This week we discussed about experimental animation. It is quite interesting that I found new technologies and culture have influence on the producing of experimental animation. I used to think that experimental animation was just some very abstract concept like abstract painting. Obviously, I was wrong. And I need to view them in a historical way rather than just flat and shallow overlook.
Abstraction and experimental work can make us see things that we won’t normally look at. The thing that we might just pass by. The subconscious thing. Just like the spikes on a chair can remind people what a normal chair should be. Unlike commercial animation, experimental animation focuses on the process, not the result.
following the screenings consider an animated work you feel represents Formative Abstraction that meets the above criteria and provide a short explanation of how this is evidenced in the work.
I love the animation An Optical Poem produced by Oskar Fischinger in 1938, and I think it can represent formative abstraction. In the film, the animator used basic shapes to form the scene. I can see that he’s trying to abstract things out of reality, like the picture on the left is people dancing with the music. Graphics move at different speeds depending on the music, and I think this is an important direction for early formative experimental animation. Also, I like the color schemes in the animation. All the scenes look really good.
Note
Experimental Animation
- A context to the significance of experimental pioneers and the seminal exploratory works that establish the foundation for contemporary practical and theoretical investigation.
- As soon as the potential to manipulate multiple images was available to artists it transformed their ideas into movement often in a backlash against artistic ideologies of the traditional arts.
- In the early 1900’s the avant-garde interest in part, focused upon the formal aesthetic potentials of film and animation, line and form, movement and rhythm, color and light.
Experimental film umbrellas a vast variety of concepts, models and approaches. The work may by nature hard to to categories and define. It is therefore important to;
- Find systems by which we can recognise qualities, aesthetics, abstract themes and concepts.
- Analysis the influences of new technologies, society and culture on individual works or movements.
- Determine the individual motivations and priorities of the artist/s.
- Establish the significance of work from a historical and contemporary context.
Definitions of Abstraction
- Not relating to concrete objects but expressing something that can only be appreciated intellectually.
- Not aiming to depict an object but composed with the focus on internal structure and form
- Emotionally detached or distanced from something.
- A concept or term that does not refer to a concrete object but that denotes a quality, an emotion, or an idea.
- To develop a line of thought from a concrete reality to a general principle or an intellectual idea.
Formative abstraction
- Focusing upon the manipulation of the visual fundamentals; color, form, space, light and texture, alongside the the dynamics of movement, time, rhythm and sound as a central theme of the work.
- The artist’s involvement is essentially investigative and may not have a predetermined outcome but must be grounded in the intellectual pursuit of applying a theory or initial objective.
- There is an integral link between conceptual application and technological advancement in the innovation of film and ir particular, animation, raising complex and challenging questions.
Elements to consider in Analysing and Implementing Formal Experimental Animation
- Categorisation; Genre & Sub-genre what is the works background / setting, mood / tone, theme or topic? How does it comment? Does it fit or is it unique?
- Form and Function; interpreting meaning and relating it to the format, or presentational mode (What are the artist objectives, limitations and?)
- Process; The techniques, materials and technologies applied within the work and the relationships between message and medium, (Does process, technique or tool become the message?)
- Formal Elements; Use of space, composition, Light & colour, movement, rhythm, timing, pacing, transition and audio relationships.( does he work investigate these or other formal elements?)