Contents

Animation (Theory) as the Poematic: A Reply to the Cognitivists
by Alan Cholodenko

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Using chronophotography to replace Persistence of Vision as a theory for explaining how animation and cinema produce the illusion of continuous motion
by Paul St. George

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Revolutionary cels: The Sydney waterfront, Harry Reade and Cuban animation
by Max Bannah

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To Be or Not to Be: The Controversy in Japan over the “Anime” Label
by Sheuo Hui Gan

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Kinesic constructions: An aesthetic analysis of movement and performance in 3D animation
by Adam de Beer

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A Reply to the Cognitivists

This essay has two projects.

The first is intrinsic to the very question of what constitutes legitimate scholarly inquiry in the study of film and of animation, marking out something ostensibly especially contentious in and for the study of the latter: theory. Proceeding from two related queries-Why theory? And why animation theory?-the paper offers responses based in and on my own theory-driven and theory-focused work.¹

The second project constitutes a reply to the cognitivists, or more particularly, those scholars who propound and promote a cognitive theory of film and especially of animation, notably, those who have wielded cognitivism as a weapon of total destruction against my work. Given the nature of the paper, this reply is of a general and in any case partial character.

Let me pause to say: I ordinarily do not respond to criticism of my work. But given where these criticisms have been published and their purport, I felt I have had to make an exception to my rule.

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Chronophotography was developed, at the end of the nineteenth century by Marey, Demenÿ and later Gilbreth and used as a tool for investigating movement. At the beginning of the twentieth century chronophotography’s potential as a research tool was ignored as aspects of chronophotography were developed into cinema. Now, in what many call the post-cinematic era¹, artists and researchers are beginning to return to chronophotography to continue some of its unfinished stories. A chronophotograph contains information about interval, duration, speed and other derivatives of space and time. This information can and has been used to answer questions about motion and mechanical efficiency. In this paper I want to demonstrate how chronophotography can be used to better understand two of its descendents: animation and cinema.

We are familiar with the evidence. In the cinema, we know that a sequence of still images is projected one after another onto a viewing screen. We also know that the differences between any two consecutive images must be small and that the sequence of images must be shown quite quickly. We might even know that this system works whether the images are recorded photographically, as in cinema, or hand-made by drawing or some other method, as in animation. What we do not know is how the system works. We can guess or use trial and error to determine how small the differences between consecutive images should be and how quickly the sequence of images must be shown. But, why does a sequence of still images appear to be a continuous moving image?

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In 2008, the noted Cuban journalist and art critic, Pedro de la Hoz, contended that, “What’s most important is that with animation and other graphic media… we have an extraordinary weapon for the formation and transmission of revolutionary, patriotic and human values, and for cultivating the sensitivity, love and intelligence needed to help us conquer the future” (Stock 2009, p.126). In 1959, when the revolutionary government established an animation studio (Dibujos Animados) within the Cuban Institute of the Art and Industry of Cinema (Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficas, ICAIC), it also identified animation as ‘a tool of the Revolution’ charged with the task of serving the interests of the new state and its people (Agramonte 1996). Thus, for fifty years, artistic innovation in Cuban animation has sought to coexist with political and social struggle.

An Australian artist who was attracted by the opportunity to combine political commitment with creative expression and contribute to Cuba’s social and cultural reform process was the social realist, Harry Reade (1927-1998). In 1961, Reade went to Cuba where he was to have an influence on the development of the educational sector of that country’s animation production (Bendazzi 1994, p.386). This paper examines Reade’s progression towards involvement in the Cuban Revolution, and the way in which he used animation to serve an instructive social function. It also considers how his work in Cuba was informed by a network of political alliances and social philosophies that grew out of his experiences and creative development in Australia.

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Outside Japan, anime is mainly used as a term referring to animation made in Japan. Inside Japan though, the word “anime,” an abbreviated pronunciation of animation in Japanese has been used widely as an abbreviation for all animation. However, despite the escalating popularity and attention in the worldwide media, the meaning and usage of the term is still ambiguous and is not employed with a uniform meaning. There are a number of people, especially in Japan, who persist in differentiating the meaning of anime and animation, arguing that anime is just a part of the bigger genre of animation. They assert that not all animations produced in Japan are anime, emphasizing the distinctive character and meaning of the works that do not conform to the existing popular anime image. How works are labeled, whether as anime or animation, does seem to matter. This issue within Japan is important, as it reveals the heterogeneous understandings and expectations of contemporary animation in Japan. This paper explores this controversy about labeling through investigation of the varying usage and reception of the anime label among Japanese animators and major animation related associations in Japan.

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In animation the issue of movement is central to any discussion of its nature, irrespective of its form, style or process of creation. As an animator, Norman McLaren believed “the most important thing in film is motion, movement” (in Bendazzi, 1994:117), whilst Wells describes animated films as “the artificial creation of the illusion of movement in inanimate lines and forms” (1998:10). Movement is of primary concern in this simple definition and in earlier critical analyses of animation, Sergei Eisenstein “recognised ‘if it moves, then it’s alive’” [italics in original] (Leyda, 1988:54 quoted in Wells, 1998:14). This paper considers the concept of movement in animation films expressed in the kinesic performance of the character(s).

The analysis focuses on movement in computer generated animation, specifically Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001: dir. Hironobu Sakaguchi), and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, (2005: dir. Tetsuya Nomura and Takeshi Nozue) and will draw on the work of Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen. It should be noted that this paper is an exploration of the social semiotics grammar of Kress and van Leeuwen, as applied specifically to movement. This latter aspect is somewhat neglected in their work and the analysis in this paper highlights the applicability of their concepts to the analysis of movement in animation.

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