-366)

Past research and my personal experience reflect a number of common sources of conflict in marriages. These include inappropriate anger, cohabitation, esteem problems, the past, stress and personal problems, negativity/criticism, insecure attachment, gender roles, poorer physical health, mental health issues, and dysfunctional family schemas. In this section I will be discussing each of these problems. 

Inappropriate anger. Chapman (1979) and Donovan and Ryan (1989) reported that anger, a normal human emotion, is not sinful but the motive behind and how one handles anger is important. Chapman (1979) noted that when anger stems from selfish motives rather than righteous anger permissible according to Ephesians 4:26, then anger creates problems. Donovan and Ryan identified two unhealthy ways of coping with anger: bottling up anger that prevents one from receiving love and venting anger with little thought to how blowing up is affecting others.

Co-habitation.  Miller et al. (2007), Worthington (1999) and Harley (n.d.b) highlighted the pitfalls of cohabitation before marriage. They pointed out that couples who cohabited before marriage are at a greater risk of divorce than couples who do not cohabit. Harley (n.d.b) uses the analogy of the Buyer and the Renter to explain why couples cohabiting before marriage are more inclined to divorce. These couples, according to Harley, carry their renter’s agreement into marriage, often ignoring conflicts until they blow up.

Esteem problems. “Our self-esteem appears to both result from, and then subsequently influence our interpersonal relationship. ” (Miller et al., 2007, p. 30) Chapman (1979) reported that when individuals grow up with low self-esteem, they enter marriage finding it hard to share their true self for fear of additional rejection and letdown.

The past. The past has a significant effect on the present, according to Donovan and Ryan (1989). “Just as genes are passed on from one generation to the next, so are psychological patterns and problems, including love blocks.” (p. 22) Donovan and Ryan define love blocks as “psychological patterns that prevent people from finding happiness and fulfillment in relationships. . . . They act as inner obstacles that inhibit a person’s ability both to receive and to give love.” (p. x)

Stress and personal problems. Conflict in marriages can result from stress and other situations that have nothing to do with the marriage, according to Worthington (1999). For example, anger at a co-worker might set one up for an argument with one’s spouse.

Negativity/criticism. Gottman (1994) and Worthington (1999) explained the destructiveness of marriages where one or both spouses are too critical and negative with each other. Gottman (1994) considers criticism to be one of the four most devastating means of relating that sabotage efforts to communicate effectively with one’s mate. Gottman’s other components of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (p. 72) are contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling (withdrawing).

Insecure attachment. Miller et al. (2007) reported how attachment styles learned as a child later affect marital relationships. They pointed out that typically secure persons communicate the most effectively and, thus, have the most fulfilling marriages. Research by Mikulincer, Florian, Cowan, and Cowan (2002) supports the findings of Miller et al..

Gender roles. Miller et al. (2007) reported that gender roles affect the amount of conflict in marriages. They noted that traditional couples adhering to stereotyped male and female roles tend to experience less happy marriages than marriages where both spouses are nontraditional, or androgynous. Now I know one of the reasons I have such a great marriage. In my family there are no male or female jobs. If one of us sees something that needs to be done and we are physically able to do what needs to be done, then we do it.

Poorer physical health. Kowal, Johnson, and Lee (2003) reported that conflict in a marriage could negatively impact the health of a spouse. Weihs, Fisher, and Baird (2002) “indicated that conflict and criticism are among the most important risk factors for a variety of health outcomes.” (cited in Kowal et al., p. 300) For examples, marital dissatisfaction negatively affects those recuperating from coronary heart disease and cancer.

Mental health issues. “Between 40 and 50 percent of depressed women in clinical samples also report significant relationship distress.” (Byrne, Carr, & Clark, 2004, p. 407) Byrne et al. (2004) pointed out that depression could predispose married couples to having conflict while marital conflict may precipitate, or exacerbate the existence of depression. Hickey, Car, Dooley, Guerin, Butler, and Fitzpatrick (2005) and Kowal et al. (2003) supported the findings of Byrne et al..

Dysfunctional family schemas. Dattilio (2005) reported that when schemas “are extreme or distorted they can contribute to family conflict.” (p. 21) He defined schemas as “the stable, entrenched long-standing beliefs that family members jointly hold about family life.” (p. 21) These schemas most often, according to Dattilio, are transmitted from families of origin and include attributions (beliefs about the origin of a behavior), negative expectancies that create self-fulfilling prophecies, assumptions about others’ expected character, and standards of expectation, often passed down through generations.

Effects of Conflict in Marriages

What happens when conflict goes unresolved in a marriage? I found five broad consequences related to what can happen if conflict is not dealt with in a marriage. These include sexual dysfunction, abuse, temporary separation, unforgiveness, and divorce. Let’s look at each consequence more closely:

Sexual dysfunction. “Unresolved relationship conflict may serve as cause of sexual dysfunction, and in turn sexual dysfunction may act as a catalyst to precipitate negative relationship conflict and marital distress.” (Metz & Epstein, 2002, p. 156) Particularly in women, Penner and Penner (1993) pointed out that relationship issues can prevent a wife from desiring her husband if she thinks sex is her husband’s only desire from her.

Abuse. Miller et al. (2007) reported that much conflict between spouses remains verbal, but others become violent. These violent acts range from petty grabbing or pushing to serious beatings or burning. The American Nurses Association (ANA) (2001) reported “approximately 2 million people each year die as a result of injuries sustained in intimate partner violence episodes.” (cited in Tilley & Brackley, 2005, p. 282) In the model proposed by Tilley and Brackley, the key elements of a violent family include justifying and minimizing violence, prior exposure to violence, poor anger management, and unsuccessful conflict resolution. The ANA, as reported by Tilley and Brackley, reported other factors linked to intimate partner violence include alcohol/drug abuse, media portrayals of violence, social tolerance of violence, and relationships involving severe economic and social hardship.

Temporary Separation. “Temporary separation in marriage is the when couples agree to take time out from each other for a while for a couple of reasons as a step towards divorce, gain a new perspective about the marriage or because of a disagreement.” (Is Temporary Separation…, 2017, ¶ 2) Chapman (1979), Donovan and Ryan (1989), and I too recommend couples separate temporarily when anger erupts. Temporary separations may last from as brief as an hour-long “timeout” to as long as six months to give each spouse time to work through individual issues before a healthy reconciliation can occur in the marriage.  

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”, I’ve heard all my life. Is this true? Not always but I believe it can make marriage relationships stronger. I know when my husband and I have had temporary separations, never due to marital conflict; but, due to work or other responsibilities, I started reflecting on how much I love my husband and the things I missed about him in his absence. After being apart due to my husband traveling for work, and then again, for me to care for a sick parent, the reunions were like a second honeymoon all over again.

Are there other possible benefits to couples taking temporary separations? Is Temporary Separation… (2017) shared

Pros to a temporary separation.

It provides time and space to identify each other’s values in regards to the marriage.

It helps identify underlying factors that may be causing the problems.

Time-out may assist the self-development of individuals that may be causing the problems in the relationship and solve that before getting back.

It also offers a platform through which couples get to discuss challenges they have been going through openly.

It also helps couple go back to what it takes to be happy in a relationship.

It could be the beginning of the improvement of the journey. (Goal: section, ¶ 2)

As I’ve heard where there are pros to a situation, there are also cons. What are possible disadvantages to temporary separations?

Added expense of paying a neutral third-party mediator for the couple. Mediators can help couples identify the problems in the relationship and may also be able to help the couple resolve the main issues. I recommend that couples use professional therapists, counselors, or pastors to serve as mediators.

Added expenses of maintaining two households

Negative effects on any children or other relatives close to the situation

Every time there’s a disagreement, temporary situations can become a habit, an easy “out” rather than working through the issues.

The individual spouses may become obsessed with self-improvement where they forget to address the needs of the marriage.

Unforgiveness. Diblasio and Benda (2002) reported how interpersonal conflict can lead to periods of estrangement and unforgiveness. Worthington (1999) offered evidence showing the significance of forgiveness to a marriage. Diblasio and Benda gave a five step model to forgiving one’s spouse: recalling the experience, understanding the offender’s motives, recognizing that forgiveness is unmerited favor, committing to forgive, and distinguishing between remembering the offense without pain and lack of forgiveness versus an unforgiving spirit exhibited as bitterness.

Divorce. According to the American Psychological Association (2018), “about 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce. The divorce rate for subsequent marriages is even higher.” (¶ 1) I believe divorce should always be a last resort after professional counseling for each spouse individually as well as together. Jesus makes the point clear in Mark 10:2-12 that divorce is not pleasing to the Father God. 

Are there biblical reasons for divorce? I find two reasons for divorce permissible in Scripture. Adultery is commonly recognized in society as a reason for divorce, based on Scriptures, such as Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9.

Ideally in marriage both spouses should be Christians (2 Corinthians 6:14). However, often believers end up married to unbelievers due to one spouse being converted after marriage or due to one spouse turning his or her back on God after marriage. The second reason mentioned in Scripture where a divorce is permissible concerns such situations. First Corinthians 7:12-15 offers instruction to the believer who is married to an unbeliever: 

12 But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. 13 And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. (NKJV)

Healthy Communication in Marriages

What is healthy communication? Based on my knowledge from past education and my own marriage, I offer the following attitudes and behaviors for couples to “fireproof” their marriages:

Respect for selves and each other is a must.

Rather than fighting about who is right or wrong, there’s nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree. That’s a key in my own marriage.

When having disagreements, focus on the behavior as wrong, rather than the character of the spouse.

Schedule a time when both spouses are rested and ready to talk to discuss disagreements.

Listen to your spouse. Ask questions. Never assume.  

Remove all distractions when having a serious discussion (e.g.: e-mail, TV, radio, etc.).

Avoid “YOU” statements that are accusatory. Use “I” statements that require each spouse to take ownership of their individual thoughts and feelings.

In regards to communication techniques, research by Markman et al. (2001) reveals that couples overwhelmingly report “The Speaker-Listener Technique” (p. 110) is the most helpful communication tool. This technique utilizes “I” statements as explained previously, paraphrasing, and active listening skills. A study by Stanley et al. (2001) also supports the usefulness of this communication technique. In this study, couples in premarital education training reported The Speaker-Listener Technique to be the most helpful part of their communication training. John M. Gottman, Ph.D. (2000), professor of psychology at the University of Washington and cofounder and codirector of The Gottman Institute notes two points in Welcome to the Love Lab that researchers at the Institute try to take into their own marriages. 

One is the importance of building and maintaining a friendship in your marriage so that you give your partner the benefit of the doubt when times are tough. This takes constant work. The second thing is that you have a choice every time you say something to your partner. You can say something that will either nurture the relationship or tear it down. You may win a particular fight with your spouse, but you could lose the marriage in the long run. (¶ 5)

In her book Diagnosis—Married Kathy Dawson (2000), founder of “The Marriage Movement” emphasized the value of healthy communication in marriages. She offered additional tips:

Use silence to your advantage. However, do not use it to sweep problems under the rug.

Watch your tone of voice. Avoid sarcasm.

Look for opportune times to talk.

Find a new creative way to communicate. For example, write your mate a letter.

Ask. Do not try reading what is on your mate’s mind.

Outside of one on one communication, use technology (telephone, fax, e-mail).

Watch for non-verbal messages from your mate.

Do not interrupt.

Daily talk with your mate about your feelings and what is important. Do not get bogged down in the daily mundane activities.

“Hearing each other is the key to effective communication, which opens the door to sexual pleasure.” (Penner & Penner, 1993, p. 27) Active listening is required for couples to communicate most effectively, and includes: carefully observing and listening to each other, reading each other’s “body language” for messages expressed, and empathizing with each other.

According to Halter (1988), healthy conflict resolution distinguishes happy couples from unhappy couples. Halter reported, “If a couple doesn’t have positive skills to solve problems, resolve fights, and negotiate conflicts, problems stockpile and unhappiness sets in. The research with the two groups of couples clearly shows that communication skill deficits are a major cause of marital stress.” (p. 112)

How can couples be more positive with each other as recommended by Halter (1988)? Gottman (1994) recommends three ways. These include:

Show an interest in your spouse and what he or she is saying. One way of doing this, according to Gottman, is to have good eye contact always looking at your spouse while in a conversation.

Show your spouse affection. Examples of affectionate behavior given by Gottman include tender touching or holding hands while watching television, enjoying a fire together, and telling your spouse about how you love him or her.

Do little acts to show your spouse you care. Examples of such acts given by Gottman are for husbands, surprising your wife with flowers after work; for wives, buying one of your husband’s favorite foods while grocery shopping; and calling your spouse at work to see how things are going.

Another key to maximizing healthy communication in marriage is to understand how God has equipped the two sexes differently, according to Smalley and Trent (1991). They reported that the major differences between men and women lies in the fact that on average, men “speak a ‘language of the head’” (p. xi) while women speak a “language of the heart” (p. xi). In other words, on the average men share facts while women share more feelings.

One means of communicating recommended by Smalley and Trent (1991) is to use emotional word pictures. “An emotional word picture is a communication tool that uses a story or object to activate simultaneously the emotions and intellect  of a person. In doing so, it causes the person to experience our words, not just hear them.” (p. 17) The Parables of Christ as told in the Scriptures are examples of emotional word pictures, according to Smalley and Trent.

Regardless of how well a couple communicates,  problems and disagreements are a part of every marriage. William F. Harley, Jr., Ph.D. (n.d.a), founder of Marriage Builders, explains the two realities perspective in How to Create Your Own Plan to Resolve Conflicts and Restore Love to Your Marriage:

Every couple is made up of two distinctly different people, with different experiences, interests and emotional predispositions. Regardless of the compatibility a couple creates in marriage, a husband and wife will always have somewhat different perspectives, and those differences will create conflict. (Restoring Love versus Resolving Conflicts section, ¶ 2)

Before concluding the conflict resolution section for married couples, being happily married, I offer the following tips from my own marriage that I consider the keys that make Milton’s and my marriage work well. These tips are:

Remember, first and foremost, keep God the focal point of your marriage. 

Remember, chivalry is not dead.

Not at The Orgerons!

That’s Milton…A true gentleman!

Be sure you and your spouse know and understand each other’s primary love language(s). If you aren’t familiar with “love languages”, I recommend you read Gary Chapman’s book entitled The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts, available for purchase at https://www.amazon.com/Love-Languages-Secret-that-Lasts/dp/080241270X When I first met my husband, he was not too familiar with the five love languages. Once I taught him the concepts, our relationship, which was already good, got even better!

A husband and wife should be best friends to each other.

Develop a family mission statement with core values and home rules stated. We have our family mission statement in a picture frame hanging on our wall. As an example, I share Orgeron Family Mission Statement: 

In concluding the conflict resolution section for married couples, I encourage married couples to utilize the healthy communication techniques outlined previously. Additionally, I recommend couple therapy and couple relationship education for married couples and couples contemplating marriage. Markman and Halford (2005) distinguished between couple therapy and couple relationship education. “Relationship education, as compared with therapy, has fewer stigmas and appeals to community members who may not seek therapeutic services when needed.” (p. 140) To be more specific, I believe couples already experiencing conflict should resort to couple therapy and couple relationship education; whereas, to prevent future conflict, all married couples and those contemplating marriage need to be educated on the variety of healthy communication techniques presented in this article. As the old adages go, “Prevention is the best medicine,” and “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Continue to page 4…

Resolving Conflicts on School Campuses

Before focusing on conflict at the different levels of education, I want to share about one intervention program that is available at all levels. This program is entitled Conflict Resolution Enrichment Workshops (C.R.E.W.) (Win-Win Resolutions, 2015).

The goals of C.R.E.W are to concentrate on key parts of student maturation, for example anti-bullying, healthy communication, problem solving, developing a healthy self-esteem, and teamwork.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION ENRICHMENT WORKSHOP TRAININGS are at the heart of what Win-Win Resolutions provides. The programs are individually designed to reach pre-school, elementary, middle / high school students, and adults. Utilizing puppets, original scripts, and “role playing” exercises, each workshop completely engages the participants in the process of discovering conflict resolution techniques. Workshops vary in purpose, length, and target audience, but all have the same objectives.

Click Here for Elementary C.R.E.W. flyer

Click Here for Middle/High C.R.E.W. flyer

Click Here for Family C.R.E.W. flyer (Win-Win Resolutions Homepage, ¶ 1)

Conflicts In Younger Children

In my elementary school days I remember conflicts ranged from girls fighting over bathroom stalls, students arguing over who was whose boyfriend, and students fighting over playground equipment. I even remember being involved in “heated” discussions at the lunchroom table about who had the best parents and whose church was right. And, of course, the various cliques in each classroom had disagreements with each other.

Those aforementioned issues of the past seem trivial when you look at our world today. Instead of school cliques, street gangs are recruiting younger members from elementary schools. These children are learning violence and bad habits from these gang members that the students are taking into the classrooms.

Talk about who has the best parents. About half of all American children today come from divorced homes. The fallout from so many students coming from broken homes often brings problems and conflict into the schools.

Conflict resolution is an important skill that students need to learn – beneficial to them within the classroom as well as in everyday life. Not only will kids use conflict resolution in the classroom, they will also continue to use these skills as they grow. The conflict resolution skills they learn in elementary school will help them solve problems as adults. (Proud to be Primary, 2018, ¶ 1)

How do younger children learn about conflict? I believe both parents and teachers share the responsibility in teaching children about conflict and how to deal with conflict responsibly. Of course, learning about conflict starts at home way before children start school. The article I find most impressive on this topic,  “Teaching Children to Be Peacemakers”,  was written by Ken Sande (2002b), author of the book entitled Peacemaking for Families (Focus on the Family, 2002), from which the article is excerpted. Sande (2002b) shares 12 important fundamentals for parents to teach young children about conflict. I encourage all parents of young children to read this article.

What can teachers do to fill in gaps and/or to supplement what children have or have not learned in the home about conflict? Teaching Conflict Resolution…(n.d.) offers suggestions for teachers on how to teach elementary students about conflict. Among the suggestions are:

Having students practice role-playing scenarios.

Using the curriculum entitled Responsibility, Goal Setting, & Conflict Resolution – Social Emotional Learning, available for purchase at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Responsibility-Goal-Setting-Conflict-Resolution-Social-Emotional-Learning-3629165

Having students write or draw about a conflict/resolution scenario that they can share with the class.

Having puppet shows that teach about conflict resolution.

Reading books to students about conflict and how to solve conflict. Books recommended include

Talk and Work It Out

Let’s Be Enemies

Give It Back!

Enemy Pie

Confessions of a Former Bully

On Middle and High School Campuses

“Without the necessary skill set, a teenager can land in tough situations when it comes to conflicts. At home, unresolved conflicts can lead to strained relations. Outside, it can lead to broken friendships, hours of detention, and even violence!” (Chakravarty, 2017, Consequences Of Teenage Conflicts section, ¶ 1)

Middle and high school students today are faced with more serious issues than what my generation experienced. Today alcohol and drugs are more available to students, gangs are infiltrating schools, and violence is out of control. If you don’t think so, I suggest you read an earlier blog I wrote entitled, Gun Violence in Schools . . . Suggested Causes & Interventions. 

Similar to elementary students, I believe both parents and teachers can and still should impact teens on how to deal with conflict. However, by this time in a child’s life, other influences, such as media influence and peer pressure, also are impacting children, and in a lot of cases, negatively. For parents to influence their teens positively at home and at school, I recommend the ten commandments of conflict resolution for teens presented by Chakravarty (2017). Summarized briefly, these commandments are:

You can’t run from conflict. It happens!

Don’t deny or repress your feelings when conflict happens.

Conflicts arise due to a certain issue. Work with the issue, rather than judging others involved in the conflict.

“Be respectful. Listen to the other person. Really listen. Listening to your parents or teachers may seem like a drag but zoning out is not the solution.” (Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills for Teenagers section, ¶ 2, Commandment 4)

Practice assertiveness rather than exhibiting passiveness or aggressiveness when faced with conflict.

Learn and use the skill of negotiation.

Stay in the present rather than bringing up past conflicts.

Avoid sulking. Talk out the disagreement.

Understand and sympathize with the other party’s position.

Apologize when appropriate.

How can middle and high school teachers (and counselors) reinforce lessons that students learned in the elementary years? One program middle and high schools can offer is the C.R.E.W. program (Win-Win Resolutions, 2015) mentioned previously. When Graves, Frabutt, and Vigliano (2007) studied the C.R.E.W. programs for middle and high schoolers, they found

Results indicated middle and high school students showing a decrease in their levels of relational aggression, and high schools students showing a decrease in their levels of physical aggression. Furthermore, high school students indicated an increase in their levels of effective communication while both middle and high school students exhibited an increase in their general knowledge regarding positive conflict resolution strategies. (Abstract)

Another option to reinforce conflict resolution skills in high school students is for teachers to incorporate activities from Teacher’s Guide: Conflict Resolution (Grades 9-12) into their classrooms. High school counselors too can be involved in promoting conflict resolution skills in students, according to Morton (2014). She recommends activities that school counselors can help school administration plan for on Conflict Resolution Day. According to Morton, 

In 2005, the Association for Conflict Resolution created a special day to promote conflict resolution in organizations. Conflict Resolution Day occurs the third Thursday of October and its purpose is to:

* promote peaceful means to settle conflict. *promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, businesses, organizations, and communities. *recognize the contributions of conflict resolvers.

Conflict Resolution Day is a great way to promote your school’s conflict resolution program to students, staff, and the community. (¶ 1)

On College and University Campuses

Conflicts I remember from my college days both in classrooms and while living in the college dorms and how I resolved each conflict offered a number of opportunities for personal development. Today I can look back and laugh at some of the conflicts I experienced while in college. Examples of conflicts I experienced include:

In-class conflict with professors. I recall two college professors I used to buck heads with a lot. One was more in fun though rather than serious, as the professor loved to spark debates in class. Oftentimes, I have no doubt he would play “devil’s advocate” just to get a discussion going in class. The conflict I had with the second professor was more of a serious nature. When I had a psychology professor get up and teach evolution as fact, as a Christian I could not sit back and say nothing. I told him evolution was only a theory, and that I believed in The Creation. After I spoke up, a couple of other Christian students also joined my defense. Honestly, I have to admit I left that class angry.

Conflict among roommates and others in my dorm. Mostly, these conflicts stemmed around housekeeping, or rather the other students’ lack of housekeeping skills. I remember anytime I came into the dormitory kitchen that all the girls in the dorm shared I would find food laying out, dirty dishes in the sink, etc. As I had always been pegged for being an “immaculate” housekeeper back then, you can imagine my frustration at each scene. I tried confronting the messy girls. When that didn’t help, I reported them to the dorm supervisor. When I was told a lot of them did not know how to clean because they came from wealthy families where they always had maids do everything, then I offered to teach the girls how to clean and explained to the girls the sanitary reasons why they needed to be better housekeepers. Not to mention I was tired of putting up with the roaches that decided to move in whenever they left food out. Eventually, because of my concerns and being an older non-traditional student, I was allowed to move to married housing and live in an apartment alone (without roaches!!!).

Conflicts related to different religious beliefs. I remember attending one of the on-campus Christian fellowships where another student told me and a couple other students that we couldn’t be Christians because we didn’t speak in tongues. That remark too ended with a debate that went nowhere. Both of us were of the same opinion after our discussion.

Allan Tucker, author of the book entitled Chairing the Academic Department: Leadership Among Peers (American Council on Education/Macmillan Series on Higher Education), 3rd Edition, gave four main categories of conflict administrators face on college campuses. Categories shared by Tucker (n.d.) include:

Intrapersonal Conflicts Among Staff—For example, a university employee feels slighted because s(he) did not receive an expected raise or promotion.

“Conflict between ‘employer and employee’ such as faculty member and chair, faculty member and dean, and staff persons and chairs. A chairperson who changes teaching assignments without consulting with the involved faculty would likely become involved in this type of conflict.” (Handling Conflict…Four Types of Conflict section)

Conflict among members of the faculty. These conflicts “arise because of personality differences, ideological differences or perceived inequitable treatment.  Sorting out the source of conflict is very difficult. The most troublesome kind of conflict is related to different perceptions of what activities are worthwhile and what methodologies are best.”(Handling Conflict…Four Types of Conflict section)

Conflicts between students and faculty or staff. These conflicts “often relate to student complaints about faculty teaching and faculty allegations of cheating or plagiarism. Student complaints can lead to major conflicts especially if the student believes that due process was violated.” (Handling Conflict…Four Types of Conflict section)

Yadegaran (2016), based on information from three university experts who commonly work as student mediators, reported on seven common conflicts between student roommates on campus. These conflicts include:

“…the most common issues among college roommates are scheduling conflicts — you’re a morning person, he’s a night owl — and using each other’s belongings without permission. ” (¶ 3)

A roommate helps him (herself) to his or her roommate’s personal food stash without permission.

A roommate entertains an overnight “visitor” (forbidden at most colleges) making the other roommate uncomfortable.

Housecleaning issues. I survived that one!

Conflicting lifestyles. For example, a roommate who opposes homosexuality finds out their roommate is gay.

“Three roommates pool their money to buy a new couch for the apartment. When they disband at the end of the school year, who gets the couch?” (The Couch Conflict section, ¶ 1)

A roommate discovers his or her roommate is smoking pot in their room (illegal). What should s(he) do?

If you are a college student finding yourself in one of the above situations, I encourage you to read the article for possible solutions to resolving the conflict.

Mascolo (2016) discussed racial relations as another issue creating conflict on college campuses. “…campuses can model ways to have difficult conversations about the unspoken issues that underlie racial strife.” (Steps to the Collaborative Resolution of Racial Conflict section, ¶ 2) How should colleges confront racial strife on their campuses? Mascolo offered four steps:

Recognize the humanness and value of each person on campus, regardless of race.

Recognize unfulfilled interests. “In conflict resolution, the problem to be solved is how to meet the unmet needs and interests of each party involved in a conflict.” (Steps to the Collaborative Resolution of Racial Conflict section, ¶ 7) 

“Negotiate from interests, not demands. To resolve racial tensions, it is helpful to create forums in which parties can express their genuine interests, anxieties and concerns without fear and without impugning the humanity of others involved in a conflict.” (Steps to the Collaborative Resolution of Racial Conflict section, ¶ 9)

Seek creative solutions that will give mutual benefits to all parties involved in the conflict. 

Preventing Conflict in Classrooms

 Lescher (n.d.) offered five suggestions on how to minimize the risk of conflict erupting in a teacher’s classroom. These suggestions include:

Before the semester starts, Lescher recommends teachers “complete a class inventory and self-assessment.” According to Lescher, teachers need to ask questions such as:

“What specific aspects of this particular class are most likely to be a source of conflict or tension in the classroom? …”

“How do you usually react to conflict (in general)? …  After discovering your typical style of conflict management, consider its effectiveness within the classroom.  If necessary, consider exploring other styles of conflict management for the sake of keeping harmony in the classroom.”

“What strategies will you employ if a difficult situation arises in this particular class?” (How do I prevent conflict from even happening in my class? section, ¶ 1)

On the first day of class after handing out a syllabus stipulating classroom policies and student expectations, teachers should review the syllabus making sure all the students understand the policies and what is expected of them.

Teachers need to develop a community of trust and rapport with their students and among the students. Lead activities to help everyone learn each others’ names and a little bit about each others’ lives and interests.

Teachers need to be role models to students at all times regarding communication and conflict resolution skills.

Teachers need to practice empathy putting themselves in the student’s place by remembering what their personal struggles were when they were in the student’s position.

Continue to page 5…

A Biblical Perspective on Conflict

“Conflict is inevitable. No relationship is immune. When managed biblically, conflict can serve as a catalyst for change and an opportunity for spiritual and relational growth.” (Yerkes, 2008, ¶ 1) Initially, in this section I would like to share some basic principles about conflict that are grounded in Scripture. These principles are:

God is not the source of conflict.

1 Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV): “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

  The sources of conflict are the flesh (James 4:1-3) and Satan (1 Peter 5:8):

James 4:1-3 (NKJV): 

Pride Promotes Strife

4 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV): “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

  Everyone, including Christians, experiences conflict in this world.

2 Timothy 3:12 (NKJV): “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

  God offers peace as an answer to conflict.

John 14:27 (NKJV): “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Conflict in the life of Christians can be a curse or a blessing.

When people lock horns in a courtroom, a congregational meeting, the bedroom, or the workplace, relationships are often severely damaged. Conflict robs us of immeasurable time, energy, money, and opportunities in ministry or business. Worst of all, it can destroy our Christian witness. When believers are bitterly embroiled in disagreement or coldly estranged from one another, few people will pay attention when we try to talk with them about the reconciling love of Jesus Christ.

But the opposite is also true. When Christians learn to be peacemakers, they can turn conflict into an opportunity to strengthen relationships, preserve valuable resources, and make their lives a testimony to the love and power of Christ. (Sande, 2004, p. 12)

While responding to conflict in unhealthy ungodly ways can lead to negative consequences, Christians need to remember that God can use the worst of conflicts for good (Romans 8:28-29). Peacewise (n.d.) encourages Christians to “See conflict as an opportunity” (Principle 1).

As the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1, conflict actually provides three significant opportunities. By God’s grace, you can use conflict to:

* Glorify God (by trusting, obeying, and imitating him) * Serve other people (by helping to bear their burdens or by confronting them in love) * Grow to be like Christ (by confessing sin and turning from attitudes that promote conflict). (See conflict as an opportunity section, ¶ 1)

Glorifying God through conflict is one of the”Four G’s” of conflict resolution (Sande, 2004, pp. 12-13). The other three are:

“Get the log out of your eye.” This principle is based on Matthew 7:1-5. As I have heard my late father and other ministers say, “Be careful. When you start pointing a finger at someone else, you have three fingers pointing back at yourself.” Before Christians attempt to be peacemakers with others, they need to make sure they are in right standing with God themselves.

“Gently restore.”

Galatians 6:1 (NKJV): “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”

“Go and be reconciled.”

Matthew 5:23-24 (NKJV): “23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

According to Sande (2004), the “Four G’s” principles

were developed by Peacemaker Ministries, which was established in 1982 to equip and assist Christians and their churches to respond to conflict biblically. Working through a network of gifted peacemakers throughout the world, we have found that these principles transcend international and cultural boundaries. (p. 13)

Matthew 18:15-17 gives the biblical steps to reconciliation when a Christian brother or sister has been offended by another Christian brother or sister. These steps are: 

Talk with the person privately.

If step 1 fails, take one or two other individuals as witnesses to the attempted reconciliation.

If step 2 fails, bring the conflict before the church.

If step 3 fails, treat the offender as an unbeliever.

If you are a Christian who has been offended by another and have followed the biblical steps to attempted reconciliation without success, then you have done all you can do. In Romans 12:18 we are told, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” 

One point I want to make before closing this section is that although we may not be successful in attempts to make peace with everyone, God calls us to forgive everyone, regardless: 

Colossians 3:13 (NKJV): “bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”

The Scriptures are clear that if we don’t forgive others their trespasses, then God won’t forgive us (Matthew 6:14; Mark 11:25; Luke 17:4). Thus, I believe forgiveness is a key element of conflict resolution, which many secular programs about conflict resolution tend to overlook.

Continue to page 6…

Conflict Quotes

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Mascolo, M. F. (2016). Quelling racial tensions. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved July 18, 2018 from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/04/14/quell-tensions-campuses-should-adopt-conflict-resolution-principles-essay

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Conflict Resolution . . . A Road to Peace Written by Pamela K. Orgeron, M.A., Ed.S., BCCC, ACLC, Author  What is conflict resolution? “Any of the methods used by disputing parties to settle their differences.

[gravitascivics]

A MEANING OF THE COMMON GOOD

The professional organization of social studies educators is the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). This writer is a former member. Retirement tends to loosen such bonds. He was a member roughly from 1970 till 2007.  His feelings concerning the organization is mostly positive.  He does wish them well.

         Recently, it came to his attention that the NCSS issued a publication which attempts to set forth a policy position regarding the Common Core Standards – a US Department of Education effort – to encourage state departments of education to upgrade their state standards.  Apparently, the concern is that since the US must compete in a global economy, its education should be comparable to those of other advanced countries.  The issuance of the Common Core Standards is a way for the federal government to promote a better posture in that competition.

Recent reviews as to that comparability between the US and other nations have not been encouraging.  The US, in various ranking estimations across the various subject areas, has not been stellar.  While different reports vary somewhat, the US ranks about seventeenth in its schools’ success rate when compared to other national systems.[1]  So, there has been pressure from numerous sources to improve the nation’s educational efforts.  One specific demand is that state’s need to improve their standards – they are lacking or so the critics claim.

There is an obstacle to the federal government just upgrading these standards. Under the nation’s constitutional makeup, the power to run educational systems is reserved to the states.  That makes the federal role a bit tricky.  The federal government can issue standards and suggest states adopt them.  This adoption can vary in terms of how extensively they are utilized.  In the case of social studies, the story is a bit more complicated.  

Yes, the federal government has issued the aforementioned standards.  Common Core standards are issued in terms of various subject areas:  English/Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science.  Missing?  Social Studies, which is usually treated as a core subject area in most secondary schools. But they are not totally overlooked; they are indirectly included.  They function as a source of content material for English/Language Arts standards.  In the past two postings this role is characterized as a “backdoor” role.

The current effort of this blog is to provide some critical judgement of this role, in general, and of the standards the NCSS’ publication provides.  That publication is being referred to as the C3 Framework.[2]  The last two postings began this critique by reviewing the C3 organizing principles.  Now, the blog turns to the substantive portions.  Here is an introductory statement of the body of the publication:

Introduction in the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for social studies state standards, the call for students to become more prepared for the challenges of college and career is united with a third critical element:  preparation for civic life.  Advocates of citizenship education cross the political spectrum, but they are bound by a common belief that our democratic republic will not sustain unless students are aware of their changing cultural and physical environments; know the past; read, write, and think deeply; and act in ways that promote the common good. There will always be differing perspectives on these objectives.  The goal of knowledgeable, thinking, and active citizens, however, is universal.[3]

Perhaps one can interpret this as a summary statement of the project’s principles.  

It, though, stands as more substantive than the five principles this blog shared in its previous two postings.  This determination is made not because it is substantive enough, only that it is more so.  At least, this statement identifies an aim.  Apparently, students need to do all the listed activities, e.g., know the past, for a purpose.  That is to advance the common good.  Of course, the next concern would be:  what constitutes the common good?  Again, this is the type of philosophical element that a summary or introductory statement should address.

Without such a philosophical commitment, one is left with a circular argument:  the common good is seeking the common good.  Is the common good what most people think is the common good?  Is it one in which the economy grows irrespectively of how that growth is distributed?  Is it advancing democratic norms – perhaps moving toward dismantling such an institution as the electoral college (given its anti-democratic character)?

This writer suspects that the defenders of the publication would state that such questions get into content and the efforts of the developers of the C3 Framework were to only provide an outline toward a more demanding curriculum, leaving content issues to the states.  If this is the case, the judgement here is the effort is not worth the time used to develop this document.  Part of the problem with any deficiencies with social studies is its content. Those who have tried to reform social studies – for decades – have seen the problem as only being one of instruction, but that is a short shrift of the entailed problems.

The message of this blog has been that, yes, instruction is deficient, but more central to the woes of social studies is the problem of a content component that is reluctant to meet responsibly and meaningfully such questions as:  what is the common good?  Further, this shortcoming is part and parcel of the establishment’s avoidance of such questions due to its reliance on the natural rights construct to determine its content decisions.  The above introductory statement presents itself as transcending ideological bias, but it is not.  It is partial toward market values.

To offer a definition for the common good that falls under this publication’s perspective, the following is provided:  The common good is what is determined it is by the collective opinions of a population at a given time.  It is as if the common good and its elements are commodities to be consumed by the preferences of the consumers, the citizens of the nation.

This view is transitory; there are no transcending concerns other than for the mechanism by which to determine what is popular and the liberty, on the part of the individual, to express that judgement.  There are no duties or obligations other than those everyone assumes for him/herself.  

In other words, why should students “know the past” or be active in the political process?  They should master these objectives to be able to voice their educated choice – period. The argument of this blog is:  the founders of this nation started the ball rolling for more loftier purposes than this.

[1]For example, Marian Wilde, “Global grade: How do U.S. students compare?” Great Schools, April 2, 2015, accessed on February 27, 2017,

http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/u-s-students-compare/

.[2] National Council for the Social Studies, Preparing Students for College, Career, and Civic Life (Washington, D. C.:  NCSS, 2013), accessed April 16, 2018, https://www.socialstudies.org/c3.

 [3] Ibid., 5.

[dramawithinme]

Drama Journal

What we explore in year 12 Drama 2017 - Year 13 Drama 2019

8/29/2017 - 8/31/2017

We explored the introduction of the character: Bertozzo and thinking about how he is intending to show himself as a character to the audience, understanding that he has different goals such as trying to become friends with them, manipulate them, intimidate them, show them that he’s angry or trying to make them pity him…

I was the first one who performed, I used large and big movements. It was embarrassing for me since I was first... It was actually hard to perform since I have to focus on speaking/changing tone while acting out my body movements.

Here, we tried different body languages, pace, the tone of voice to change the intention of Bertozzi.

We also explored the spacing effect of the performance and we noticed how it affects the performance, the audience’s view and character relationship. It was an interesting process since we got to learn how to engage the audience.

But as we continued, we’d learnt how the use of space, levels and breaking the fourth wall works… It is all about staying in character as we interact with the audiences.

9/5/2017 -9/7/2017

Cailyn’s research is about Paris in 1968 and Vicky’s Anarchist research:

From research, the year 1968 was a difficult time for Dario Fo that I understand. There was a riot happening in Paris, France, spreading to Italy. Because of the political activism (an effort to promote political, economic and/or environmental ideas for improvement with the desire to make improvements with the society), the theatre was also affected and his dislike for the hypocrite governments increases. Not only was that in December 1969 there was a bomb in the centre of Milan. 16 people were killed and another 90 were injured. There was also a bomb nearby where the police blew it up rather than disarming it, causing the clue to also be blown away. This is where the Anarchist comes in and Giuseppe (Pino) Pinelli fell out of the 4th-floor window. But sadly, I only understand this through research. For improvement of the audience's understanding, I think that the there should be some introduction and explanation of the history so that the audiences would get the grasp of what had happened.

Ong did a presentation about the stage acting style of Dario Fo which linked with my topic and that is the Commedia Dell’Arte.

We talked about how we should add background information for the audiences that do not have any knowledge about the Anarchist so that they would understand what the story is about a lot better... We also talked about how we should put in little reference from the audience’s local area so that they can also relate to this play’s topic.

Continuing, we explored the style of Commedia Dell’Arte and we’d realized that each of the Accidental Death’s character can relate to some of the Commedia characters. We did a small workshop for Il Detore, Arlechino, El Capitano and Columbina so we merged the characters together, for example when Vicky and Ong tried to test out the movement of Columbina’s posture as Feletti. We understood that the play was supposed to be performed in a loud and large posture, movements, tone and actions that is extremely eye-catching.

The question of that day... As a director, how would you use Commedia Dell’Arte in the Accidental Death?

9/12/2017 - 9/14/2017

A monologue in chapter 10 to 14.

I would like the audiences to see him (the Maniac) as a mad, friendly, imaginative and an amazing person. If I was the director, I would use a lot of miming on the props; the telephone and the files, showing his imaginative side. I would make him break the fourth wall often; throwing the files out of the window but at the audiences as the maniac tell them sorry (breaking the fourth wall) as they were hit by the paper. It would be nice if the audiences feel the bond with the Maniac, either in a friendly or bittersweet way when he apologizes to them.

9/19/2017 - 9/21/2017

I’d learn this analytical technique of using TEAM:

Tension

Emotions

Atmosphere

Moment/Message

We’d explored the idea of what it is like to be a Theater director... And to do that we’ll have to pick out two scenes to explore its TEAM, we will have to direct and find a way for our cast to perform. I must say that this is a very difficult task for me since I dislike forcing people to do stuff and I am also scared that I will be judged for my idea... But I guess I just have to face my fear and work as hard as I can.

The first things I’ve learnt to do as a Director is that I will need to get my cast to understand the play, the scene and each character’s role, goals and personality so that they would know what to do and feel.

Me: Ending scene and the Interview scene

I’ve chosen the ending scene.

The 2nd scene that I’d chosen is the Interview scene.

10/03/2017 - 10/05/2017

We were exploring the idea of stage design. This will involve the use of stage props, decoration and lighting to give the right atmosphere for the audiences to understand. I also noticed how staging can impact the time and the atmosphere; having it play a big part in the play.

We were also exploring the Theatre Context, Presenting Theatre and the Theatre Process within the three days. I’ve learnt about the word vignette in a playscript; about the different chunk of parts in a play... For example, Love and Information contain a large amount of vignette instead of just one plot. But the vignette links!

10/10/2017 - 10/12/2017

Right now we’re looking at the Theme of the play text: Love and Information. On the 10th of October, we were discussing on how to plan and explore the play text. We were looking back at how we were exploring the stage design; how we use the sense of what’s going on within the stage while using questions like: What does the play smell like? What do you think it’ll taste like? What is around you? Just something out of this line...

The theme of Love: How have our attitude to love and changed/our behaviour in love and relationship changed in the last 2012.

Choose 2 vignettes and explore the scene - I’m doing scene 7.

I’ve found out about a French word: Vignette and how it means a chunk of stuff.

We learn about how titles can greatly impact what the scene is about. To let the audiences know about the title, we can use placards, use the narrator and maybe add powerpoints... Though, the title doesn’t always need to be told if the scenes are clearly performed. We were also talking about stage design and imagine the stage/place by using the 5-6 senses and question yourself why. We found out about how vague, unclear and versatile the play is; you can perform the scenes by using improvisation and perform in it many different kinds of ways.

To perform you’ll have to open to interpretation and think about...

The different performance styles: Comical, realism, unnaturalistic...

The theme of the play...

The relationship of the characters...

And to do this, we can do a workshop e.g. a character workshop, a scene workshop... As for a character workshop, we can work on devising and stay in character as we do so...We were also looking at a style called the Movement Sequence. We were exploring the style by having each character move in pattern as if it’s a Dance move. As we do so, we were doing it with music (it’s easier to do since there’s a beat to it), letting other say the part for you (easier to focus on the performance but it doesn’t fit the situation) and you saying the part for yourself (best option, it’s easier to reveal emotions, but harder to perform since you cannot focus on one thing. Though to speak, the attention will be taken off from the body language but to the expression and voice). The Movement Sequence let us explore body language and how movements and gesture can show feelings, emotions and tension. Movement Sequence is “fun to watch, but hard to understand.”Here’s the question of the day: When you’re exploring Love and Information in an unnaturalistic style, does it fit? Is it effective? Does it reveal new things? If yes, then what?

11/07/2017 - 11/09/2017

Within this week, we experiment on different scenes in the playtext of Love and Information.

What I’ve learnt from Ong’s directing:

The actors/actress should also know and understand the scene. We do this by reading and summarise everything. We explored Flashback; using this way of letting 2 people speak as the other 2 act and try to deliver the meaning through action (plus moving montage), acting to what the 2 speakers are saying. We want to make it seems like a dance.

Letting the audiences see the actors moving props makes the scene seems too clunky and distracting, leading to the atmosphere being destroyed.

We were also talking about how we want to use lighting to represent different places. E.g. Green light to show river...

The colour of light will change in different scenes.

Music was added in the play.

In Vicky’s directing:

Act as if something had happened before.

Rely on tone/voice and facial expressions.

Adding sub characters to build up the scene.

Trying out different situation...

In Caitlin’s directing:

Staging plays a big part as we perform.

We can use the projector which is similar to lighting; it changing the scene and giving out atmosphere.

Light focus on character to show state or focus. In the play, light shining on a character shows that she is fully awake. And another character’s light will be dim to show that his/her mind is asleep.

In my own directing:

Trying out immersive approach/theatre.I want to show a bond but the characters are too far apart from each other which destroyed my goal. Change staging to In-the-round. Walking around the audiences in the dark; feel what the autistic kid feels. Trying out: having the character to not move which doesn’t change anything.

Everything changed when we gather the bully up and it finally shows the bonds and increases the aggression.

The autistic kid will just sit on the ground which shows the level of who is in control and that is the bullies.

11/14/2017 - 11/16/2017

This week we explore the Director Journal's questions and how to write it.

11/21/2017 - 11/23/2017

In the future for IB research presentation, the goal of writing a good presentation, we will need to explore the different assessment criteria... Keep in note that the quality of the presentation does not matter. It only matters when you...

A = The theatre in context: The tradition and culture.

Show your good research and understanding of the theatre tradition. You will need to explain and describe the theatre tradition by adding appropriate sources and put the information into good context.

B = Theatre process: Practical research and approach to application.

This is the part where so many other IB students lost points on and it’s one of the easiest bit to do. So what we have to do here is to just describe “HOW AND WHY” you are doing or chose this.

C = Presenting theatre: This does not involve what I told you (future me) that the quality of the presentation doesn’t matter. This meant that you need to use your tone and body to demonstrate what is going on/

D = Theatre in context: The Learner

This, you will need to compare the chosen theatre tradition with a different one. You would also need to talk about the impact of this theatre tradition to yourself and what it made you think.

WORK HARD AND GO TO YOUR DREAM UNIVERSITY, PANCHIWA :) !!

Now, after looking at the research presentation, we were looking at how plays were performed, designed and presented back 400 years ago in old England.

I found out that when an actor receives a role, they will just be given a role of paper.

Back then there is no director in the old days and that they have very little time to do the stage and memorise everything.

Talking about staging and how you’re able to engage the audiences.

Endon stage = You can only engage the audience by looking at one direction.

Thrust stage = There are three directions that the actor can face. It’s easier to engage. More of a storytelling way.

Elizebethan theatre - looking at the camera does break the fourth wall but it does not break the emotion that is displayed.

11/29/2017 & 11/30/2017

Secondary sources about costumes:

To know the cultural background.

To show the social context; the status, ranking and etc...

Costumes is a conventional design not performance design.

Reconstruction of what they used to have.

To look at what they have then.

“Martin White” research on the reconstruction of an indoor theatre + lighting.

Costume define a class.

It affects the acting.

[athenalevel3performingarts]

Melodrama Self Evaluation.

What did you find most interesting about your physical/vocal performance?

Within my performance of Melodrama i found it interesting how my gestures were all over exaggerated and i noticed how this technique helped the audience to see the different movements more clearer and even when we didn’t say anything they could distinctly tell what we was doing and feeling to show what we trying to express.While playing Cool  in the play i was a relaxed but a panicky character to show this i would often slow down my words and then when getting really shaken i would speak faster to show my projection in my voice through the pitch of it and work with the pace i spoke in a posh accent to show the background i  came from and that i was from a high class status. 

How could you have experimented more with voice/ movement and gesture? 

I could of experimented more within my movement as when talking to people i would often stand in one space. To show i was more panicky through the use of my body i could of paced up and down rather than just using gestures and body language it would have created this type of atmosphere more whilst making it more effective within the scene.Also i could of  explored different emotions my character could have felt in that specific scene when i was panicking but he could of trying to get a different point across at the same time. I feel as though i could of looked at adding the different levels of tension for example level 1 sad to 10 very upset. Instead of just showing them to other characters as part of communication i could of presented this more to the audience. 

Did you use appropriate gestures and facial expressions? If so when, where and how effective were they? 

In the lesson i think that my facial expressions and gestures were appropriate for this style For my character Cool who was a Valet a high end servant in charge of everything whilst the Master is out. To show in scene 1 that talking to another servant that i relied on for the safety of young courtley to return before his father i use direct address and by showing i serious in what i was saying i pointed my hand towards him and asked in whether or not he had seen his son and showed this also within my voice by having a high tone of voice not shouting but stern so that the audience knew i was on edge and was anxious to find out where he was. Also Cool although he was concerned about Young courtly he would often let him get away with all sorts in a fashion but also let him know how strict his father could be and was high on rule following. To show this in my face i would raise my eyebrows slightly up with wide eyes look down towards him but have my posture up right to represent the different authority between the two character and to show i had more authority i was considered to be on a higher level.  Also when addressing another servant in the room i would show the etiquette the respect between each servant or whenever you was leaving or entering and saw another one when the servant came in before i spoke to him i shook his hands just to show that level of respect between the parties. 

What could be improved or made even better?

For me to improve my own personal performance i should of gave the audience more direct eye contact as didn’t look at them enough this would have made sure i had their full focus on the performance but also on my character. Also at times i could have said some of my lines to the audience to show them the impact and what would happened if Sir Harcourt had found out and it would of made the audience more involved as it also would of been like had authority over them and it would have seemed like a had a lot of power and gave them more of a feeling of what he was like.

Characterization:

Did you use appropriate acting techniques for the text?

Yes i do think that i used the appropriate acting techniques for the text. I looked at the stage directions and the other characters within the play to help me have a clear understanding of the different typical stock characters in Melodrama and then looked at the different gestures i could use that would suit my character’s mood and over exaggerate them and i found the simple ones like raising my hand and pointing it etc worked more and suited my character perfectly and the audience noticed this more and got an understanding of my character which created the intended emotion. I feel that the different techniques i have learnt worked well in the performance like servant etiquette  (e.g mutual/respect)

Did you portray your character in an appropriate way?

I feel i did portray my character in the appropriate way and after watching footage of myself back i noticed that all my gestures fitted in with his personality and it worked well it also showed the status my character had with the different acting techniques i used such as posture. To show when i saw Sir harcourt in the morning after his son had secretly gone to bed i bowed down and shook is hand to show that i looked up to him and he was boss and the respect between us bot was there. I spoke clearly fluent and the audience was able to understand me clearly got the insight of my character from acting out a small short scene. I feel i could of use some more expressions on my face rather than the ones i had picked as i do feel it would of worked better if i had picked some more serious ones. But other than this i included all the techniques and acting techniques within the Melodrama style. 

What could be improved or made even better?

I feel that if i had used a variety of facial expressions that were over the top that were more serious as it would of added to my character but not only that it would of added to the performance as it would of created the tension climax needed within this scene and left it on a more serious note if i had portrayed it clearer and they would of got that i protecting young courtley but also know that part of him regrets it as not a lot of people were taking there jobs seriously as servants.

Group Performance:

What elements of the scene/ performance worked well?

I think the overall performance worked and went well to the audience as a group we blocked it so everyone knew what they was doing so that there was no dramatic pauses and that meant that everyone also knew there cues. Which meant the performance ran smoothly as a whole. we all used over exaggerated gestures which is used thoroughly in this style and it showed the message we was trying to get across to the audience when it wasn’t our turn to speak about young courtley. we left the ending open so the audience would be wondering what would happen next and left them on the edge of their seats as they were desperate to find out whether he made it back in time without being caught out but also everyone clearly directed there emotion on this through their voice which made the performance sucessful and got across everyone’s initial characters.

What could the group improve on?

Something that needs to be improve within the group is listening to one another ideas and spending more time on working out improving some scenes as they seems to be a lot of talking which could be reduced in order for everyone to get across their thoughts and ideas and try them out more also expanding this levels of focus need to be increased as at certain times the talking was a distraction to those who wanted to work.

Was there anything about the performance of the scene/s which could be made even better? If so how could we have improved this?

From watching the performance back they could of been more eye contact given to the audience as a whole and towards the other characters as well this would of given them our full attention which means at times they could of lost interest this is a key important skill that needs improving throughout everyone in my group. This would also show that we have rehearsed it properly up until the show without it looking a bit off due to not a lot of reaction from other actors made the show seem un rehearsed and more followed from the script directly at times. Also it would of been nice to maybe added in some music to start of the scenes or used some sound effects would of made it more effective  to ensure this  is improved as a group we will revisited this in the next following weeks.

[evangelinecullperformingart-blog]

Sola Work Developments:

Being able to act in various acting styles gives you a better chance to become a successful actor. There are many different styles such as melodrama, non-naturalistic acting, naturalistic acting, Commedia dell’arte and much more. Actors may need to be trained in these different styles to expand their knowledge of acting and the theatre. There are multiple types of acting training options out there, starting with regular “Introduction to Acting” type of classes, more advanced training and specific classes. Some of those include: acting technique classes, such as Meisner or method, auditioning classes to learn how to be successful at auditioning, film acting courses that are aimed at screen acting only, cold reading classes which are similar to audition class, improvisation training to help you get out of your head, vocal training classes that may be helpful for all actors, including voice over actors, commercial acting classes which teach you how to book commercials and even body and movement training. 

Higher education programs offer courses such as BA (Hons) professional acting, MA classical acting for professional theatre and foundation degree professional acting to name a few. Similar courses are technical and backstage craft. Also, there are dance degrees which cover a wide range of styles, from ballet to street dance. Along with vocal courses for singers. 

Here is a list of specific examples: 

Dance:

Dance BA (Hons), most courses teach students:

Dancing Cultures

Dancing Histories

Dance Making 

Dancing Bodies

Performing Theories

Popular Dance

Dance and Professional Practice

Dance Making 2

Dance Teaching and Leading 

Performing Cultures

Performing Techniques 

Production Project

Research Project

Access to Dance

Vocal Courses:

BMUS (Hons), courses teach students:

Study performance anxiety

The use of gesture in performance

Concert and event hosting

Alexander Technique

Music with yoga

Music with dance

Contextual modules

Ensembles work 

Acting courses:

BA (Hons) in Acting, teach students:

Stanislavski-based rehearsal exercises

realist project and scene work

improvisation

contemporary and classical text

projects on Greek Tragedy, Shakespeare and other Elizabethan and Jacobean writers, Restoration/Eighteenth Century comedy and contemporary writing

acting for camera and microphone technique

voice training, including dialect training, individual and choral singing

movement training, including Alexander Technique, dance and stage combat

Acting performance skills:

In order for actors to be successful, vocal, physical and interpretive skills are crucial for performances. 

Interpretive skills:

Firstly, actors need to truly understand their characters to help them portray them in a believable way.  Since a character can be shown in many different ways, actors have to decide which is the most appropriate way of representing them. Therefore, actors must understand the material by asking themselves:

Where does the scene take place? , who are they talking to and how do they feel about that person? , what does their character want? and what happened right before the scene started? 

These question will help an actor to discover more about their character and help to improve the actor's interpretive skills. Actors must consider their character's given circumstances.Techniques such as hot-seating can be used to create a character or to develop the role. If they are performing a monologue, actors need to used their interpretive skills to place where all the other characters are within a scene, this includes specific eye lines and choices about simple blocking. They need to learn to know the material, rather than memorise it; by knowing the material, actors can change their interpretation or develop it further.  

Physical skills:

Once the actor has developed a strong understanding of their character, is familiar with the material and has established the intended tone of the piece, they can start to consider how they will perform it. A huge part of this is the actor’s physical skills. An actor’s movement can show a lot about their character, as the famous quote goes “actions speak louder than words”. Actors should consider their body language. This includes their stance, posture, gesture, gait, facial expressions, eye contact, use of space, use of tension and how all of this effects what emotion is being portrayed to an audience. For example, a character that walks in a fast paced, angered gait who’s stance is tense with their shoulder’s pushed back and eyebrows lowered could portray to an audience that they are stressed or under pressure.Whilst a character that walks in a slow paced gait with their shoulder and head lowered could portray that they are lethargic or lazy. Not only this, actors should consider the angle of their body, a body that is open, facing towards the audience would show a character’s confidence or authority. So actors need to think about their character’s energy or lack of it and what this says about their character. Facial expressions are also a key physical skill that is needed in acting. Actors must think about their eyes, eyebrows, chin, jaw and even what their nose is doing. For example, to show anger an actor may lower their eyebrows, tense their jaw as they breathe in slowly through their nose and pierce their eyes towards their enemy whilst making direct eye contact with them. This would clearly indicate their character’s emotions towards a person. Other physical skills that actors must consider are their use of space and levels. For example, an actor's use of levels could show their authority and confidence. An actor who is high up, maybe on a raised platform or balcony could represent that their character is powerful and in control, it would suggest that they demand attention. Whereas a character that hardly moves around the space could portray feelings of shyness or insecurities. 

Vocal skills:

Along with physical skills, vocals are also important. An actor’s pitch, pace, tone and accent can convey a lot about their character’s emotions. For example, an actor with a high pitched voice could portray feminine qualities or that a character is frightened, whilst a low pitched voice would be more masculine. An actor's tone of voice could show if a character is shocked, hurt, angered or sad and this can be emphasised by whispering or even crying. Along with this, the volume is a crucial part of acting, especially if the actor is performing on stage, they must be able to project their vocals to ensure that all the audience can hear them clearly and follow the story. The pace of the voice is also important because it can indicate to an audience whether a character is nervous, calm or relaxed. All of these vocal skills help to show a character’s emotion. Actors can also add pauses to a line to help add dramatic tension and keep the audience guessing, pausing can help to emphasise specific words and add range to the fluidity of the piece. Lastly, if the actor is wanting to portray a comical tone then timing is a crucial skill to have as the timing of lines can create a humorous atmosphere if done correctly. 

Technical skills/extra information:

Actors should carry their script with them EVERYWHERE. An actor may be on the bus and could come up with an idea that will help them with their character. Having a script handy will help develop their understanding of the scene and they can easily make changes. Actors should write their cues, entrances, exists, other actors entrances/exits, props they need to bring onto the stage at certain moments, timings, how they are going to say a line e.g whisper or shout or even when they wish to pause between words. This will aid an actor's professionalism and overall help them in performance by becoming more organised. Marking certain information on a script will help actors to understand their character’s intention and where their intention changes, their relationships and their aims. Along with this, actors need to schedule rehearsals and give themselves enough time to learn lines to a high standard in order to be at performance level. A committed actor will give up their free time to work on and develop scenes, in particular, these rehearsals will focus on movement, voice and character interpretation. Actors will need to rehearse independently and with other cast members in order to reach performance level. 

Once actors have been given a role, it is extremely important to research their character (especially if the character they are playing is well known) to gain a full understanding of their characters circumstances; this will then help them to portray a more believable and realistic character. Firstly, actors should read through the script and look at the stage direction. Stage directions can help an actor to discover more information about a character that the lines may not have told them. Actors should also look at the character profile (usually sent to them by the director/writer) which gives information about that character’s background. This extra knowledge is extremely useful as it will help actors to understand their character’s reasoning for doing what they do in the scene. Actors should not only read their character’s profile but also read other character profiles to help them develop their understanding of the plot and the characters that they will encounter. 

Here is an example of some character profiles from a short film called “Night In”:

Character Profiles ‘Night In’

Nick

Age-18

Grew up with Peter and went to the same high school, same as Samantha.

Nick appears very much as a ‘proper lad’ but inside he does have a heart of gold. He isn’t really the sharpest tool in the toolbox but tries his best. However, during the narrative of ‘Night In’, we will see a different side to Nick. At the beginning of the film he has a hunch that Samantha has been cheating on him and with this, we will see a more aggressive and domineering side to his character.

He adores his girlfriend Samantha and would do anything for her, however this changes throughout the progression of ‘Night In’.

Nick was involved with the bullying of Lucas, however, he was under the impression Lucas was some sort of nut job wanting to hurt him and Samantha. This was due to Peter sending things like voodoo dolls and death threats to Nick whilst pretending to be Lucas.

Like Samantha and Peter, Nick is in his final year at college and instead of going to University he has decided to stick with his dad and work at the family garage.

Throughout the duration of ‘Night In’ Nick starts to realise that Peter has been using and playing Nick near enough their whole friendship. Peter was one that used to make snarky remarks about Nick’s academic ability, hence why Nick hasn’t pushed himself to go onto further education (University)

Samantha

Age-17/18

Been in a long-term relationship with Nick for the past 4 years.

She doesn’t love Nick anymore but stays with him as they look like a good couple.  She puts on pretence when she is around her friends.

She has always had a soft spot for Peter and knows that Peter has had a crush on her near enough all the time they have known each other. She would never go out with Peter, as it would spoil her image.

Samantha was part of the popular clique at high school and college. She is very much social media centred and has to have the most likes.

Samantha was the main source of all the rumours surrounding Lucas as she felt he was ‘creepy’ and had heard about the apparent death threats to Nick.

Actors should look online to find out as much information as possible about their character, especially if they are performing a well-known play. Websites such as “www.sparknotes.co.uk” offer viewers information about characters thoughts and feels and scene summaries which could truly help an actor to learn more about their character and the play itself. They should also watch other actors perform their character on “Youtube” to see other interpretations and acting methods. All this research will help actors to conclude and make decisions about their final performance. 

Research about characters should answer the questions listed below and will help an actor to decide if they have enough knowledge about their character and if they are ready to move onto the next step of the rehearsal process:

1. Who am I?

2. Where am I?

3. When is it?

4. Where have I just come from?

5. What do I want?

6. Why do I want it?

7. Why do I want it now?

8. What will happen if I don't get it now?

9. How will I get what I want by doing what?

10. What must I overcome?

Actors must be able to devise work as a performance company, they will be working with many different people such as other actors, directors, writers, costume designers, makeup artists and much more. All these people work together to make a performance company. Therefore, actors must have good communication and team working skills in order for them to be successful. Sometimes actors will be expected to input their ideas or even improvise certain scenes with the company. A performance company will work hard to create energetic, exciting theatre; something audiences have never seen before. In the process they may even win awards, all company workers must be loyal and committed in order put on a successful piece. Along with this, actors should have knowledge of other performance companies to see their competition and what other styles of theatre are currently being performed. There are so many different styles of theatre such as comedy, melodrama, tragedy, Greek tragedy, drama and much more. Actors must establish their theatre companies style and intended tone to help them portray their character in a suitable way. Actors should have knowledge of other performing arts companies so that they can decide which company their style of acting would suit best; they can then schedule auditions or make plans about how they can get involved.

Along with this, it is important for actors to truly understand their audience, do their audience have any disabilities? What is the age range of the majority of their audience? What are their audience’s needs? The actor must consider what they want their audience to go away thinking and feeling, this will help them to understand how they should portray their characters. They also must establish whether they are going to directly address the audience, are they going to look them directly in the eye? Or are their characters unaware of the audience’s presence? Depending on the tone and intended message of the performance ( e.g. to entertain, inform or educate) will determine the answer to these questions for the actor. 

Behind the glitz and glam of the performance, there is a large backstage crew who support the designers and performers with the running of the show. They take on responsibilities such as:

Building sets

Helping to  create props

Operating equipment such as lighting and sound

construction: building the set, including any mechanical or moving parts, and making sure they work properly

loading, unloading and assembling scenery

operating moving scenery (traditionally the person who does this is a 'flyman'). Flying scenery is often not a job on its own but can be a part of the role of stagehand or theatre mechanist.