Toward a Transdisciplinary Model of Highly Emotional Experiences in Narrative Media : An Inwards Sound Design Approach

Abstract: With an ever increasing pool of theories designed to help the creator instill emotion, we’reapproaching a point where even the most stubborn audience can’t fully escape the grasp thatfilm can have on their feelings. Thanks to multidisciplinary research for the cognitive andsympathetic structures that make up emotions (Blincoe, 2011; Dolan, 2002; Ekman, 1973;Panksepp, 2004), a larger understanding for emotions has been built. In succession, anintegrative emotion model is becoming a realistic proposition (Loui & Harrison, 2014). Inthis thesis I’m suggesting that to make such a model a success, an understanding of the targetgroup is a requirement. I argue that each project has unique criteria found in the individual,rather than in the current general understanding of the human mind and body, and it’s appliedknowledge in modern design theories. This angle requires new tools, which I attempt tocreate based on Scherer’s (2001) Sequential Check Theory, in combination with establishedethnographic methods. In turn the tools will be tested on a local self-defined group as anintroduction to the workflow and data collection. To prove the model’s transdisciplinarypotential I attempt to apply this data in a real world sound design context, where this methodis hypothetically less effective than earlier stages in production, like writing. To generatequalitative data, the films, in the form of two pilot episodes of a series, will be shown to thetarget group. One episode without our theory applied, and the other with changes accordingto data collection and model directions. Rounding it out with a questionnaire regardingelicited emotion, and qualitative interviews, it stands as a sufficient base for discussion, albeitrather lacking as proof of concept. The thesis ends with a discussion of potential futureapplications where models like this one could be applied.