The discreet charm of surrealism in Eastern European animation : when repression fosters creativity

The focus of this dissertation is Surrealism in animation films created during the Soviet period of 1956 – 1989 in Russia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. These thirty-three years of the Soviet regime were characterized by the domination of censorship, a persecution of "formalism" and control over artistic expression. However, in these dark conditions the animation industry flourished and striking political films appeared. These films told personal stories and intimate secrets in a way that was not immediately recognizable, sometimes thought of as madness or simply overlooked by the censorship for the simple reason, that animation was thought of as an art for children that could not pose any danger. This dissertation aims at recognizing political revolt and subversion in the animation industry through an analysis of the ambivalent conditions of the Soviet repression system that simultaneously curbed and led to a rise in creativity. This gives rise to the main question: “Did censorship, under these specific conditions, foster artistic creativity in animation films?”O foco deste trabalho é o surrealismo nos filmes de animação criados durante o período soviético de 1956 - 1989, na União Soviética, Polónia e Tchecoslováquia. Aqueles trinta e três anos do regime Soviético são caraterizados pelo domínio forte de censura, perseguição do assim chamado "formalismo" e pelo controlo da expressão artística. No entanto, nestas condições obscuras, a indústria de animação floresceu imenso o que resultou na criação de marcantes filmes políticos. Eles contaram histórias pessoais e segredos íntimos de uma forma que estes não eram imediatamente reconhecíveis pela censura, por vezes considerados como loucura ou simplesmente ignorados, pela simples razão, de que a animação foi pensada como uma arte para as crianças e que não poderia representar qualquer perigo. Este trabalho visa reconhecer a revolta política e subversão na indústria da animação e menciona uma análise das condições ambivalentes do sistema soviético de repressão que levou a um aumento da criatividade nesta categoria de arte, representando uma questão central: "será que a censura, nestas condições específicas, fomentou a criatividade artística nos filmes de animação?

Jan Svankmajer: film as puppet theatre

The Czech Surrealist Jan Svankmajer began his career as a puppeteer in Prague. His use of the puppet as a bridge between live action and stop-motion animation dominate his feature films and shorts. This paper explores his interest in the Czech marionette tradition combined with the myth of the Kabbalistic animation of the Golem; both part of the culture and folklore of Prague. For Svankmajer, animation is not merely a special effect but a tangible metaphor for manipulation

‘Chairy tales: Objects and materiality in animation’

This article addresses three issues of what I suggest here should be regarded as the shifting technological and matter-based apparatus of animation: first, the meanings and affect of objects and materials actually used in animated films; second, the visual dramaturgy made possible by objects and materials for animation screenwriters; and, third, the status of animation process materials as archival objects. The analysis looks at a number of animated films and specifically at their design form, material association, and narrative function to define what I will call the “scripted artefact”, and an “Animated Object Cycle”. This overview will also operate in a spirit of thinking about theories of practice and practices of theory in animation, and refer to both established theoretical perspectives as well as primary practice idioms

Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy? Multimodal Player–Avatar Relations in Final Fantasy 7

This article analyses the player-avatar relation in Final Fantasy 7, drawing on multimodality theory to analyse textual structures both in the game and in the discourse of player-interviews and fan writing. It argues that the avatar is a two-part structure, partly designed in conventional narrative terms as a protagonist of popular narrative, and partly as a vehicle for interactive game-play. The former structure is replete with the traditions and designs of Japanese popular narrative, oral formulaic narrative and contemporary superhero narratives; and is presented to the player as an offer act – a declarative narrative statement. The latter is a construct of evolving attributes and economies characteristic of roleplaying games; and is presented to the player as a demand act – a rule-based command. Though these two functions separate out in the grammar of player and fan discourse, it is their integration which provides the pleasure of gameplay and narrative engagement

The player character as performing object

Engagement in games is manifest through a player’s representation of action in game. The main mechanism for this engagement is through direct control of a player character. This control mechanism can be seen as a form of puppetry in which the player manipulates a game figure ranging from the abstract to the super-human. Through a focus on the player character, this paper posits that it may be productive to conceive of the player focus as one akin to that of the puppet artist, or puppeteer, and discusses one approach to unpacking the abstract sign systems of gameplay in this setting. The player character acts out the movements of the player and marks her progression in game. A doubling happens in this action, between the physical movements on the controller and the representation of agency on screen. As a player I act, then watch the results of my action on screen, always already audience to my own play practice. One ongoing challenge for games studies is the framing of the relationship between the player and her player character. From a phenomenological perspective this has been conceived of as an instrumental extension into the game world [9, 18]. Using the ‘binocular lens’ [19] of performance analysis semiotic work is necessary to balance our sense of the improvisational act of digital game-play. The player binds to the lived experience of game-play through engagement with the sign systems at play in a specific gaming experience. Puppetry has existed across world cultures, as entertainment, ritual and celebration, and broadly involves the animation of inanimate performing objects. The insertion of objects between the performer and the audience allows for different, and deeper, levels of signification than live actors alone can offer. Puppets consist a developed form of performing object, one that moves. The fascination with puppets reaches far back into history, revealing our yearning to play god, to exert domination over our human experience. Similarly, the seductive illusion of control plays a central part in the appeal inherent in digital game form. In the modern setting much work on puppetry remains relatively hidden across a broad spectrum of fields, from computer science to anthropology. However performance theorists such as Tillis [20] introduce a broad semiotics to conceive of the multitude of ways we engage with puppetry. Other theorists have engaged in embracing digital and mediated puppet form, not least in games studies in areas such as machinima and alternate-reality gaming, yet attention has been slow in broadening the application of puppet theory to player characters. Tillis [20] offers a focus on signs of design, movement and speech as core to building an aesthetic of the puppet. For the player character signifiers of affect and control require addition to any such tentative schema. This paper argues that the metaphor of the puppet offers a useful frame for the central figure of our game-play focus by allowing for a kind of ‘double-vision’ [20] that enables a player character to be seen in two ways at once, ‘as a perceived object and as an imagined life’ [20]. Using the tools of performance analysis this paper addresses the liminal relationship between player and player character in the flux of play. The intention is to offer an explication of the range of methods, whether stylistic, instrumental or kinesthetic, deployed in this relationship to engage the player in the act of play

How to seed a puppet in someone's heart? - Challenges of teaching puppetry techniques at the University

The author presents the two arms of his pedagogical practice. The first one is the work method Vellinho has developed – as a director, puppeteer and actor – to train professionals to the practice of the Animation Theater. His technical procedures have been improved throughout the 18 years of his company, by means of experimentations that approach the Animation Theater to other languages, as Cinema, Dance and Cartoon. The second arm is Vellinho’s work since 2008 as a professor at the university. The director was responsible for the creation of the Animation Theater discipline at UNIRIO, considering the challenges of public education’s reality in Brazil, both at University – field for the students’ professional qualification – and at Elementary, Middle and High School – the largest work field for the future teachers. His work seeks to establish real and strong links between the artist and the animated object. In this process, the crafting of the puppets is a special highlight, because that is where begins the comprehension of the puppet in its scenic expression’s entirety, a methodology Vellinho considers as a gestatio

Design-led approach for transferring the embodied skills of puppet stop-motion animators into haptic workspaces

This design-led research investigates the transfer of puppet stop-motion animators’ embodied skills from the physical workspace into a digital environment. The approach is to create a digital workspace that evokes an embodied animating experience and allows puppet stop-motion animators to work in it unencumbered. The insights and outcomes of the practical explorations are discussed from the perspective of embodied cognition. The digital workspace employs haptic technology, an advanced multi-modal interface technology capable of invoking the tactile, kinaesthetic and proprioceptive senses. The overall aim of this research is to contribute, to the Human-Computer Interaction design community, design considerations and strategies for developing haptic workspaces that can seamlessly transfer and accommodate the rich embodied knowledge of non-digital skillful practitioners. Following an experiential design methodology, a series of design studies in collaboration with puppet stop-motion animators led to the development of a haptic workspace prototype for producing stop-motion animations. Each design study practically explored the transfer of different aspects of the puppet stop-motion animation practice into the haptic workspace. Beginning with an initial haptic workspace prototype, its design was refined in each study with the addition of new functionalities and new interaction metaphors which were always developed with the aim to create and maintain an embodied animating experience. The method of multiple streams of reflection was proposed as an important design tool for identifying, understanding and articulating design insights, empirical results and contextual considerations throughout the design studies. This thesis documents the development of the haptic workspace prototype and discusses the collected design insights and empirical results from the perspective of embodied cognition. In addition, it describes and reviews the design methodology that was adopted as an appropriate approach towards the design of the haptic workspace prototype

The Making of Faulty Optic's Dead Wedding: Inertia, Chaos and Adaptation

An examination of Faulty Optic's creative process during the devising and construction of their show Dead Wedding. Published by Palgrave Macmillan as Chapter 3 in 'Devising in Process' edited by Alex Mermikides and Jackie Smart, 201

The "Intercultural" Work of Lee Breuer

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theatre_topics/v007/7.1smith.html.No abstract is available for this item