[-empyre-] re-post of chris sullivan intro

christopher sullivan csulli at saic.edu
Tue Feb 16 07:19:12 EST 2010 

hope this is all getting to you.

Quoting christopher sullivan <csulli at saic.edu>:

> 
> Hello All this is Chris Sullivan, 
> If I am Early just wait til Monday, not sure when you want the week to
> start.
> I am an independent animator, and teach animation at The School of The Art
> institute of Chicago. In the Department of Film Video New Media 
>
http://www.saic.edu/degrees_resources/departments/fvnm/index.html#undergrad_curr/SLC_8078
>   For Maya Curriculum look under Art And Technology
> 
> about me, 
> 	 I have been creating animated films and performance work for the last
> thirty
> years, the first ten of which took place in Minneapolis, and now In Chicago
> since 1989.  My films have been show nationally and internationally, and I am
> a
> recipient of Grants from The John Simon Guggenheim foundation, And the
> Rockefeller Foundation.  I have shown work in Ottawa, Zagreb, Moma, Los
> Angeles
> Animation Celebration. 
> I have been working on epic piece called Consuming Spirits, for a decade , so
> I
> have gone a bit&#8232; underground, but will soon surface.  My Filmography
> of
> screened work is Aint Misbehavin’ The Beholder, and Landscape with The Fall
> Of
> Icarus.
>              In my work I am interested in positions of power in one on one
> communications, especially notions of submission and control. I am
> particularly
> interested in such politics in relation to the family, and in relationships
> of
> love and hate.  I also do performance work, after working in film
> exclusively
> for 14 years the stage bug bit me again, and I happily return to perform my
> new
> piece, Mark The Encounter. I am very interested in making serious film with
> animation, serious film for adults. I like to keep things a bit unstable, so
> that people are not sure if something is funny or tragic, sarcastic, or
> heart
> felt. I like to use deep, smart humor, as opposed to gags. I like to show
> loose
> ends, and exposed props in my work, I am not creating illusion, but a
> sloppily
> glued together valentine.
> 
> On to topics:
> 
> One thing about the topic of technology is that I am very excited about the
> future of independent animation and digital compositing technology. I am
> finishing my last 16mm generated Film, and actually look forward to the
> possibilities with digital animation. I am particularly tuned into 2-D
> digital,
> and my students use Flash, After Effects and Toon Boom. And they make great
> work. We also use stop motion, and digital cameras.  Looking at the
> wonderful
> results with Persepolis, Yamamura’s the Country Doctor, Igor Kovalyov Or
> Paul
> Fierlingers work; also check out Tom Schroeder’s Yellow Bird. I do not know
> why
> filmmakers are threatened.  On The CG side Jim Duesing, Joshua Mosely, and
> Skhizein ,by Jérémy Clapin. All amazing.
>               It is far easier to make painterly, material, dirty, textured 
> 2-D
> animation with digital media, than it ever was with film(excepting
> destructive
> animation, Quay’s, Piotr Dumala, Caroline Leaf, William Kentridge. 
>                Interestingly most of my students draw by hand and then scan,
> even with Wacom Screens at their disposal.
> As far as New Media, or digital Media, if that is your subject matter, I am
> really not interested, I have never been a formalist, and I will not start
> now.
>  Pixels are boring, so are cell paints. I want to see animations about Love,
> Hate, Sex, Death, And yes childhood memoirs fall under that list.  I believe
> in
> teaching animation from the perspective of writer director, and have all of
> my
> students create their own original works, those students fair far better in
> the
> commercial world as well. 
>             I believe that Technology is a tool, not a subject,  work that
> tries
> to address globalism, technology, greenness, or ideas about media
> saturation,
> seams obvious to me, and to my colleagues and students. Animation is the
> medium, The content, comes from the human experience. 
>       When I teach my students Rotoscoping, I show Dennis Topicoff’s His
> Mothers
> Voice, when the lights come on we talk about the film as they all dry their
> eyes, then they are interested in the possibilities of rotoscope.
>       another amazing thing, ten years ago my students could not draw, now
> they
> are all very good drafts people, thank graphic novels I guess. 
>       what do others think, and turn me onto some great work you have seen
> lately. Chris.
> 	
> 
> 
> 
> Quoting Suzanne Buchan <sbuchan at ucreative.ac.uk>:
> 
> > 
> > Renate
> > 
> > (I can't turn off HTML on the email I'm suing, so I hope the inserted line
> > breaks improve reading.)
> > 
> >  Many practice-based animation and film programmes - as well as
> photography
> > and design -
> >  are increasingly replacing analogue with digital, with all the
> > implications.
> >  While I'm not a hands-on 'practitioner' per se – I don't teach practice –
> I
> > can say that
> >  my university has two programmes, and both use digital tools but
> foreground
> >  fine arts-based style, process and students attend life-drawing classes.
> >  There are others who follow the same material-based philosophy, including
> >  Simon's and the RCA' this is not, however, representative of the wider
> > general
> >  shift to digital. 
> > 
> > With the current disastrous funding cuts at HEIs in the UK, a room of
> >  computers is more sustainable than puppet animation studios and
> >  art rooms; hence it is becoming digital almost everywhere. This has 
> > implications on how students learn, speeds up production instead of 
> > slowing down, the process of drawing, painting and model building 
> > is very much part of developing narrative, and good analogue films 
> > need time. Others here in empyre who are practice-based can probably
> >  answer your question better.
> > 
> > Your question about CGI brings me to another set of thoughts about the
> >  digital and the artefact and some ethical implications that arise from
> the
> >  use of CGI in animation and film. Since the digital shift, the
> manipulated
> >  moving image has been the focus of heated debates around representation,
> >  truth values and ethical responsibility of its commissioners, makers and 
> > distributors. The unreliablility of the photographic image as it became
> >  enhanced or altered by digital technologies has had a profound effect 
> > on audiences, a topic thematised by Thomas Elsaesser, Lev Manovich
> >  and Siegfried Zielinski, ethical philosopher Jane Bennett (The
> Enchantment
> >  of Modern Life, 2001) and by others who may be on empyre. 
> > 
> > The increasing convergence, barrage and resulting pervasiveness of 
> > manipulated imagery, including traditional and digital animation, has 
> > overwhelmed many of its viewers, and this has pressing philosophical
> >  and ethical connotations. In terms of the status of indexicality and
> truth
> >  claims of the visual, in 1998 Elsaesser suggested a crisis was evolving:
> >  "Any technology that materially affects this status, and digitisation 
> > would seem to be such a technology, thus puts in crisis deeply-held
> >  beliefs about representation and visualization, and many of the
> >  discourses – critical, scientific or aesthetic – based on, or formulated
> >  in the name of the indexical in our culture, need to be re-examined." 
> > (Elsaesser, Thomas, "Digital Cinema: Delivery, Event, time", in: 
> > Cinema Futures: Cain, Abel or Cable?,1998. Pp. 201-222)
> > 
> > While following these debates, I became sensitised to one specific i
> > mpact of manipulated images during a screening of Roland Emmerich's 
> > 1994 Independence Day. In the rather naive encounter between the
> >  American missionaries and the alien Mother ship we witness a brief
> >  moment, only a few frames, when a fireball engulfs the pilot on impact. 
> > 
> > Now in itself, this is not an unfamiliar scene, and it has been repeated
> >  in action and war films to excess. My point here is that the image 
> > manipulation was of the 'invisible' sort, i.e. not 'in-your-face' CGI that
> >  creates spectacle that is highly aware of its difference to so-called
> >  normal perception and representation. 
> > 
> > The fireball in the cockpit was created to look like live action. 
> > So –  what's the problem? Well, in that fraction of a second of ID4, 
> > an image flashed in my mind that, depending on your generation, 
> > may also be indelibly etched in your own.: this 1963 photo by Malcolm Brown
> 
> > 
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu?ng_D?c
> > 
> > The mental image of this while watching ID4 was an emotional response
> >  on my part, a response of what could be described as 'negative empathy'
> >  that incited ethical awareness about the inherent 'wrongness' of this
> scene.
> > 
> > 
> > This personal example might illustrate why we need articulated critical 
> > reactions to films like these, to  facilitate a sober understanding of the
> >  impact such films are having on our collective sense of ethics.
> > 
> >  In light of the inane acceptance of violent images 
> > just because we are 'used to them' and the role CGI and animation 
> > has to play in this, addressing the crisis rooted in the loss of indexical
> 
> > truth could effectively address a re-examination of the discourse around
> >  ethical responsibility in image production. Discussions around animation
> –
> >  especially the kind we are not supposed to see – have tended to focus
> >  on technical wizardry and the properties of programmes to create the
> >  impossible. It may be part of a new body of work for critical
> > investigations
> >  of spectatorial manipulation in a digital age, a territory that needs
> >  ethical navigation to understand the philosophical  consequences of
> >  this kind of imagery. 
> > 
> > The next issue of the ANM journal (5.1) will have an essay by philosopher 
> > and cultural studies scholar Elizabeth Walden that explores just these
> > issues
> >  and discusses a puppet animation film; she discusses how "elements of 
> > the narrative structure and the camera work give the materials used in the
> >  character’s project a moral standing in the film, which draws audience
> and
> >  filmmaker as well as the character into an ethical situation which is 
> > significant to our shared moment in the digital era." 
> > 
> > So I'll leave this for now, and see if anyone has some thoughts on it.
> > 
> > I'm also happy to engage with the Quays' works, if there is interest out
> > there.
> > 
> > Suzanne
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Renate Ferro
> > Sent: Sat 2/13/2010 04:37
> > To: soft_skinned_space
> > Subject: Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy
> >  
> > Dear Paul and Suzanne,
> > 
> > Can you both talk about how CG fits into your animation programs?  At
> > Cornell, Computer Graphics and 3D animation is taught by Computing
> > faculty.  It is in the art department where students, particularly
> > recently, have been creating stop action, frame by frame, roto-scoping,
> > drawing based and a medley of other fuzzies. Whether working  from
> > photography based or original drawing. their novel, quirky rendering
> > styles, interdisciplinary interests and criticality make their work fresh
> > and innovative.
> > 
> > How does it work in the UK?
> > 
> > Renate
> > 
> > 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/
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> Christopher Sullivan
> Dept. of Film/Video/New Media
> School of the Art Institute of Chicago
> 112 so michigan
> Chicago Ill 60603
> csulli at saic.edu
> 312-345-3802


Christopher Sullivan
Dept. of Film/Video/New Media
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
112 so michigan
Chicago Ill 60603
csulli at saic.edu
312-345-3802

More information about the empyre mailing list