Alan Cholodenko – The Animator as Artist, The Artist as Animator

Part 1 MOONWALKING, OF SORTS Let me begin with a question, one parroting my question ‘Why Animation, Alan?’ entitling a piece by me in the Spring 2008 Society for Animation Studies Newsletter. My question today: ‘Why my focus on art for this Toronto 2014 Society for Animation Studies conference on The Animator, Alan?’. Answer: not […]

Kay Kane – Animation as Conservation: Classical Values in Contemporary Practice

Something curious happened to visual fine art over the course of the twentieth century, something that did not happen to other art forms.[1] It shed any semblance of a disciplinary base. The term ‘Fine Art’ used to denote the traditional plastic arts – drawing, painting, sculpture – as distinguished, on the one hand, from other […]

João Paulo Amaral Schlittler – Motion Graphics and Animation

Introduction One great challenge a designer working in the motion graphics field may encounter is defining the field itself. Having worked as a broadcast designer in cable television and later, when I entered the academic environment, I constantly confront this issue whenever I am faced with the question: What is motion graphics? Invariably, I hesitate, […]

Beatriz Herráiz Zornoza – Dot: Animation in theatre for children

The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art. John Lasseter Introduction This research aims to shed some light on the relationship between animation and contemporary theatre. It is oriented in two directions; one that involves reading and analysing sources and the other is due to having been part of a team repeatedly […]

Samantha Haggart – Nature and Technological Innovation in the Films of Iurii Norshtein

When analyzing the animated films of Iurii Norshtein, it is important to consider in depth not the finished product, but the process undertaken by Norshtein to produce the work itself. Many are unaware of Norshtein’s status as an inventor. To achieve the effects that define his films and cement his auteur position, he developed his […]

Terence Dobson – Norman McLaren Beyond 100

Norman McLaren was somewhat prescient when, as a young man, he said, “That’s it, that’s what I want to do, make movies […] That’s the art of the future” (McWilliams 1990). The question now is, how prescient can we be about the future of McLaren’s own films? A Guide to the Future A guide to […]

Nichola Dobson – Dancing to rhythm of the music: Norman McLaren, the body and performance

On Begone Dull Care: “Thus, the knife-point was made to slide and move on the surface of the film; my hand pressed, guided, and, as it were, made to ‘dance’ to the rhythm of the music.” (McLaren 1949, p.6) Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren’s work is bound by the notion of performance; he described his own […]