[-empyre-] February on -empyre "Theorizing Animation: Content and Context"

[Renate Ferro]

February on –empyre soft-skinned space:  Theorizing Animation:  Concept
and Context

Moderated by Renate Ferro (US) and Tim Murray with invited discussants
Thomas LaMarre (CA), Lev Manovich (UK), Susan Buchan (UK), Paul Ward (UK),
Eric Patrick (US), Richard Wright (UK), Thyrza  Nichols Goodeve (US),
Christopher Sullivan (US), with others to be announced.

Theorizing Animation: Concept and Context
http://www.subtle.net/empyre

Animated worlds are proliferating globally.  In consideration of
what seems like an explosion of online and museum exhibitions
celebrating animation, we would like to spend the month considering
the intersection between art, animation, and theory.  While some of
our guests theorize cinematic interventions in animation (timely
given the success of "Avatar") others create, curate, and ponder the
experimental narratives and "animated paintings" that have captured
the curiosity of the art world.

What are the advantages of creating and thinking through animation?
How do real worlds and virtual worlds overlap?  What about the trend
to feature animation in museum contexts, often at the expense of
digitally interactive work which might be more expense to mount and
opaque to witness?  Can a critical distinction be made between
blockbuster animation and boutique creations, often with more
poignant narrative content?

Earlier this fall, Tim marveled at the extent to which animation was
featured in the Asia Art Biennial in Taiwan, with fascinating pieces
by the Israeli filmmaker, Ari Folman and the Russian collective
AES+F, as well as a separate show of Korean animation at the
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art.  That is now followed by the
"Animamix Biennial-Visual Attract and Attack" now ongoing at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Taiwan.

The cross platform solo exhibitions also have caught the eye of much of
the museum public.  Tim and Renate visited Sadie Benning's (USA) essay on
queer sexuality in "Pause Play" at the Whitney Museum in New York and look
forward to William Kentridge's (South Africa) "Five Themes" exhibition, a
survey of almost thirty-years of work including many animated films, that
opened last season at the MOMA San Francisco and will be at MOMA New
York at the end of this month.  Kentridge's work explores themes of
colonialism and apartheid often through lyrical and comedic lenses
that sometimes poke fun at the artist himself.  His work merges the
real world into animation and back again. Just this week Cornell hosted an
extravaganza of The Quay Brother’s film work with an exhibition of their
set design.  It was exciting to hear them talk about their work in several
on campus forums.


This month we invite our guests and subscribers to engage critically with
the development of animation.  We will be inviting artists and theorists
to consider the concepts and context of contemporary global animation.

We look forward to this months international discussion of all things
animated.
Renate and Tim



Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Art
Cornell University, Tjaden Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853

Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
Website:  http://www.renateferro.net


Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre

Art Editor, diacritics
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/