[-empyre-] interpreting datasets from science and nature inanimation (Richard)

[Richard Wright]

Ah yes Corrado, I saw his concert at Ars Electronica last year. But I  
couldn't figure out what the data was that he was visualising. Very  
attractive, but I was afraid it could fall into the "what am I  
looking at?" problem in digital media arts?

Speaking of this kind of "stadium" media art, I remember seeing one  
of Semiconductors visualisations of solar activity (or something) a  
couple of years ago. Very attractive, but I remember waiting for  
"something to happen". I think this is another example of the time  
based media issue. Maybe the suns radiation was not generating the  
kind of "figures" that could develop over perceivable time, or at a  
scale of human perception. It was more like music than film...

R

On 21 Feb 2010, at 11:45, Corrado Morgana wrote:

> Lovely stuff Richard... Ryoji Ikeda anyone?
>
> Corrado Morgana
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> [mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Richard  
> Wright
> Sent: 19 February 2010 10:38 PM
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] interpreting datasets from science and nature
> inanimation (Richard)
>
> Thanks Suzanne, I know and love Thorsten Fleisch's work. His fractal
> animation (what's it called?) is possibly the only artistically
> successful animated film of that particular mathematical object I've
> seen. He seemed to keep cracking at it until he finally brought out
> some of the magic of that little equation.
>
> The Spiral Galaxy reference actually sounds similar to a lot of the
> commercial animation I've been doing recently, which are mainly
> science docs. For the "origin of everything" kind of work we usually
> resort to visual simulation techniques. But sometimes we're asked to
> "reinterpret" a piece of scientific data visualisation, usually to
> make it simpler, more graphic. And sometimes we do it in a "data
> visualisation style". But I won't get too deeply into that right now.
> After all, it's "my week" soon...
>
> Richard
>
> On 18 Feb 2010, at 09:16, Suzanne Buchan wrote:
>
>> Hello all, hi Richard
>>
>> Not having read your project draft, it might be a stab in the dark
>> but the following works
>> and projects might be what you are describing:
>>
>> An artist who uses distinctly analog 'stuff', including growing
>> crystals(!) on film strips
>> and using his own blood  is Thorsten Fleisch.
>> His website has most of his films and conceptual ideas: http://
>> fleischfilm.com/
>> His poetic film ENERGIE! / Energy! is made by exposing photo paper
>> to high voltage discharge
>> Fleisch also published an essay describing his chemical and physics
>> based process:
>>  "Borderline Bilder." in animation: an interdisciplinary journal
>> 2009, No 2.
>>
>> Also, FORMATION OF A SPIRAL GALAXY from The Four-Dimensional
>> Digital Universe Project, Japan
>> is a remarkable film that uses astronomy data sets to create what
>> the film title describes:
>> http://4d2u.nao.ac.jp/english/index.html
>>
>> a 1 1/2 minute excerpt used to be downloadable, and there is a new
>> project up on the site as well.
>> An essay on the process by Takaaki Takeda,  National Astronomical
>> Observatory of Japan,
>> for Siggraph:
>> http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1281740.1281793
>>
>>
>> A special issue on animation in sci- and biotech is in planning for
>> the ANM journal, and this is the
>> kind of work we aim for our authors to address.
>>
>> Suzanne
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Richard
>> Wright
>> Sent: Tue 2/16/2010 23:25
>> To: soft_skinned_space
>> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy, and some thoughts
>> on ethics
>>
>> Hi there,
>> I just wanted to respond to a couple of recent posts about animated
>> documentary and those thorny indexicality questions.
>>
>> I once wrote a proposal called "Data Visualisation as the Successor
>> to Documentary Film Making" (thinking actually of animated film
>> making). I wonder if Paul or Erik or anyone else had any thoughts
>> about this possibility of taking data records and animating them?
>> Either directly and algorithmically or using more interpretative or
>> even non-digital techniques? The source of the data and the
>> circumstances in which it was obtained can also create difficult
>> ethical questions, quite apart from questions of veracity (they might
>> have been obtained under torture for example).
>>
>> There are very few film examples of this I can think of, not even my
>> own. One of the few is Aaron Koblin's "Flight Patterns" (http://
>> www.aaronkoblin.com/work/flightpatterns) and another is Jane
>> Marsching's "Rising North" (http://www.flickr.com/photos/
>> efimeravulgata/3496999939 for a view of the installation version of
>> the video). Andrea Polli possibly. Much of it to do with climate
>> change data. I'm not mentioning these specific ones because I
>> particularly like them (the "Rising North" piece, for instance, looks
>> a bit too much to me like deciphering a multimedia interface). But I
>> was struggling to think of any others and I wondered if anyone else
>> knew of any film makers that were moving in this direction...
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> On 15 Feb 2010, at 18:37, Paul Ward wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, it's me again!
>>>
>>> A couple of my main research interests are Animation (quelle
>>> surprise!) and Documentary, and I've been looking into how
>>> animation and nonfiction work together (or not) for some time now.
>>>
>>> See Chapter 5 of my book "Documentary: The Margins of
>>> Reality" (Wallflower, 2005); plus "Animated interactions: animation
>>> aesthetics and the 'interactive' documentary" in S. Buchan (ed.)
>>> with David Surman and Paul Ward (Associate Eds.) Animated
>>> 'Worlds' (John Libbey, 2006). The latter discusses 'Going Equipped'
>>> alongside Bob Sabiston's 1999 short 'Snack and Drink'
>>>
>>> I think the idea of animation as a 'filter' is apposite - it is the
>>> filter through which re-presentations of real people and events are
>>> 'creatively treated' (to echo John Grierson again). This also makes
>>> some interesting possible connections to animation and memory, or
>>> animation and states of mind, and how these areas overlap (or
>>> contrast) with 'documentary'. Animations like 'Waltz with Bashir',
>>> 'Persepolis' or Andy Glynne's short films 'Animated minds' (about
>>> mental health) are all, arguably, sub-types of the animated
>>> documentary category, but approach it in very different ways
>>>
>>> best wishes
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>>
>>> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of
>>> christopher sullivan
>>> Sent: Sun 14/02/2010 18:22
>>> To: soft_skinned_space; Suzanne Buchan
>>> Cc: soft_skinned_space
>>> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] CG and all things fuzzy, and some thoughts
>>> on ethics
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Suzanne, thanks for the generous discussion. As a "practitioner"
>>> I will say
>>> that I am really not too bothered by the issues of representation,
>>> and truth, or
>>> authenticity, I think those are interesting points of discussion,
>>> but nothing
>>> that will ever be cured. but are we really that confused in the
>>> theater? I have
>>> found that children for instance have very clear understandings of
>>> what is real,
>>> what is manipulated, what is fantasy. the idea that media is
>>> continuously lying
>>> to us, can also lead to a lot of political empathy,
>>>       I teach an alternative animation history class, and one of
>>> our weeks we
>>> show all non fiction animation.
>>> here is the week.
>>> Reading: Understanding Animation, chapter 3 Narrative strategies.
>>> 68-92
>>>
>>> Week 6 October 19th NON FICTION-
>>> These films all use animations power to manifest images that have
>>> no filmic
>>> record. The result is a curious take on truth and representation..
>>> Is there an
>>> emotional safety in these cartoony depictions, of otherwise
>>> unbearable images?
>>>
>>>  Roger Ebert , speaking about Grave of the Fire flies.
>>>  John and Faith Hubley. Sample 1960-75 The Dara Dogs. Denise
>>> Topicoff.
>>>  -A is for Autism, Tim Web 1998. Champaine by Michael Sporn.
>>>   Some Protection, Marjut  Rimmenen,1987 -Brother, Adam Benjamin
>>> Elliot 2003-
>>>   Going Equipped ,Peter Lords 1989 -Abductees , Paul Vesters 1998
>>>  The Fetishist, Jim Trainer 1998- Ryan, Chris Landrithe 2003
>>>  A Room Near By, still life with animated dogs, Paul Ferlinger
>>> 2002- 2004
>>>
>>> these films all deal with the strange in between possibilities of
>>> animation as a
>>> filter for truth. I often show Ryan this week also, The students
>>> are always
>>> interested in discussing the inclusion of Chris Landreth in the
>>> film. it is
>>> both interesting and problematic, that his desire to implicate the
>>> documenter,
>>> is also very problematic. does he truly believe that his state of
>>> crisis
>>> parallels Ryan Larkin, in a SRO facility?
>>>
>>> I argue that the real issue of representation through animation is
>>> not nearly so
>>> complicated. and why do we have to create a theoretical censoring
>>> bureau,
>>> just make the work, and let it hit people, all sloppy and imperfect.
>>> do the questions below really need to be brought to some kind of
>>> conclusion?
>>> is it truly a crisis?
>>>
>>>
>>> "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
>>>> digitization
>>>> 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."
>>>
>>> as media professors, I think we have to also challenge media
>>> literacy Dogma
>>> which implies that all viewers are completely at the mercy of the
>>> moving image.
>>> once something is digital, sorry Lev, but it means nothing, it is a
>>> technical
>>> expedient.
>>>
>>> Animators have the opportunity to carve out new and wonderful ways
>>> of creating
>>> work and bringing subjects to the screen that were not possible
>>> before.
>>> A true act of political subversion is the recent screening of Don
>>> Hertsfeilds
>>> new films. the audience came to see funny. instead they saw an
>>> amazing maturing
>>> of his work into a dark and beautiful piece that made me weep
>>> several times.
>>> He really seized the moment to talk about something important.
>>>
>>> I say let's focus on content, not media, and get to work making the
>>> films that
>>> we feel must be made. 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 <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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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