[-empyre-] post

[christopher sullivan]

interesting, I sure hope she is looking at stuff from the last twenty years, I
fear these academics, put her in touch with me, if she needs names, works. 
one of my favorite subjects. though I always strat with the sinking of the
lucitania myself. Jim Trainors The Fetishist, is amazing, so are all his other
less purely truthfull non-fiction animations. The Bats, Harmony , The
moschops.
and his latest, the Presentation Theme. Chris.


Quoting Christiane Robbins <cpr at mindspring.com>:

> By way of possible follow-up, some of you may be interested in the  
> research trajectories of a recent USC doctoral student, Annabelle  
> Honess Roe, whose dissertation revolved around a study of animated  
> documentaries as seen thru  the lens of epistemology:
> 
> "I argue that animation expands the documentary’s epistemological  
> realm. Not only by presenting the conventional subject matter of  
> documentaries (the “world out there” of observable, the witnessable  
> and the external) in new ways, but also through animation’s potential  
> to visually convey the “world in here” of the personal, the subjective  
> and the internal. In this way, the animated documentary literally  
> animates and enlivens the documentary and, with it, documentary  
> studies – casting new light on some of the central questions of this  
> discipline. As such, my dissertation broadens the scope of both  
> documentary studies and animation studies and the expectations we  
> might have from both of these forms.
> 
> I begin with the suggestion that there are two key ways in which  
> animation functions in a non-fiction context: either to substitute for  
> missing live-action material or to interpret the world and reality in  
> an expressive way. I suggest that this differs from the way animation  
> and documentary have traditionally been hybridised and in my first  
> chapter I demonstrate this through an examination of the historical  
> precedent for the convergence of animation and documentary. "
> 
> 
> Best,
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 26, 2010, at 6:25 AM, christopher sullivan wrote:
> 
> >
> > Hi Thyrza, when you decide what is hardy and what is not is can  
> > always lead to
> > trouble, trouble is good, I go there all the time.
> >     Temporality and time are pretty big issues. I think as an  
> > animator one of
> > the real challenges is presenting real time images, with silence and  
> > stillness.
> > Animation is often thought of as something that should be clear,  
> > informational,
> > and when one drifts from that. audiences can be confused.
> >     In the new film Country Doctor, by Koji Yamamura , there is a  
> > bit of this.
> > the film is beautiful, but sometimes you want it to shut up,  
> > visually and audio
> > wise (I would say this about my work too) . but perhaps it is  
> > animators trying
> > to respond to audiences desire for clarity. I want Prit Pran who I  
> > love, to
> > shut up sometime. But animators feel compelled to clarify and give  
> > context,
> > perhaps it is an impulse from animation being a commercial vehicle  
> > for humor,
> > for most of it's life.
> >     Igor Zovalov, is willing to shut up, which I like(see Milch) very
> > depressing but interesting. by the way, I love the Quays and they are
> > paramount, but I would like to here people talk about some of the  
> > other great
> > animators who are out there now. have a good day.
> >
> >
> > Quoting T Goodeve <tgoodeve at gmail.com>:
> >
> >> Hello everyone:
> >>
> >>
> >> I'm not sure I posted correctly. I sent this last night as a reply.  
> >> Sorry if
> >> I'm confusing anyone. Thyrza
> >>
> >> Sorry I’ve been so lax as a discussant-generator but here I am with  
> >> some
> >> thoughts and reflections. If it’s okay just an aside first: off the  
> >> top of
> >> my fingertips—many of you make stuff you love and live for, also  
> >> write about
> >> with great passion, and the animated worldscape is still and ever  
> >> will be
> >> one of magic and wonder I hope (you have the romantic here), i.e.,  
> >> endless
> >> visual and aural reimagings via its ability, or definition, whether  
> >> anlogue
> >> or digital, to do anything and everything within and beyond the  
> >> spacetime
> >> continuum. But sometimes I miss the basic humor, wonder, and sheer  
> >> “wow” of
> >> the simplicity of animation. I mentioned in a post. The blank page  
> >> and the
> >> dot. We lose track, myself included, analyzing the life out of things
> >> sometimes and to do this with animation seems particularly  
> >> perverse. I
> >> realize I set myself up for a bit of ridicule here but alas,  
> >> someone has to
> >> speak up for the puppet doll in *Street of Crocodiles* who cradles  
> >> the bare
> >> light bulb baby in its arm and brings it back to life with light,  
> >> or the
> >> frayed and earnest bunny who does his best to keep up with the  
> >> spinning
> >> demented ping pong balls and a pair of disembodied knee socks and  
> >> slippers
> >> moving up and down on tip toes in the Quays “Are We Still Married” — 
> >> up and
> >> down, up and down. I think Christopher Sullivan was trying to get  
> >> at this
> >> but not evieryone is out to do what he does nor interested in the  
> >> way I am or
> >> the Quays or for that matter, those who use it for visualization, but
> >> depending on why you do what you do we are here to discuss the  
> >> breakthrough
> >> insights of theory and technology and animation, but it’s just  
> >> sometimes
> >> I’ve felt we’ve let the technology get away with doing too much of  
> >> the
> >> talking, not that it doesn’t have a lot to say.
> >>
> >> But a more hardy, if overly general, topic is temporality and time,  
> >> now-time
> >> vs say the way cinema’s capturing, sculpting, control of time was  
> >> such a
> >> huge part of its magic. Siegfried Kracauer describe in an essay how  
> >> powerful
> >> just “having” the wind in the trees —a moment— captured on film is  
> >> for him.
> >> How different from one of my students when I showed some film,  
> >> perhaps
> >> Tarkovsky,” Why does he keep leaving the camera on the trees so  
> >> long?”
> >> Students of cinema are different. We know this: ADD and short  
> >> digitized
> >> attention spans. But how do you see this in your worlds of  
> >> animation either
> >> in terms of resistance or something emerging that is part of this.  
> >> One thing
> >> I thought was very relevant was the post of the shift tilt which is  
> >> amazing
> >> and disturbing in this respect. Lots to say about it: not only the  
> >> time
> >> lapse but the way the world is miniaturized. Here the real  
> >> profilmic world
> >> is literally made into an stop motion animated “cartoon”. One could  
> >> talk
> >> about the Quays work and time – both in terms of period and affect;  
> >> rhythm
> >> and texture of their worlds (*In Absentia*, the film they made with
> >> Stockhausen, is in some ways about light/time, metaphorically  
> >> written all at
> >> once over and over (the character n the film) hence no time.  
> >> Endless time.
> >> Speed of light
  .) But I do not know what people have seen. I am  
> >> more
> >> interested in hearing you all discuss temporality and animation  
> >> “today”—both
> >> theoretically and examples. These discussions are so energetic.  
> >> They amaze
> >> me.
> >>
> >> Thanks, Thyrza
> >>
> >
> >
> > 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
> > 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