Research

Laboratory : Centre Norbert Elias, CNRS
https://centrenorbertelias.cnrs.fr/soutenance-marie-laure-cazin/

Collaborator of Enactive Virtuality lab, Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM)
Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT) Tallinn University, Estonia. http://enactivevirtuality.tlu.ee/marie-laure-cazin/

My main point of interest is the viewers' reception and activity in the context of a film, either cinema and VR, and how they co-create in a certain way the narrative content. In my art-science projects (Emotive Cinema and Emotive VR Cinema), capturing emotional data with EEG sensors makes a part of this activity visible in the viewing frameworks, where emotional data interact with the scenario, the music or some colouring effects. The physiodata are analysed into emotional values, arousal and valence, which correspond to the current scientific state of the art possible, although they are very far from what is really happening in the viewer's body and mind.

In my PhD thesis I have questionned the emotional dimension with a transdisciplinary approach : philosophy, cinema studies and neurosciences. And in my current research study, " Freud's last Hypnosis - Validating emotion-driven enactions in cinematic VR", I have organised a study with my partners in Nantes university LS2N lab and in Tallinn University, with 40 volonteers experimenting my VR 360 film. The stake is to specify the viewers' engagement with the narrative, by collecting physiological data (Eyetracking and EMG), subjective data as questionnaires on Empathy and Engagement, as well as individual interviews led by myself. This material aims at understanding better the specificities of the viewers' perception in the VR narrative immersion. The written conclusions in progress will give an insight that will contribute to the ongoing theoritical discussion, but also will give tools for the the filmmaker to concieve a VR film.

Publication : "Standardising Scales for Arousal Metrics of Electrodermal Activity : A Case Study in Experience Design", by Mati Mõttus, Marie-Laure Cazin and Pia Tikka, from the Edited Volume Navigating the World of Multimedia - Innovation and Applications, edited by Dragan Cvetković and Yves Philippe Rybarczyk, nov. 2024.

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/1206774

Link : podcast (in English) with ML Cazin, Pia Tikka and Matti Mötus, realised by the French Institute in Tallinn : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98rjVlh-Mc

"Freud's last Hypnosis "

Validating emotion-driven enactions in cinematic VR

Recording of the Eyetracking data and EMG data of the viewer's while watching the VR 360 film, Freud's Last Hypnosis" by Marie-Laure Cazin

Mobilitas Pluss European Grant, (MOBTT90), (2021-2022), Baltic Film, Media and Arts School (BFM), Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT) , Tallinn University, Estonia.
Supervisor Dr. Pia Tikka. Collaboration with Dr. Mati Mõttus, School of Digital Technology, Interaction Lab.

Using my 360 VR film Freud’s last hypnosis as a study case, this experimental project models the film viewers' emotion-driven enactment by specifying time-locked parameters of the viewers' engagement with the narrative. The project builds on my concept of Emotive Cinema and on-going development of the Emotive VR headset with integrated electroencephalographic (EEG) device for real-time measures of viewer's brain signals. I have identified a specific set of behavioral and physiological measurements that allow correlating the viewer's mental states and related emotion-driven interactions with the film's temporal and narrative unfolding.

Eventually, the project will allow validating the viewer's unconscious mental states when iteratively testing the Emotive VR prototype, in particular, but, importantly, increase the conceptual and theoretical understanding on the enactive dynamics of emotion-driven cinematic narratives, in general.

Matti Mötus with a volonter of the study, Tallinn university, 2022.

RFI OIC research grant for "Emotive VR Cinema" project, V1.

Scientific collaboration with Toinon Vigier, LS2N, UMR CNRS 6003, Université de Nantes, France.

Abstract
Emotive VR Cinema is a prototype of a neuro-interactive omnidirectional movie Freud’s last hypnosis visualized in Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Display (HMD). During the visualization, the EEG signals are recorded and analyzed in real time in order to apply some visual and audio feedbacks inside the 360° film, according to the emotional state of the user.

VR-EEG prototype
The VR prototype was developed in Unity for HTC Vive Head Mounted Display(HMD). The cerebral activity is measured thanks to the Emotiv Epoc EEG device. Other solutions for ergonomic improvement are still to be consider. The EEG signals are then processed in the OpenVibe software (http://openvibe.inria.fr) for the emotion recognition in terms of valence. Python scripts have been implemented to allow Unity and OpenVibe to communicate in real time. The valence of the user’s emotion is thus directly sent in the Unity application to apply some specific visual and sound effects considering the affective state of the viewer.

The final prototype is mainly composed of the emotion recognition computer program,the choice of the viewpoint thanks to gaze interaction, the two neurointeractive versions of the 360° movie and the possibility for the user to be informed about his current emotional state through a specific information panel.

With the partnership of Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design TALM Le Mans and LS2N laboratory, Nantes University, France.

View the poster below:

POSTER RESEARCH EMOTIVE VR 1st prototype - copie.pdf

Doctoral Thesis : "Cinema and neurosciences, from Emotive Cinema to Emotive VR"

Thesis defense, 17th of January 2020.
Jury (from left to right) : Dr. Judith Guez (examinor), Pr Thierry Dufrêne (reporter), Dr. Pia Tikka (examinor), Pr Antonio Somaïni ( president), Raymond Bellour (honour guest), Pr Jean-Marie Dallet (co-supervisor) and Pr Jean-Paul Fourmentraux (supervisor).

École doctorale ED 354 : Aix-Marseille Université – Arts et sciences de l’art
Mention : Théorie et pratique de la création artistique

Link : https://theses.fr/2020AIXM0009

This doctoral thesis is about the theoretical and practical stakes of the possibilities for cross-over between neurosciences and cinema. It takes as a starting point my project Emotive Cinema (2014).
This is a prototype of neuro-interactive cinema, where the screenplay of the film is affected by the viewer’s emotional state (first part).This led us towards a theoretical questioning concerning emotions and perception (part two and three), applied to the cinematic situation, traversing different fields, such as the neurosciences, philosophy, psychology and psychoanalysis. Different approaches which have the common aim of better understanding the spectator's experience. The fourth part of the thesis seeks to imagine the future evolutions of cinema. The hypothesis has a tight proximity with sciences, which is why we are presenting therapeutic prototypes for psycho-somatic issues, as well as cinematic prototypes.
This concludes with the recent explorations of Emotive Cinema into Virtual Reality, Emotive VR , a neuro-interactive prototype of a film in 360° and VR untitled Freud's last hypnosis” , which is presented as the practical part of the thesis.

Key words : interactive arts, Virtual reality, arts and neurosciences, cinema, emotions.

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