[-empyre-] post

[christopher sullivan]

Hi Christina, yes hopefully they are the stuff of all art, but sometimes I feel
that animation is not included so I press the point, yes on the graphic
novelists who are doing such great work. love Dan Clowes Velvet Glove cast in
iron, Tina, is I think one of the most fascinating characters ever created,
when she bites her arm I could die. also the wonderfull Fun Home by Alison
Buchdel. hopefully we will fight these battles of clarity and poetics until the
end, never winning but getting close. good night, Chris.

Quoting Christina Spiesel <christina.spiesel at yale.edu>:

> Christopher,
> 
> The issues you outline below are, in some lights, at play in all art. 
> What do we show? Tell? And is what we show, do we rely on poetic 
> association or on the head of the nail literal presentation? How do we 
> imagine our audiences? How long does it take to "read"? How long does it 
> last? What does it have to do with human time? Historical time? Cosmic 
> time? And time and rhythm? I am curious that the name of Scott McCloud 
> hasn't come up. [But maybe I missed it in the wonderful flow of 
> conversation....] I think his metacognitive work on the graphic novel 
> (comics in the broadest definition) is very on point for animation.
> 
> Christina
> 
> 
> 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
> > _______________________________________________
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> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> >   
> 
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> 


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