Stoyan Sgourev (New Bulgarian University) will present the paper "No Blue without Yellow: A Multimodal Analysis of Contrast" is co-authored with Giovanni Formilan and Donato Cutolo, two former PhD students of our Department.
The paper develops a framework and a method for the relational analysis of the expressive function of aesthetic elements. We revisit the longstanding scholarly interest in relations of opposition in social and psychic life, documenting how the use of a core aesthetic element: contrast, expresses a state of ambivalence: affective, cognitive and behavioral. To establish this connection, we adopt a multimodal approach, combining a computational method for exploring visual data with natural-language-based methods for processing verbal data.
The analysis takes place in a unique context, drawing on digitized letters and paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (in the period 1881-1890). The visual analysis testifies to the growing presence of contrast of complementary colors in his paintings, while the analysis of the letters provides consistent evidence for increasing emotional, cognitive and behavioral ambivalence at the same time.
Results highlight the connection between forms of aesthetic, emotional and behavioral opposition. We discuss substantive implications for scholarship on aesthetics, ambivalence, creativity and multimodality.
Stoyan V. Sgourev has a PhD in Sociology from Stanford University. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for Bulgarian-European Cultural Dialogues at the New Bulgarian University. He has published on a wide array of topics, such as creativity and social evaluation, rivalry, social networks and aesthetics.
An analysis of color as a means of positioning, co-authored with Erik Aadland and Giovanni Formilan, was recently published in Administrative Science Quarterly. The presented paper, co-authored with Donato Cutolo and Giovanni Formilan, is a follow-up piece, analyzing contrast through computational analyses of visual and verbal data.
The seminar will be held in English.
Major information: Leonardo Corbo (leonardo.corbo@unibo.it)