The Peer-reviewed Open Access Online Journal for Animation History and Theory – ISSN 1930-1928
This article addresses the practice of animation and its relation to physical space and the social experience. It was presented in 2018 at the Society for Animation Studies conference (Montreal, Canada) and was written not long after the completion of a PhD dissertation dedicated to the concept of animated space. As a practice-based academic project, […]
In recent years, filmmakers have started to look at Virtual Reality (VR) as a platform for cinematic storytelling (Bucher 2018; Opam 2016; Melnick 2019). When I initially encountered short films for VR and the 360-degrees view, some of my first thoughts were regarding the limitations of the medium. A 360-degree field of view upends many […]
Worldwide concern over the recovery of historical memory or the fight for human rights – including, of course, women’s rights – has led to an increase in the number of productions dedicated to this genre in animation. The animated documentary seems the perfect media for animated films based on historical figures or events, but also […]
Embodying Virtual Volumes: Bambi Cannot Die Like Shao-Kahn In Mortal Kombat 11, delivering the final blow to an opposing fighter yields mixed results: a decapitation may spew blood onto the in-game camera watching the battle unfold. Or one can vivisect in real time, a trope of the franchise: a character tears through the mid-section of […]
Charlie Brooker’s 2011 dystopian futuristic Black Mirror episode, “Fifteen Million Merit,” features alienated subjects who are physically shut up in cells made of screens. In this world, people participate as animated avatars in what remains of public spaces. Although Black Mirror is “about the way we live now – and the way we might be […]
The real…erases itself in favour of the more real than the real: the hyperreal—Jean Baudrillard[1] He who has no shadow is merely the shadow of himself—Jean Baudrillard[2] Part I. Introduction This essay is theoretical, speculative, highly so. Theory, from Greek theoria, is speculating. And for many, if not all, of you, this essay may seem very […]
It is time we addressed the elephant in the room: violence and discrimination against women, sex workers, LGBTQ+ persons and other gender minorities is prevalent across the world, entering our homes and our lives. It is time for strong social movements and campaigns to raise voices against it. I have been involved in community filmmaking […]
Ireland’s geographical position is an important factor to consider regarding animation practices and techniques that were developing in both North America and Europe during the early-twentieth century. Irish artists and filmmakers travelled widely for education and exhibition of their artworks. Films created by Irish artists were only distributed in Ireland under strict censorship laws. Irish […]
Tango (1980, 8 mins) is an animated film that was completed at the Se-ma-for studio (Studio Małych Form Filmowych – Studio of Small Film Forms) in Łódź by Zbigniew Rybczyński. It was the first Polish Oscar winner in the animation category in 1982 and catapulted Rybczyński on a successful journey into the frontier of emerging […]
This proceeding tries to re-animate the memory of the Spanish Civil War, through its depiction of animated short films produced in Spain in the last decade. The dictatorship of Francisco Franco began in 1936, with the uprising against the Second Republic. The subsequent Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) divided peoples and families, causing a deep social […]