Essay question

The question I have chosen has been a personal one that I've wanted to solve and is also relevant to my creative practice. Its also a question that through a visual response I'd be able to get good data from it for my essay.

My suggested research question is: Does moving image affect how we perceive sound

Unfortunately this question does not relate directly to any of the Module resources however some may be somewhat relevant or help the themes of my research title. Berger, J. (1972) 'Ways of Seeing', Harmondsworth: Penguin. may prove useful as I will be looking into theme of perception and emotional relation to art.

So far I have not found source that directly answer this question but have found many that will help me piece it together.
-C. Chen , M. Weng, S .Jeng and Y.Chuang (2008) Emotion-based music visualization using photos, Berlin, Springer-Verlag

-J. Geringer, J. Cassidy and J. Byo (1996) Effects of Music with Video on Responses of Non music Majors: An Exploratory Study,  Sage Publications, Inc.

- R. Patternson, M Hallerhand, J Holdsworth (TBC) Auditory models as preprocessors as preprocessors for speech recognition.
- Cambridge Psychological Laboratory,The phenomena of attention and visualisation in the psychology of musical appreciation (2011).  


As a visual response to my research I wanted to create a something that helps actually answer my question. I intend to create a series of short animations all very different (media, tone and movement) in response to a short piece of music. I would be able to take this response and see if it changes the reception of the music.

Reception for the question was generally very positive, peers said it would be quite scientific compared to a other a lot more philosophical questions however the concept of perception can also be quite philosophical.

Death of the author

Death of the animator

Animation, Especially in the last few decades has always swiftly adapted to new and emerging technologies. Death of author talks about how the “author” is not creating but re-appropriating the medium. The quote “For him, for us too, it is language which speaks, not the author.” can very much apply to many fields of animation which use all different kinds of technology. It is really the technology that is supposedly doing all the work in the same way a writer is only putting existing words and using predetermined rules (e.g Grammar and syntax) to create there body of writing. 

Death of the author was published in 1977 but was written quite a few years prior to this, this is long before the digital revolution. Technology has completely changed the way the “reader” takes in an “author’s” material. “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author” is Barthe’s call for revolution for the empowerment of the reader. This revolution has already begun to take place as technology has given the reader a new means to challenge and become the author through means such as online reviewing. 

Many people are involved in creating animation there are some many aspects that change the final narrative of the the piece. The quote “a texts unity lies not i its origin but in its destination. Yet this destination cannot any longer be personal” refers to the life experiences of a singular author writing   a text directly informing and giving validity to a piece of work. With animation there is no “author” like there is a book, because it is a collaborative effort to create an lengthy animation no one person can be used to represent the animation.This gives a more even field of judging the work as its artistic merit is not measured against the life experiences of an individual. 

The problem with this argument is the introduction of auteur theory in which the director can be seen as the author of a film or animation. This once again gives power to the individual allowing the work to be measured up with that individual rather than the collaborative that created it. Auteur theory however was created for live action film although this quote can apply to film it is far more relevant to the animation process “most design is done in a collaborative setting, either within a client relationship or in the context of a studio that utilises the talents of numerous creative people, with the result that the origin of any particular idea is uncertain”. Animation although is written like a book/film also has every detail designed by large numbers of different artists although this may be under an individuals vision it is still an extremely collaborative medium. 

1 Barthes, R (1968) “Death of the Author” in Image Music Text, (1977), London Fontana Press

2 Barthes, R (1968) “Death of the Author” in Image Music Text, (1977), London Fontana Press

3 Barthes, R (1968) “Death of the Author” in Image Music Text, (1977), London Fontana Press

4  Rock, M. (1996) 'The Designer as Author', Eye no. 20 vol. 5 1996.

seminar: Animation in the commercial realm

Animation in the commercial realm is was the polar opposite to the auteurship seminar. Where an auteur created animation for artistic purposes the commercial animator creates them purely for financial gain both for them and another party.

Animation for the commercial realm may make some cringe as its twisting an art form to become a tool of capitalism. Its animation used in adverts to control the minds of unsuspecting future consumerists. The ideas behind these are considered to be churned out in a meaningless effort to sell products. This however is not always the case. Adverts are often treated as animation shorts with a purpose. Does an animation having a purpose in the commercial realm take away from its artistic properties? in my opinion no. I feel that the an animation having a hidden motive does not retract from the art of the animation. The thought processes and the artistic properties behind those animations are the same as artistic made shorts. This was proven by many examples shown to us in the seminar. Although there are plenty of animations in the commercial realm that are unimaginative there are many exceptions.

genre in animation

Genre is a method of categorisation of film. Genre is an currently an essential part of film as the fabric of the film industry has been built round the concepts of genre. Genre is dictated by film but also visa versa. Most genre studies look at how films fit into specific categories and Why although film can create almost anything film makers adhere to set genres and audiences don't tire of them.

films can be just one genre but audiences often tire of films with this singular dimension. An issue with genre especially with newer films is the hybridisation of them. Film making can cover an infinite scope of story lines so trying to encapsulate a film into a singular genre especially if said film is truly original then categorisation through genre may prove to be difficult. For example a film that contains stereotypical traits of horror can use those traits as satire and thus become a comedy. Parody films like that use genre and turn it on its self to create a completely different viewing experience for the audience. This presents problems in what to regard a film like this in terms of genre. This is because although genre is presented as a black and white factual categorisation is is actually very subjective. A film will be classed in a genre due to sets of specific traits however if only a few of those are present some may argue that the film belongs to a genre and others against.

Genre is very useful for the categorisation of film and allows people to make predetermined judgements about the film which will inform there decision if they want to watch it. The problem with this is the idea of genre forces film makers to conform to the traits determine a genre. If an audience is expecting a film to be in a genre to go and see it whilst also expecting the film to adhere to the traits of that genre it limits the create scope of the film maker. Genre therefore can act as a determined of the auteur and original film making. This will lead and has led too the same set of films being repurposed over and over again.

Animation is a type of film so the same genre traits should apply to animation as they do to live action film. Animation however started its roots mainly in film therefore has this image stuck to it. This means when a film is described as animation it is often associated with the genre characteristics of "children's" or "family" films. TV shows like horrible tales for gruesome kids challenges perceptions of genre as its a children's animation about horror stories. The programme used dark story telling and animation to tell horror stories to children. The stereotypes of horror and children's entertainment genres are opposed in many different ways which makes this shows existence a contradiction to genre.

The main point I took from this text was the term genre is a lot looser that it seems. The term rules are meant to be broken can most definitely be applied to genre. It also said that genre can be used as a tool to gain pre determined audiences and also determine whom your audience will be.

story boards

 These are my finished story boards for the short scene. The key aspect of them is the changing genders, that is the critical part to this animation. I felt I could have added more detail to them but that some could create the scenes I wanted with these story boards.

final character design

These were my final designs for the character design. I decided on the skin the blue skin tone for a couple of reasons. The first was I really liked the look of the characters faces being a washed out colour and second I did not want race to become an issue within this animation. I felt using a not realistic skin tone would help to avert the potential problem.

Character designing

From my mood board I started designing characters. I was designing a working husband and a house wife but needed both designed in both genders. I started with designing the faces of characters as I feel this is a good starting point. I then took influences from an amalgamation of my designs to create final characters. Once I'd settled on two of the characters I started to test colours out on them. There were a lot of colour variations I could try from this style.

 

Visual response: Mood boarding and visual ideas

Since I was doing a scene based on classic 50's/60's TV show I felt I should do an animation style from that era as well. I wanted the animation to have a modernist look to it that fitted with hannah barverra animations and cartoons/illustration from that period. I put together a mood board for my character design to see some of the traits seen in characters from that era. The design in very simplistic and follows charactistics from modernism. The colours are generally very simplistic. Lots of animation from this ear had to produced very cheaply so simpler characters were easier to animate.

From this mood board I started drawing some different ideas for character from the mood board. I found drawing the female character much harder than the male ones. I didn't want to use overt tropes on characters to define there gender I wanted the male and female versions quite similar. I did however need to make there gender clear as the ideas behind the animation would not work if I didn't

Visual response: Treatment

I wanted to show in an animation that gay relationships are no different to heterosexual ones. I thought about what would be the best way to do this with great difficulty. I needed a situation that very much highlight a monogamous heterosexual relationship but also a use something that could be recognised in my interpretation

I decided to use the classic "Hi honey, I'm home" trope from 50's/60's american sit coms. These scene seemed perfect as they are easy to replicate in a manor were people recognise there context but also because they always were reinforcing sexist/homophobic views. I looked at a few different american sit coms such as bewitched to get an idea of how these scenes panned out.

I want the scene to show people the normality of gay relationships but also that more normalised gay relationships belong in animation.

Treatment:

The scene will start with the husband coming home saying "Hi honey Im home" They next shot will show the wife coming out of the kitchen. The house wife will walk over to the husband who will be a woman in the next shot (now two women in shot) and kisses her on the cheek before taking her coat. Both women will walk through to the kitchen were both characters are now male versions in the kitchen shot. This is were the house husband pours the other one a drink theres some dialogue and the scene ends.

Approaches to visual response

There were a few approches I could have taken for this visual response. I knew I wanted to create an animation or the finished pre production of one however I was unsure of what way I should write it.

The first was one that used shock tactics on the viewer. Below is a short film showing how it would be if heterosexuals were made a minority by society. Although I thought the idea behind this short film was interesting I feel that a lot of people find tactics like this irritating rather than informative. Although some may rethink there actions I dont think this would be the best approach for me.

Leeds animation is an great independent company that makes informative animations. The animations are created to be purchased by schools for education purposes. They do a wide range of animation tackling a wide range of issues. I think this is a great way to help reduces prejudices cause by ignorance and is an excellent tool to teach children about such things. I do however feel this is not the direction I want to take with my visual response. I want my response to challenge the norm to make the viewer think rather than telling the viewer a set of facts. I think with heteronormativity it works better used as an example than as straight facts.

http://www.leedsanimation.org.uk/

Girls night out by Joanna Quinn is a brilliant animation and takes and interesting approach to issue. Girls night out shows a group of women going out to a bar and going a bit mental. They act what you'd stereotypically think of "lads" acting like on a night out. This animation doesn't put an outright point in your face but instead changes perceptions on a more subconscious level, which in my opinion is far more powerful. The animation break down perceived gender differences by normalising women acting in what would normally be seen as not feminine behaviour. I feel this would be the best approach for my animation.

Visual response: what to do?

I decided to follow on from my chosen essay title (representation of gender and otherness in animation) since thats what I'd been researching writing on for a while.
During my essay I  focused on gender and sexuality representation. I didn't want to do a response to gender representation because I felt there had already been quite a lot in this area and far greater improvements in animation. Sexuality as seen in my essay has made much slower headway. I wanted to focus on the problem of heteronormativity in animation and western society.

I found creating ideas for this far more challenging because there were a few different approaches I could have taken with this project and I was unsure which would be most appropriate to get my ideas across to an audience.

seminar: politics and propaganda

Before this seminar I'd never really thought about animation in the context of propaganda. I'd seen lots of cartoons/illustrations and graphic design in the context of it but not animation. It was interesting to see that animation (something generally used for entertainment) could be used effectively in this way. I think the sinking of the Louisiana was a really interesting example because at the time there were no film special effects so there was no way to capture this tragic event. The animator felt that the people had to see this so he created the sinking of the Louisiana. The film was very moving at the time people had not seen film like this before so it proved to be very effective.
During world war II Disney was on the rise and making animation a palatable realty for the general public. The U.S government saw this and thought animation could be an excellent means for propaganda. Animation is a good means of propaganda as like cartoons is more palatable to the general public as they can use satire and lighter-hearted means to convey there messages but also animation is excellent for getting a narrative across. Disney was also becoming a known brand at the time. The use of disney was taking advantage of the audience it had already captivated which was a clever move. This lecture brought to my attention that I can use animation even with silly looking children's characters for serious uses that can have an impact on the world.

seminar: gender in animation

This seminar discussed the not just gender in animation but the deeper context of gender representation in art throughout history. Women have been for a very long time been poorly represented due to the patriarchy that we live in. Animation for a long time was heavily male dominated. Women were therefore  not well represented however I would say that this is not because of the animators but the time they were animating in.
I feel our society has entered a plateau in social equality were improvement on representation has reached a stagnation point. Women are recognised better than they once were but there i till a patriarchy present. Whilst this happens there will always be animation that poorly represents women however  I do feel that animation has gotten a lot better at representing gender. Animation has the potential to change social perceptions of different groups of people however I think animation representing groups better is likely to hinge on the direction our society moves in.
I feel the main point about this seminar was not just about gender but representation in general. We as creatives have a duty to help improve how society sees different groups and minorities. When designing and writing we should consider how we are representing other people out and are subconsciously redistributing negative prejudices held in our society

seminar: Auteurship and the Avant-Garde

Before this seminar I was familiar with the term avant-garde but the concept of auteurship was completely new to me and I found it incredibly interesting. Auteurship is a theory based around great directors being artists in there own right. The auteur was a concept originally created in response to "generic" hollywood produced films. There are many brilliant film directors who are considered auteurs and I believe that those people are visual artists. Animation is a type of film its storyboarded and written in the same way its just carried out differently. The function of the director is still the same and that why animators can be considered auteurs.
I feel there are most definitely can be avant-garde animators although all animators are building on the technical concepts left behind by animation's history the concepts created and film making used can still be revolutionary in its own right. I feel those animators are avant-garde visually however I feel they can't be narratively.I do believe however animation in terms of narrative the avant-garde cannot exist it is said that all writing derives from a small number of original stories and that writing a truly revolutionary and original narrative where it gain no inspiration from any previous stories is impossible. I think animators who pioneered new techniques can be classed as avant-garde as they started animation movements in there own right

Seminar: Genre

In this seminar we looked at what genre is and how it relate to film and animation. We looked at the contrasts and similarities between film and animation. The seminar also discussed whether genre is useful or whether its detrimental. I found the seminar very interesting because I'd never thought about the deeper context of genre and whether its necessary in film.

The seminar was I felt concluded fairly quickly that animation relates very directly to film genre and that animation is just a different artistic choice but is still virtually the same story telling technique.

Reflecting on the seminar I left feeling differently towards genre than at the start. There were arguments for and against genre but its short falls were most highlighted for me. I feel genre is a great way to define a film its needed to inform people whom already have predetermined ideas of what they'd like to watch that what you've created will be right for them. It can however in the same way create negative prejudice about a film using brief genres as labels. Sci-fi for instance is an incredibly broad genre however many people will only associate it with star trek fans and therefore instantly be deterred from it. It can work the other way around as well, if people expect certain tropes in a genre writers and directors may feel forced to conform to them. This categorisation of film has the potential to all lobotomise the creativity of it.

Genre is however can be very subjective. Whether a certain film belongs to a genre because it shows some characteristics or possibly a singular key characteristic may cause some to believe that films belongs to said genre and others may think otherwise.

I think genre is an good and necessary tool much like it is for the music industry however it should be looked at in a less black and white way. The only way genre can work successfully is by being seen as loose terms. I am still unsure whether its genre that has dictated film making or the other way round but taking genre terms too seriously will not rectify the problem

chronologies of print

The act of printing is using a plate or stamp with ink to to produce an image or text. Print refers to both artist/design and also books/typography. The lecture covered a wide chronology of printing methods but the lecture was more about the impact of print on society than the specifics on the techniques invented throughout history. Print at its start especially when linotype was invented allowed information to be easily put down on paper, before print information was either hand written or passed via word of mouth. Information traveling like this was often incorrect or virtually non existent and only available to scholars. The rise of print gave rise to the education of the general public all over the world. Societies greatly improved with a wider spread information. Print then started becoming one of the first means of mass media which was used to greatly shape the world. Print could be used to promote the ideals of different political views and causes. the reasons behind  print used as propaganda were for both positive and negative reasons but print was always intended to manipulate the general public. Print today is still used for that reason. I thought this lecture was interesting however I did not see how I could make the topic particularly relevant to animation other than the themes of mass media running throughout.

post modernism lecture

Post modernism all though the name would suggest it to be an evolution of modernism is very different to its predecessor. Rather than being an evolution of modernism post modernism acts more as a critique of it. As modernists strives to better our society using logic and sciences post modernism believes that these things have no positive impact. Post modernism unlike modernism does not come with certain traits (such as geometric themes in modernism) that influence design as its philosophy does not involve the creation of useful or better items. What I took from this lecture is that its good to not conform to the styles of your time and mixing a load of mediums/styles can create excellent results.

Modernism lecture

unlike a lot of the other lectures that focus on one artistic discipline (eg. typography,photography etc) This lecture looked at incredibly broad art movement. Modernism encompassed an entire time period that contain many sub genres and affected many forms of art and design. Modernism mainly boils down to subjective change of an artist. Modernism is all about embracing the change that industrialism and technology was and can bring to society. Modernism took place in the late 19th century to the early 20th. The technologies emerging then today would be very unimpressive however then were revolutionary and were changing the way people saw the world. Modernism allowed artists to express NEW ideas in ways that before would have been disregarded as non tradition but during the modernist period were rejoiced. With industrialism and rising consumerism designers started thinking with completely new approaches. Functionality, form and geometry were key in terms of design thinking how the material works with the design. Modernism is an incredibly important period of design which incapsulates the idea that design can better the world around us.

Animation Lecture.

This was incredibly interesting lecture. Although I'm an animation student my knowledge of the history of animation was not very wide. The lecture covered a relatively in depth chronology of animation from birth to present day. The term animation comes from the latin "to give life" which is the key aspect of the art, to create some that not only move but to make it do so in a believable manor. The routes of animation start with illustrative and sequential drawings which can be found in cave paintings and ancient Egyptian texts. Animation forest started in the early-mid 19th century, out not as films but in the forms in odd devices that flickered sets of images in different ways to make them appear as though they moved. These were luxury items and were only found among the rich. The first animation captured in film first emerged in the early 20th century but was very rudimentary and experimental it was generally considered as high art. Animation started progressing into a more palatable commercial genre, started a period know as "the golden age of animation" stretching from 1928-1957. It was during this time where people such as disney started building fundamental rules of motion that could be universally applied to animation to create results people would enjoy watching far more. Following the rises successes of animation in this period spawned the "TV age" of animation where producers realised the potential of animation in TV. The pace in which content must be produced for TV is a lot more demanding so they way animators worked had to be reconfigured to make animation palatable for the media type. Coming to the end of the TV age computer technology started to advance rapidly which gave way to countless new animation tools. This shaped the journey animation has taken since is birth is what has shaped it into what it is today.
I feel the main point I took away from this lecture is the importance of remembering the initial point is to give life. An animation with bad movement will not captivate an audience as it will appear dead. Another is that the evolution of animation has made it extremely popular as a form of entertainments but the roots of animation are as an art and is still in many instances still carried out for that purpose.

Photography lecture

The lecture looked into photography as a means of documentation rather than a visual art form. The lecture highlighted how photography can be used for social commentary much like advertisement and mass media. Photography captures the subjective view of the photographer its a means to visually capture the view of an individual and present it to the masses. This enables the artist to easily comment on issues which require little interpretation from the audience as they are snap shots of real life. Photography being used as documentation acts as propaganda depending on the composition of an image the uses can be positive or negative depending on the vision off the photographer and publisher.

advertising lecture

The lecture started by posing an interesting question "Is advertising prostitution?" At the start the lecture gave the common negative views towards advertising asking if it encourages damaging ideas in society. Whether thats encouraging people perceptions of what we need in day to day life and that adverts slowly change our perception of the world around us. Advertisement definitely does change how people see the world but the context of the adverts roots determine whether the intention of the advert is ill mannered or not. Advertisement is necessary in the capitalist society we live in as it helps to drive our economy which drives our fundamental way of life. Whether that way of life is good or not is irrelevant to the fact advertisement is positive in this context Propaganda is a type of advertisement, which can be used by artists and idealist to promote ideologies or challenge the norm. A think will greatly improve the society around them. The lecture challenged the negative connotation normally associated with it and made me think differently about the term advertisement.

Communication and mass media

Mass media is publishing material that reaches a large number of people quickly. Its a media which conveys a quick message. Graphic design is although often mistaken as is not advertising (in the context of selling material goods). Graphic design is an aesthetic that communicates ideas. advertising uses this concept to propel capitalist ideals of consumerism.
Mass media is context and period driven. The meaning of an image or the messages it portrays can be different with when its published and the context of its placement.The below is a good example of this the original image is was a painting but with added text it becomes an advertisement and completely changes the meaning of the image

The main point of this lecture was highlighting the power of mass media and how graphic design can be dangerously manipulated to project ideals onto the public as propaganda. It made it clear to me how you need to look at published images especially those that fit into graphic design objectively to determine there underlining contexts and whether they align with my own personal beliefs.

illustration in action

The first and what I felt the main point of this lecture was that an illustration must have a purpose. An illustration without a purpose is just a drawing. Illustration is the intersection between visual aesthetics, a context and a concept. A good illustrator not only uses visual literacy and symbols to convey there message but also carefully selections the material they work in. Illustration through use of known symbols and use of a visual aesthetic can help convey both a strong prevalent context and also minor subtleties to the same message. Illustration can be used for both functional reasons such as maps or leaflets or act as a visual commentary.
Illustration can be judged on its pure functionality but the lecture argued a more successful illustration is one that not only serves a functional purpose but can also have an emotional impact.

Visual Literacy Lecture

Todays lecture was all about "visual literacy" which I had never previously thought about even though we all practice it everyday. Visual literacy is the ability to recognise and draw meaning from signs, symbols, even certain colours. An obvious example the lecture pointed out was the standard toilet symbols. A stick figure man and woman standing together is the internationally known symbol for a toilet even though the two symbols have no actual resemblance to a toilet, they show how our brain makes connection between images and what can be a very different physical subject though learned association. With the rise of technology in the last few decades the newer generations are becoming more visually literate as both educators and advertisers are able to grasp our attention in constantly changing ways.
I feel the main thing for me to take away from the lecture was to take into consideration how the "visual literacy" of the general public or more specifically different generations and cultural groups can both help and hinder what I am trying to communicate. Before I decide to use certain symbols, signs or colours I should first think about whether they mean different things to different people (eg cause unwarranted offence to a group) or whether I can exploit those things to communicate my message more efficiently to a specific or general group.