Browsing by Author "Miranda Medina, Juan Felipe"

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    Dance Syntax and Possibility: Moving Beyond Structural Analysis
    (Akjournals, 2023) Miranda Medina, Juan Felipe; Galarza Flores, Marisol Cristel; López Yánez, María Gabriela
    In this work we contend that studying dance syntax systematically is essential to gain a deeper understanding of dance practices. The reason is that syntax has to do with an essential aspect of dance, music and action in general, namely possibility. To the best of our knowledge, the efforts towards a systematic method to study dance syntax are scarce. Therefore, this work proposes the method of Finite-State Automata, borrowed from computer science, and presents three case studies of progressive complexity were the method is applied: (1) learning the basics of salsa, (2) diachronically comparing hip-pushing action in Afro-Ecuadorian Bomba del Chota, and (3) characterizing improvisation in Afro-Peruvian zapateo. While the first case is didactic and introduces the method progressively, the second and third cases are based on several years of fieldwork conducted by the authors with the Afro-Ecuadorian and Afro-Peruvian communities. The precondition for the application of the method we propose is structural analysis itself; that is, that the dance can be analyzed into small movement units that are combined progressively into more complex units. In regards to syntax, however, structural analysis is only the first step. The goal is a synthesis that brings forward the possibilities that arise from structural analysis; that is, the possibilities that are available to dancers and agents in a dance event. We trust that the approach to syntax this work presents will stimulate a renewed interest for researchers in dance, music and movement in general.
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    From Continuity to Rhythm
    (Acta Semiotica, 2022) Miranda Medina, Juan Felipe
    This work departs from the opposition between continuity and discontinuity as formulated by semiotician Eric Landowski. I argue that the opposition is a complex that can be fruitfully analysed in terms of self-identity vs difference, unity vs diversity and determinism vspure randomness. The study of these oppositions deploying Greimas’s square provides an insight into the notions of difference, boundary and cohesion. These will be key to the formulation of a semiotic concept of Harmony as the interplay between a unifying and a diversifying force. Harmony, I claim, is the first step for the study of rhythm as a semiotic concept.
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    From Continuity to Rhythm II : Adjustment and Entrainment
    (Acta Semiotica, 2022) Miranda Medina, Juan Felipe
    This work is the second part of the article “From Continuity to Rhythm” (Acta Se-miotica, II, 3, 2022), where I set out to define rhythm as a semiotic concept. The cornerstones for such a definition are Victoria Santa Cruz’s concept of Rhythm as an active and continu-ous principle of integration, Landowski’s understanding of continuity, Leibniz’s notion of Harmony, the physical concept of entrainment, and the formal definition of feedback from engineering as a framework to understand manipulation, adjustment and entrainment. The main contributions are: 1) analysing the regimes of adjustment and manipulation in terms of feedback, 2) establishing a link between manipulation and adjustment, showing that the former is a simplification of the latter, 3) providing a semiotic definition of entrainment that considers five different dimensions, expressing manipulation and adjustment as specific modes of entrainment, 4) providing a semiotic definition of Rhythm as a dynamic unification process departing from Leibniz’s notion of Harmony, 5) questioning Leibniz’s Harmony in favor of an active view of Rhythm that not only produces order or common properties, but that actively strives to maintain them in virtue of feedback.