I’m taking an experimental animation course this semester, and I’m so excited about it I can hardly contain myself. We were asked to write a paper in which we give our own definition of “experimental animation” and imagine a new form of animation that we’ve never seen before. I imagined four. I wanted to share the paper with you…
In order to define “experimental animation,” I must first define “animation.” Using the broadest possible definition, animation is simply the display of a sequence of images in rapid succession so as to create the illusion of movement. Coincidentally, this definition is broad enough to encompass all film, as it could be said that what is traditionally called “live action” film or video is actually animated photography. Early in film and animation history, the ambiguity of this distinction was far more apparent. Eadweard Muybridge’s photo series capturing motion, for instance, when viewed in succession, were called “animated.” The same word was applied to many pre-cinema motion picture devices such as the zoetrope and flip-book, even when photographs were used. Georges Méliès used animation techniques such as stop motion, hand painting, and time-lapse extensively in his films, and likely made no distinction between these and more “standard” film techniques he pioneered such as double exposure and dissolves.
Since that time, animation and film have both grown into distinct and more clearly defined mediums with their own sets of techniques, rules, and aesthetics. It is experimental animation, then, that attempts to break down these restrictions and restore to the medium of animation the sense of limitless possibility felt by early animators such as Méliès. As a filmmaker and videomaker who aims to break barriers of aesthetics, definitions, and methods of working in those mediums, I am especially interested in exploring the close relationships between film, video, photography, collage, sculpture, and animation.
It is somewhat difficult for me to “invent” new forms or techniques of animation as I consider my exposure to experimental animation rather limited. That said, I’ve been very excited about this class and have been brainstorming ideas all summer. One idea I’ve had was to combine animated cut-out photographs with stop motion objects. An animated photograph cut-out of a man’s head would be able to smoke an actual cigarette (perhaps several, very rapidly – as they would burn far faster than I could replace the cut-outs to be photographed) and blow actual smoke through a hole poked in the cut-out’s mouth. The same technique could be used to animate a cut-out person devouring food… or anything! Long wooden dowels pushed through a hole in the cardboard to give the impression of being eaten. Ten feet of steel chain, curled in a pile on the ground and sucked up like spaghetti. An especially large cut-out head (or one with an unhinged jaw) could devour an entire human being – their legs kicking in the air as they’re “swallowed.”
Another idea, inspired by the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, was to create animation that ran on several separately timed loops. For instance, my first project will animate each of a drummer’s limbs separately, each playing in a separate time signature. Each of these limbs will be able to loop infinitely, going in and out of sync with each other and creating new, unusual patterns for several minutes. Any number of different beats could be created for each limb – allowing for infinite combinations.
As long as I’m left to my imagination and not constrained by practicality though – why not go all out? Let my imagination run wild? How about animating buildings? I’ve seen stop-motion films of buildings being constructed, but these are always merely an animator documenting the will of an architect. What if it were to work the other way around? Architects working together with animators as would a sculptor on a stop-motion film. A building spreading out through a city in all directions – being demolished on one end as it’s built anew on the other. In stop motion appearing to crawl like a snake down the streets; climb up alongside other buildings, over top, and spiral back down around them; before finally disappearing into the ground, only to resurface again in another city (presumed to have burrowed through the earth); all this time office workers going about their daily business in the innards of this strange creature – forced to move their desks almost daily as their board rooms are torn down and new ones constructed right next door.
Slightly more practical: a Manhattan-based performance art group, The Surveillance Camera Players, protests the ubiquitous presence of surveillance cameras in the city by performing plays in front of city-funded cameras. Because most of these cameras only capture a single still image every 30 seconds or so (and without sound) the plays are performed by holding extended poses and utilizing large placards with writing and drawings. But there’s so much more potential! A security camera working in this way already functions like a time-lapse or stop-motion camera. If it was possible to know when the stills were taken and at what interval, it would be possible to create pixilation animations like those of Norman McLaren or the Bolex Brothers. Such animations, created by actors in public spaces utilizing hidden cameras, would double as bizarre performance art pieces – jerky, spasmodic plays performed in ultra slow motion. The SCP has performed adaptations of satirical works by George Orwell and Alfred Jarry. An animated adaptation of Emile Courtet, the inventor of the pixilation technique and a likeminded contemporary of Jarry, would make perfect sense. The only problem? In the U.S., government surveillance camera footage isn’t made available to the public. But rest assured that at least one lucky security guard would be privileged enough to view your little film.
I guess keep an eye out for when I post some of the animations I’ll be making (I started working on the drummer animation yesterday). That said, keep an eye out for when I post any of my films, period. I keep saying I’m going to put them online and I keep putting it off. Soonish. I promise. Maybe. I hope. I’m a busy guy!
