CIRCA Presents: Eric Dyer & Lynn Watson

CIRCA Fellowship Talks

Location

Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 216

Date & Time

April 25, 2018, 12:00 pm1:00 pm

Description

Professor Watson will present her work-in-progress supported by her CIRCA Fellowship, using Fitzmaurice Voicework (FV), a voice training methodology undertaken primarily by actors and professional voice users. A number of speech/language pathologists have also begun implementing aspects of it in clinical settings. Anecdotal reports have suggested that practicing FV (which involves a specially designed series exercises that are gently aerobic) results in effects similar to those of “mindfulness meditation” and “flow state”—reduced anxiety, increased confidence, and improved cognitive function. In January of 2017, Professor Watson partnered with two colleagues at Texas Tech University (from the departments of Theatre and Psychology) on a pilot study to test cognitive and other effects of FV through use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain. The CIRCA project involves writing an article on the results of the pilot study, investigating wider implications for performing artists, and planning for an additional study with a larger subject group. 

Eric Dyer is an artist and educator who brings animation into the physical world with his sequential images, sculptures, and installations. He spent years working at a computer to produce images for the screen. Longing to “get my hands back on the work,” Dyer returned to a tactile creative process. He began exploring the zoetrope, an early form of animation. The device, popular in the 19th century, consists of a slitted drum whose interior is lined with a sequence of images. When the object is spun, the viewer peers through the apertures in the drum and the forms appear to move. By replacing the drum with a fast-shutter digital video camera, Dyer invented the process of making films from spinning sculptures. Dyer continues to innovate with new tools and applications, moving his work off the screen and into real spaces.