Ernst Calla Bettina
Media Design MA
supervisor
Tasnádi József
masterwork opponent
Hevesi Nándor
thesis consultant
Illés Anikó
thesis opponent
Németh Zsófia
masterwork
The great fast
The hybrid work entitled The Great Starvation has two components: a screen performance and a multimedia kinetic installation. The moving image element relies on the characteristics of screen performance, which consciously uses the visual potential offered by the camera. It uses shots, image settings and viewpoints, and it is the result of compositional solutions that cannot be achieved in the case of stage performances. At the same time - unlike traditional films - the masterwork does not use dialogues. It is a purely visual narrative that unfolds by appealing to the expressive power of body language, gestures, and mimicry (visuality). The Great Starvation is a consciously ironic critique of society. It highlights the absurdity of consumer society, which constantly encourages accumulation and consumption, as well as the frequent and drastic withdrawal of consumption in order to preserve our health and weight, or to seek alternatives in order to achieve an idealized quality of life (which is based on false hypotheses and illusions).
thesis
Thenarrativeof eating
The metaphorical interpretation and narrative psychological analysis of eating
In my thesis I focus on eating as a basic necessity of human life. I analyse it from the aspect of narrative psychology and explore its metaphorical interpretation options. My aim is to introduce the readers to the various aspects of meals in the context of narratology and psychology. The main research question in my thesis is what additional meaning – interpreted through the devices of narrativity – eating may carry for a person besides being a necessity. What do eating-related rituals, customs and cultural traditions mean? What effect do customs have if we keep following them? How are our biological functions connected to our metaphysical dimension? In my thesis I provide a theoretical overview of narrative psychology, based on literature, and I describe the metaphors and stories related to eating through practical and realistic examples.
