October 2012 – Expanded Animation

Call for Papers: Animation / Graphic Novel Research Student Symposium, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, Saturday 23rd March 2013

The Centre for Performance at Central Saint Martins warmly invites research students to submit proposals for the fourth animation PGR* research symposium, which will be extended for the first time to the field of graphic novels. The symposium is designed for MPhil / PhD students to present their work-in-progress to a friendly and well-informed audience of peers and supervisors.

Proposals on the topic of animation or graphic novels should be for either:

– a 20 minute conference paper (to be followed by 10 minutes of discussion);

– or an alternative discussion/presentation format as appropriate for practice-based research.

Send your proposals to Dr Birgitta Hosea <b.hosea@csm.arts.ac.uk>. Closing date 31st January 2013.

*The Animation Postgraduate Research Group was set up in 2011 by Dr Paul Ward of the Arts University College at Bournemouth as a safe and supportive network in which MPhil/PhD students can exchange ideas and disseminate their research. To join the group and receive further information about this and future events, contact <pward@aucb.ac.uk>.

The Centre for Performance at Central Saint Martins brings together MA Character Animation, BA/MA Performance Design & Practice and Drama Centre London to offer a range of approaches to performance that are embodied, live, recorded, virtual or animated.

In the first week of MA Character Animation one of the activities that we do is a workshop on Shadow Puppets. Further to the work of historic and contemporary artists that I showed my students in class, I am posting some more clips for them here. The workshop is an opportunity to talk about the ancient puppetry techniques that have contributed to contemporary animation as well as to work in teams to create work that is spontaneous, immediate and relies on strong silhouettes. I enjoy the traces of artifice that result from having to work rapidly to produce something in one day – reflections of the room on the screen, the glimpses of hands and wires.

Although we look at examples of creating caricatures with bare hands from the Victorian music hall, usually my students don’t take up the suggestion to incorporate their own bodies in the shadow worlds they create. Hand shadowgraphy seems to be particularly well developed in India, for example this promotional video for tourism in Kolkata, Let Calcutta Surprise You:

In their live show, Shadowland, dance company, Gruppe Pilobus, combine the physical presence of the live body with objects to create dynamic shadow plays .

For more information check out the website of Gruppe Pilobus.

Here is the full version of Miwa Matrayek’s Dreaming of Lucid Living, in which Matrayek’s backprojected shadow is combined with black and white animation in a live performance.

Spring Heeled Jane, a recent film from Richard Mansfield’s Mucky Puppets in 2012, used a filmed version of shadow puppets.

Spring-Heeled Jane 2015 from Mansfield Dark on Vimeo.

I have previously posted clips of Ben Hibon’s work (see here). In his animation for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, you can see the influence of shadow puppet aesthetics to inform computer generated animation. Another short film in this vein is The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello directed in Australia by Anthony Lucas in 2005 and nominated for an Oscar.

It reminds me of the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster, who create sculptures which are all about the shadows. More about their work here on their website.

Tim Noble / Sue Webster, Wild Mood Swings, 2009-10

Tim Noble / Sue Webster, Kiss of Death, 2003

Jim Walker sent me a great example of a live sword dance performer combined with shadow images – Taichi Saotome in a Special New Year Performance of Dragon and Peony from the Galaxy Theatre, Tokyo in 2011.