The Peer-reviewed Open Access Online Journal for Animation History and Theory – ISSN 1930-1928
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 […]
The emergence of new media has reshaped the creation and sharing of art in contemporary culture (Catricalà 2015; Krekovic 2003). The arrival of YouTube, in particular, has allowed for “independent modes of producing traditional media genres” (Burgess and Green 2009, n.p) as well as new genres, such as vlogging. An example of a traditional art […]
Animated documentary on the Holocaust, initially a controversial format, has become an established category. Over the past twenty to thirty years, many short, mid- and feature length films have been produced, including Miloš Zvěřina’s trilogy,[1] Orly Yadin and Sylvie Bringas’ Silence (1998), The Last Flight of Petr Ginz (2012) by Sandy Dickson and Churchill Roberts, […]
When we were preparing an animation workshop around storytelling for refugees, or arrivants[1] in Palermo as part of renowned scholar and writer Marina Warner’s Stories in Transit project, some questions arose, including Why might refugees engage with animation? How can animation, as a form of storytelling, offer a home for imagination? How can philosopher Hannah […]
How can a complex inner state so turbulent and nebulous that it often remains a mystery to the person experiencing it be translated into a visual medium such as film, virtual reality or animation? The spectrum of mental abuse is wide, covering intimate, parental, peer, colleague and elder relationships. Emotional abuse is considered to be […]