[-empyre-] animation and gender

Tue Mar 2 04:23:26 EST 2010

And we wouldn't want to forget Johanna Priestly, Christine Panuska nor  
Kathy Smith  - all of whom are not only are practicing and respected  
animators but are leading university / college departments which  
encourage the study of many animators who happen to be women.  But  
then again, another pressing ( and tired ! ) question is their staying  
power,  advancement and positioning within the field itself, no?

My own nascent research for projects in development at the moment have  
led me to the mid-20thc Disney Animation studio ( can one get any more  
conventional ? !)   I was surprised to learn of the large # of women  
who were working in the studio (s) ... but I have not run across any  
who had attained the animator level.  Rather, they seemed to be in a  
state of arrested development within the studio hierarchy -  many at  
the level of "colorist " ....

All best,

Chris

On Mar 1, 2010, at 7:59 AM, christopher sullivan wrote:

> a couple more, Ruth Lingford, Wendy Tilby, Martha Colborn. Kim  
> Colmer, Ariana
> Gerstine, Orla McHardy, Suzzy templeton, Laura Heit. Lisa Barcy,  
> Susan Pit,
> Maureen Selwood, Christien Roche. got to go. Chris
>
>
> Quoting Renate Ferro <rtf9 at cornell.edu>:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Chris thanks for the list of animators below.  There is something  
>> that I
>> have been very curious about since we began this whole discussion now
>> about a month ago.  I was on a site (and I'm not sure which one it  
>> was)
>> that was discussing the lack of female animators in the field.  The
>> distinction was that many female animators who are working tend to  
>> do more
>> documentary, self help animations.  Their observation was that most  
>> women
>> artists instead tended to be drawn towards manipulated, experimental
>> cinema and video and not straight animation. (Perhaps we need to  
>> extend
>> the whole notion of animation via the fuzziness that Suzanne  
>> alluded to
>> early on!) Additionally, Mary Flanagan was here at Cornell a few  
>> weeks ago
>> and in a public lecture commented on the overwhelming lack of female
>> gamers in the field as well.
>>
>> Our next empyre discussion will not be beginning until March 8th so  
>> for
>> the next couple of days or so I'm hoping that we can all talk  
>> openly about
>> this topic.  I"m fascinated and perhaps misinformed I hope.  Maybe  
>> the
>> tides are turning and many young female artists will be drawn into  
>> the new
>> technologies of animation.
>>
>> When I first started looking for guests for this topic it was  
>> difficult to
>> find any women at all to participate but I'm so very happy that we  
>> finally
>> were able to get a great and yes diverse mix as Chris pointed out  
>> in one
>> of his last posts. Can you all send me your favorite female  
>> animators???
>>
>> Renate
>>
>> PS.  We will continue on for the next couple of days on animation  
>> and then
>> open things up for a few days of open conversation.
>>
>>
>>
>>> Hi Richard, there are plenty of non-linear narrative animations,  
>>> not too
>>> many
>>> feature ones, but then there are not all that many feature length
>>> animations.
>>> here are a few animators, off the top of my head, and the Quay's  
>>> as well;
>>> janie
>>> Gieser. Lewis Klahr, Nancu Andrews, me Chris Sullivan, Jim  
>>> Trainor, Simon
>>> Pummel, Amy Kravitze, Karen Yasinsky, Lilli Carre, Patrick Smith,  
>>> Don
>>> Hertzfeld, Rose Bond, Joshua Mosely, Jim Duesing, Pritt Parn,  
>>> Brent Green,
>>> Piotr Dumala, and check out the nice work funded by the  
>>> organization,
>>> Animate
>>> Projects, great british wonders. have a good night. Chris.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Quoting Richard Wright <futurenatural at blueyonder.co.uk>:
>>>
>>>> I always liked the quality in the Quay films where time seems to  
>>>> lose
>>>> all its reference points. Those shots of dust settling or shadows
>>>> dancing where you are no longer sure whether you are watching in
>>>> "realtime" or over the course of hundreds of years.
>>>>
>>>> This also made me wonder why certain kinds of narrative and time  
>>>> are
>>>> almost never used in animation. For instance, why are there no non-
>>>> linear narrative animations? They are not that uncommon in live
>>>> action films - I am thinking of Memento that goes backwards in  
>>>> story
>>>> time (with one b/w stream going forwards), Amores Perros that jumps
>>>> repeatedly backwards and forwards, The Hours with its parallel
>>>> storylines running in different historical times periods. The only
>>>> example of an animated film that has anything like these kinds of
>>>> narrative structure is Waltz with Bashir with its persistent
>>>> flashbacks. And that was made by a live action director.
>>>>
>>>> I wonder if this has something to do with the way that animators
>>>> work, concentrating as they do on building up a sequence of actions
>>>> bit by bit, are they generally less directed towards the larger
>>>> narrative structures of time? By focusing on the duration of the
>>>> immediate event, is it as though they assume a sort of "short term
>>>> memory"?
>>>>
>>>> Richard
>>>>
>>>> On 25 Feb 2010, at 03:34, T Goodeve wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello everyone:
>>>>>
>>>>> 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 everyone 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
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 12:39 AM, christopher sullivan
>>>>> <csulli at saic.edu> wrote:
>>>>> Hi Richard, I am the guy that wants animations about love, hate,
>>>>> birth, sex, and
>>>>> death.(not necessarily in that order)
>>>>> your rules of engagement leave me a little cold. why would this be
>>>>> a goal?
>>>>>
>>>>> "greatest possible distance between
>>>>> human senses and computer code that is achievable through the
>>>>> simplest material means"
>>>>>
>>>>> what part of the human condition would make this a mandate?
>>>>> why would this be effective, or rather effective at doing what?
>>>>> I know I am being a little aggressive here, but this is coming  
>>>>> from
>>>>> someone who does not think Data means anything, nor does emulsion.
>>>>>
>>>>> chris.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>
>>
>> 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
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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
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre