How Cartoons Became Art: Exhibitions and Sales of Animation Art as Communication of Aesthetic Value

Animation has risen from a commercially and aesthetically marginalized medium to one that is gaining recognition as an art form worthy of adult appreciation. Three realms of this recognition are: the Museum of Modern Art\u27s film department, which has supported animation in a variety of ways since its inception in 1935; exhibitions of the art contributing to Disney animation, which began in 1932; the market for artworks related to animation, which has grown from early gallery sales in the late 1930s to a broad base of collectors in the 1980s and 1990s. Exhibit materials, critical reviews, news coverage, and interviews with animation art market participants provided a basis to analyze these sites of aesthetic legitimation in terms of the barriers to acceptance animation faced, the strategies employed to overcome them, and the effects of legitimacy on the current state of animation. Curators, critics, and dealers have overcome prejudices that animation is merely a children\u27s mass medium by locating original pieces of production art within animation that are like fine art. Some have argued that animation\u27s basis in technology and mass production should not disqualify it from serious attention as art, nor should emotional satisfaction be a lesser aspect of aesthetic appreciation than disinterested analysis of form. Whereas commercially produced animation has gained both respect and economic vitality, independent and foreign animation has primarily gained prestige within the boundaries of festivals, museums, and art house theaters

Ink Animation Art in the Digital Age

AbstractThe Ink animation is entirely a Chinese-style animation, the ancient art of Oriental ink was used in animation creation, in order to achieve the novel prospect of indifferent and quiet. It can be described as a great creation by the Chinese animation artists. As time went on, the three-dimensional ink animation has became a product of the digital age, which was based on the tradition of bold ink painting and formed a strong artistic trends. The article describes the features of the Ink animation art with the development of the Digital Age

Persistence of Vision: The Value of Invention in Independent Art Animation

The focus of this investigation is in the realm of animation that straddles the ever-shrinking gulf between a screening and an exhibition, the theater and the art gallery. There is a subtle maturity and movement in the animation art world that not only continues but also extends the often-overlooked legacy of independent animation while engaging the conceptual dialogue of contemporary art. This tradition of an art aesthetic is passed from the early inventors who fashioned the necessary tools and images. The myriads of techniques and concepts evidenced throughout this history inform the current practitioner, just as digital technology and the aesthetic questioning of art offer a broad opportunity for frame-by-frame moving images

Speculative Objects

Speculative Objects is an ongoing series of art works that incorporate text and object. The unfinished nature of this series is integral to O’Riley’s ideas of the open-ended as being a key element of Fine Art research. These works feature associative inscriptions determined by an object’s function or purpose. For example, here is a bench that was used to seat viewers of a 2-hour animation of an orbit around the moon. This was inspired by Michael Collins’ Apollo 11 mission during which he orbited the moon alone, while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the lunar surface for the first time. An animation was made using data of the moon’s surface collected in 1994 by a spacecraft called Clementine, so named after the folk song, Oh My Darling Clementine! O’Riley’s bench features the first words of the song engraved onto its surface. As an ongoing project made up of a number of elements or instances, the works question the form an artwork can take. The language of art is speculated on, scrutinised and extended by being projected through and inscribed into, particular objects. A work from this series was included, together with a text by O’Riley, in a book dedicated to Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at University of Oxford: Assimina Kaniari & Marina Wallace (eds.), Acts of Seeing: Artists, Scientists and the History of the Visual, London: Zidane Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-9554850-8-4. A selection from Speculative Objects was exhibited in Spring 2011 at the library of Chelsea College of Art & Design

Computer-generated animation for analysis and design

The development of computer-generated animation techniques was reviewed and some examples of the current state of the art were described. A number of ways in which computer-generated animation can be used were examined in relation to the suitability for the engineering task at hand. The examples described are primarily concerned with attempting to combine two different types of simulation: that of superposition of an engineering design on the surrounding real world, and an evaluation of this simulation both from an engineering design and an aesthetic point of view

Defining animation therapy: the good hearts model

This article discusses ‘the Good Hearts Model’ (GHM) (Hani, M 2011), a programme of therapeutic practice that employs the process of producing animated films and allied materials. Though ‘Art Therapy’ in all its guises and diversity has a long pedigree, I argue that the use of animation, (the GHM) offers an additional approach to traditional therapeutic strategies and that moreover it can be used as a diagnostic, educational, crime prevention and dissemination tool. Crucially, this discussion argues and proposes that like art, drama and music therapy, there is a need for a professional body for Animation therapists, and inclusion in the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). For this to transpire I will propose a definition of ‘Animation Therapy’, and example the contexts for its use. The article will begin with a brief overview of the current context for Art Therapy and its conduct followed by an introduction of the current situation regarding Animation Therapy in the UK identifying how Animation Therapy is distinct, before engaging with the GHM, and its potential within the field as an alternative approach to traditional therapy. There are many other creative therapies but for the purposes of this article, I will only discuss Animation in relation to Art Therapy and within the wider paradigms of therapeutic practice. It will be specifically focused upon the UK and the development of animation as a regulated therapy with attention specifically to the GHM. It is also impossible to discuss all the research projects that have been undertaken over the years evolving this model of animation therapy so a selection has been made to relate to the most appropriate arguments

The Art of Drawn Movements: Animation Films by GSA Alumni

“Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn” (Norman McLaren) Norman McLaren (1914-1987) was one of the most important experimental filmmakers of the 20th century, in particular making groundbreaking contributions to the art of animation. He began making film whilst a student of art and interior design at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA), which he attended from 1932 to 1936. Following short professional stints in London and New York, he moved to Canada to work with renowned Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson at The National Film Board of Canada, where he made his most creative and acclaimed works. The centenary festival, McLaren 2014, provided an opportunity for Scottish audiences to celebrate McLaren's influence and legacy with a series of events taking place across central Scotland, focusing on Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh. As part of the festival, GSA in collaboration with the Glasgow Film Theatre, hosted a screening of animation films by GSA alumni, curated by Dr Sarah Smith. This event celebrates McLaren’s contribution to experimental animation by screening a diverse selection of thirteen animation films by GSA alumni, from McLaren’s own abstract classic Lines Horizontal (1962) to recent graduate Ross Hogg’s The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (2013). The event was introduced by Dr Sarah Smith and concluded with a short Q&A with some of the included filmmakers

Can Computers Create Art?

This essay discusses whether computers, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), could create art. First, the history of technologies that automated aspects of art is surveyed, including photography and animation. In each case, there were initial fears and denial of the technology, followed by a blossoming of new creative and professional opportunities for artists. The current hype and reality of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for art making is then discussed, together with predictions about how AI tools will be used. It is then speculated about whether it could ever happen that AI systems could be credited with authorship of artwork. It is theorized that art is something created by social agents, and so computers cannot be credited with authorship of art in our current understanding. A few ways that this could change are also hypothesized.Comment: to appear in Arts, special issue on Machine as Artist (21st Century