project FROM research • REFIGURA
Representation, Fiction, and Culture Wars: The Aesthetic Mediation of Diversity Between Expectations and the Audiovisual Text
A " project " by research on aesthetics, representation, and conflicts of interpretation in contemporary audiovisual fiction.
01 • THE project
Understanding Fiction.
Interpreting Conflict.
REFIGURA examines how conflicts of interpretation surrounding diversity and representation arise, evolve, and are amplified in contemporary audiovisual fiction.
The " project " analyzes the relationship between the expectations generated by promotional campaigns, the narrative style of the works, and audience responses, and will develop a " tool " for strategic foresight: a " model " for " assessment " capable of systematically identifying misalignments in " development " and content promotion.
The " research " (The Art of the Story) by project revolves around two fundamental pillars:
1. INDUSTRIAL SOLUTION
Competitiveness and Sustainability
Managing uncertainty takes on particular importance. The project aims to provide metrics for detecting, in advance, narrative misalignments capable of triggering strong adverse reactions or reputational crises. By enabling more precise management of “identity overpromise” or aesthetic inconsistency, it increases the security of financial investments and the sustainability of cultural products subject to intense public scrutiny.
2. CIVIC SOLUTION
Cohesion and Public discussion
The goal is to achieve a qualitative social return: to streamline public discourse and clarify the terms of disagreement. By identifying the formal mechanisms that often underlie rejection, the “ research ” provides a foundation for a “pedagogy of the gaze” and media literacy resources.
"Our hypothesis holds that many identity struggles in audiovisual fiction arise not only from a clash of values, but also from an intensification of interpretive conflicts caused by failures in aesthetic mediation."
ALBERTO NAHUM GARCÍA
researcher principal of the project
02 • OBJECTIVES
A " model " to read about the controversy.
goal
To empirically analyze how aesthetic mediation generates, transforms, or amplifies conflicts of interpretation in audiovisual fiction works about diversity and representation.
To this end, REFIGURA is developing narrative and tonal performance indicators that will make it possible to measure and compare the “ Degrees ” of rupture across different cases, franchises, and reception contexts. Specifically, the project will conduct a comparative analysis of 10–12 Disney cases (2015–2025) and 2–3 Spanish cases marked by cultural controversies surrounding representation, diversity, and historical accuracy.
The principle of coherencebetween Promise, Form, and Receptionis the central focus delegate of the analysis.
/ 01 PROMISE
Identify, quantify, and classify the paratextual mechanisms that shape a work’s “promise.”
// 02FORM
Analyze and identify the formal strategies of the work.
/// 03RECEPTION
Examine and map the reception practices that shape the ideological dimension of the controversy.
//// 04TRANSFER
Co-design and implement test to demonstrate the applicability of model within the audiovisual sector.
03 • TOPICS ON research
Aesthetic Mediation, Diversity, and Representation
Paratextual Promise and Popular Culture
Formal Coherence and Narrative Poetics
Public Reception, Digital Audiences, and Polarization
Narrative Sustainability and Transfer to the Audiovisual Industry
04 • METHODOLOGY
The "Promise-Form-Reception" ( model ) unfolds in five consecutive phases:
/ 01PROMISE
Paratextual promise
It analyzes the anticipatory contract that official promotion establishes with the public, codifying thematic frameworks and determining the intensity of the promise.
// 02FORM
Breaks in the narrative form
Use close reading to examine internal coherence based on the Typology of Fractures (narrative inconsistency, emotional dissonance, and rupture of identification).
/// 03RECEPTION
Public reception
Analyze how the audience identifies, discusses, or amplifies the divisions detected through public sources, measuring polarization and the anchoring Degree of the criticism.
/ 01PROMISE/// 03RECEPTION
Level of Aesthetic Coherence
It brings together the strength of the paratextual promise, the formal assessment of the text, and the dynamics of reception to evaluate the aesthetic pact and the evolution of meaning in the controversy.
//// 04TRANSFER
Industrial validation
A two-way exchange of knowledge with development representatives and marketing professionals from the Spanish audiovisual industry.
PROMISE
ANTONIO PLANELLS
Tecnocampus Mataró-Maresme Foundation
ALFONSO CUADRADO
Rey Juan Carlos University
IGNACIO LAGUÍA
University of Navarra
FORM
ALBERTO NAHUM GARCÍA
University of Navarra
TED NANNICELLI
The University of Queensland, Australia
PABLO CASTRILLO
University of Navarra
MARÍA DEL RINCÓN
University of Navarra
ÁLVARO ABELLÁN
Francisco de Vitoria University
RECEPTION
FERNANDO CANET
Polytechnic University of Valencia
SEBASTIAN SVEESGARD
Queensland University of Technology
PARTNERSHIPS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
INSTITUTE OF data , AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (DATAI)
Technical and Computational Support