PhD Oral Exam - Mona Hedayati, Humanities

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This dissertation creates and analyzes a series of live, time-based artistic events that subvert the logic of using biosensors as instruments of emotion recognition4associated with the field of affective computing4by repurposing them to structure affective atmospheres. The project focuses on how biosensing technologies, when removed from their intended function, can contribute to making the intensity of migration and exile felt by considering their capacity to mediate encounters between audiences, bodies, and media forms. To this end, Resonant Atmospheres relies on the ways that biosensors data can be transformed into sound and visuals that reveal and conceal the context of exiled migration. Alongside the atmospheric conditions of each space, including lighting, these elements create possibilities for incommunication4nonnarrative style ways of exchange in which meaning is not clearly transmitted or resolved but feeling the affective charge is foregrounded. The first experiment, Breathless, foregrounds me as the performer and audience as onlookers that experience the intensity of the sound affected by my biosensor readings along with snippets of videos, revealing limitations in its ability to generate relational engagement. In response, Curves & Reverbs I-III introduces participation, testing how contributing to the construction of the atmosphere can shape a distributed affective experience across bodies. By analyzing these experiments and their unfolding, this dissertation contributes to a novel understanding of how the technical, the artistic, and the socio-political thematic of migration can create situated scenarios beyond the limitations of each approach.