The Crafty Animator: A Conference on Handmade and Craft-based Animation

Proposals are invited for an interdisciplinary one-day conference at Rich Mix Cinema, Shoreditch, London, on Thursday 7th September 2017

Animation is famously diverse, incorporating as it does a range of production methods, techniques and practices. This one-day conference focuses on any technique that could be considered to be handmade or craft-based, from cut outs to models and puppets, from sand-on-glass to ink-on-glass, and beyond. The role of the animator is key to such techniques where we can often see her/his imprints or finger marks etc. or even hands in the animation; the ‘presence of the artist’ is often highly visible in such craft-based practices and is a presence this conference seeks to explore from numerous perspectives. The conference aims to consider: the kinds of animation techniques that might fall into the category of the handmade; the ways that handmade and craft-based animation might be framed as gendered practices, or not; the kinds of cultural value that handmade and craft-based might animation carry. A range of disciplinary approaches is encouraged and the conference aims to include papers from practitioners, practitioner/scholars and scholars.

I am delighted to confirm Dr Birgitta Hosea, Head of Animation at the RCA, as our Keynote Speaker.

Possible approaches include but are not limited to:

• Historical examples of handmade animation`
• Contemporary practices
• Gender politics and production practices
• Audience engagement
• Spectacle and visual effects
• Space and place
• Production cultures
• Narrative and storytelling
• Children’s television animation
• Digitising the handmade
• The cultural value of craft-based/handmade animation
• Craft-based practices and the community
• The ‘presence of the artist’
• Craft-based/handmade animation and advertising

The conference will be held at the Rich Mix Cinema in Shoreditch, London on Thursday 7 September 2017. Please send abstracts of 300 words plus 100-word bio by Friday 23 June 2017 to:

Dr Caroline Ruddell (caroline.ruddell@brunel.ac.uk)

Dr Caroline Ruddell
Lecturer in Film and TV Studies
Department of Social Sciences, Media and Communications
College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences
Brunel University London

Associate Editor Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal
animation: an Interdisciplinary journal is the first cohesive international refereed publishing platform for animation that unites contributions from a wide range of research agendas and creative practice.
http://anm.sagepub.com