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Representation is a process through which artistic and philosophical movements throughout history have expressed realities or imaginings, either directly and naturalistically or indirectly and abstractly. The concept of beauty within this process varies according to each movement's definitions and understandings of human nature and existence. This study examines the evolution of avant-garde movements following the invention of photography, the birth of cinema and animation, and the World Wars, which served as pivotal moments in the transformation and redefinition of representation in art and beauty during the Pop Art era. This era marks a significant departure from classical aesthetics spearheaded by avant-garde movements, where popular culture emerged as a vital source of inspiration and artistic creation. The research delves into the origins of Pop Art movement, which emerged as a response to growing division between subjective perspectives of avant-garde artists and the general public. This divide created a need to explore the structure of experience and its role in shaping popular culture. Central to this exploration are the theories of John Dewey, a leading figure in the philosophy of pragmatism, who emphasized the importance of aesthetic experience and popular culture as influential forces in the artistic process of this era. Dewey’s theories provide a framework for understanding how art can engage with everyday experiences and contribute to the cultural landscape. The study further investigates the evolution of aesthetics in experimental animations produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), recognized as one of the most influential institutions in the development and growth of experimental animation. The analysis is conducted across three distinct strands: abstract animations heavily influenced by Modernist art, particularly by avant-garde painters who were pioneers in experimental animation; transitional animations that serve as a bridge between Modernist aesthetics and Pop Art, blending elements of high art and popular culture; and animations that achieve a unified aesthetic by integrating the formal and thematic elements of Pop Art with Dewey's concepts of everyday aesthetic experience. This research explores the reasons and mechanisms behind the shifts in aesthetic criteria and their impact on the experimental animations of the NFB. By analyzing and comparing the formal and thematic characteristics of selected works from each strand, the study identifies specific criteria that illustrate how Dewey's aesthetic theory of everyday life has transformed NFB's works from abstract creations into works deeply embedded in popular culture, yet still influenced by the formal elements of Modern and abstract art. The study employs a descriptive-analytical approach, reviewing the development of Pop Art, the capabilities of experimental animation as a pioneering branch of visual arts, and the supportive environment provided by the NFB. This environment has enabled the integration of diverse cultural influences through the work of artists with unique techniques and styles. The analysis concludes by determining the extent to which Pop Art has influenced these animations, demonstrating that contemporary art and beauty emphasize a direct connection between art and everyday life, highlighting human experience and popular culture as the primary sources of artistic expression.

Copyright of Journal of Fine Arts: Performing Arts & Music is the property of University of Tehran, College of Fine Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Józef Robakowski’s cinematic oeuvre functions mainly as an experimental form of audiovisual art exhibited in gallery spaces. In his avant-garde activities, this intermedia artist, who originated from the Workshop of the Film Form, often reached for techniques characteristic of animated cinema, as evidenced by the author’s textual analysis of the films: Market (1970), Test 1 (1971), Attempt II (1971), Dynamic Rectangle (1971), 22x (1971), Impulsator (2000), Impulsator VI (2001), Attention light! (2004). The analysis focuses on the techniques used as well as potential or overt inspirations. Creating experimental animations, often in the spirit of ‘pure film’, the avant-gardist has been appropriated by other scientific disciplines such as art history or new media. The aim of this article is to include Józef Robakowski in the discourse of film studies, to demonstrate his stance as an animator over the course of his artistic output to date, but above all to embed the avant-gardist’s silhouette in the history of Polish animated cinema.

Józef Robakowski’s cinematic oeuvre functions mainly as an experimental form of audiovisual art exhibited in gallery spaces. In his avant-garde activities this intermedia artist, associated with the Film Form Workshop, often used techniques of animated film, as is evidenced by the author’s textual analysis of the films: Market (1970), Test 1 (1971), Test II (1971), Dynamic Rectangle (1971), 22x (1971), Impulsator (2000), Impulsator VI (2001), Attention Light! (2004). The analysis focuses on the techniques used by Robakowski as well as his potential or explicit inspirations. Creating experimental animations, often in the spirit of “pure film”, the avant-gardist has been appropriated by other scholarly disciplines such as art history or new media. The aim of this article is to include Józef Robakowski in the discourse of film studies: to demonstrate his stance as an animator over the course of his artistic work to date, but above all to place him in the history of Polish animated film.

The objective of this article is the study of the short films ¿Y si eres mujer? (1976) and Niño de mis ojos (2008) by the animator Guadalupe Sánchez Sosa (Córdoba, Veracruz, Mexico, 1955–present), as well as the archive material preserved by the artist, where the filmmaking process is documented. ¿Y si eres mujer? is relevant for the history of animation in Mexico because it is the second animated film directed by a woman and the first realized with techniques like cut-out and collage, steering away from the dominant cartoon tradition. In Niño de mis ojos, Sánchez Sosa experiments with the use of rotoscoping, a very unusual technique in Mexican animation. Using the 'animated erotica' category, we want to show how Sánchez Sosa takes a coherent aesthetic and political approach towards the depiction of desire and the bodies of women on screen through animation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details an oil paint-on-glass animation depicting posthumous portraits of unclaimed deceased from a Johannesburg mortuary in South Africa. The creative project engages with Western traditions of posthumous, focusing on the iconography of the corpse. The author explores how these traditions are approached through the moving image, metamorphosis and experimental animation processes. The animation uses metamorphosis not just as a symbolic strategy to serve the idea of transformation – but also as a self-referential engagement with animation's contradictory life-giving and destructive traits. The article and the creative project it illuminates present a critical awareness of the ethical concerns associated with representing the dead and the cultural and historical traditions from which this subject emerges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Fine Arts: Performing Arts & Music is the property of University of Tehran, College of Fine Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Memory and Cinema Studies have emphasized the importance of representing traumatic experiences by means of special structural and visual arrangements. Most screen studies have explored avant-garde films and the discovery of their capabilities, particular innovations and flashbacks. In fact, structuralist/materialist films in the 1960s, which inherited the legacy of 20s European avant-garde cinema, have innovative technical and aesthetic elements that potentially are capable of depicting experiences similar to trauma. According to Maureen Cheryn Turim's writing about cinematic flashback, these films, which are fragmented and disjointed due to the unpleasant experiences after the war and the industrialization of societies and also the impact of modernism on the mind and body, are exactly similar and equivalent to the traumatic flashback (return of trauma to the mind). To better understand this issue, it would be helpful to look at the inherent characteristics of trauma in the studies of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) researchers and psychologists in this field. In this regard, familiarity with Chris Brewin's situational accessible memory (SAM) in dealing with traumatic memory and Laub and Auerhahn's eight spectrum of forms of knowing and not knowing trauma will be helpful for identifying trauma's characteristics and reaching out a deeper understanding of the relationship between trauma psychology and trauma cinema. This research applies the statements of P. Adams Sitney, a historian of American avant-garde cinema, and two famous avant-garde cinema theoretician and filmmakers such as Malcolm Le Grice and Peter Gidal in order to provide a detailed description of structuralist/materialist film features. It is determined that some of the features of these types of films such as ambiguous images, attention to material, constant repetition of images, flickering effect in light, rejecting all content and narrative and so forth are very similar to the undecipherable and unknown memories resulting from the traumatic event. For this reason, Paul Taberham, according to the cognitive film theory, considers avant-garde filmmakers as practical psychologists, who use innovation in narrative and visual structures to impact on the viewer's memory and visual perception. Therefore, an avant-garde and materialist filmmaker creates different and complex perceptual and receptive activities and brings specific and indescribable mentalities into reality. Robert Breer who was an American experimental filmmaker, which influenced by modernist arts, utilizes special innovation and initiative in his single-frame concrete animations to perform the flashback's shock, disorientation and perceptual fatigue. Therefore, Breer is known as a practical psychologist which on the verge of representation and abstraction, stability and instability of shapes and creating Instability between motion and stillness, creates tensions between deep space and the flat picture of the screen. In conclusion, we will address how it is possible to create perceptual stimuli and create an experimental animation similar to the traumatic mind of today's human being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their obvious differences, animation and contemporary art share a common space within the field of experimental animation. German Avant-Garde's abstract films of the early 20th century emerge as a result of the graphic expansion towards the cinematographic medium, opening new doors to animation in Europe and America, independently from the big studios. In mid 20th century the animation derived from the aforementioned experimentation was adopted by certain trends of independent film. Nevertheless, since the seventies, experimental animation has succeeded in separating itself from the structure most commonly associated to film by incorporating other variables, placing that production in an ambiguous position. To further explore the consonance between animation and contemporary art, this essay delves into some cases that show the space that they share and the contributions that have emerged as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) produced numerous science education films. Many utilized animated effects, such as illustrations, maps and cartoons, to promote the reception of scientific knowledge and ideological messages by audiences. Current scholarship on Chinese animation history stresses films made by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, neglecting animation created by filmmakers in science education film studios. In this article, the author argues that the history of useful animation in science education films provides a different approach to understanding Chinese animation as the animation of experiment. Animation functioned as scenes of experiment that enabled science education films to deliver messages of knowledge; they also inspired amateur experiment with animated filmmaking and experimental animation practices in the post-socialist era. This article analyses animation for science education films, amateur animation practices and experimental works inspired by, or that benefited from, science education filmmaking. It will enrich the scholarship on Chinese animation and shed new light on the history of Chinese animation and film culture in the PRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tales of the Tribes and the Stories of Our Ancestors are projects that explore the presentation of Indigenous narratives in the medium of animated film. Indigenous knowledge is remembered and transmitted through the rituals, myths, legends and the folklore of local communities around the world. The spoken recollection is a co-creative process that takes place in the space between the storyteller and listener, in which the layers of story and meaning are to be found, deciphered and interpreted according to the time and place. As the stories have animated the cultural landscape, animation as an art form brings life to that which is static. Its audio dimensions, the visual splendour and the imaginative, poetic quality of animated art would be suitable for contemporary presentation of ancient cultural stories and world-views. The lasting impact of colonialism is visible in the continued interpretation of Indigenous cultures and identities in India using Western conceptual models. The abiding representation as 'backward' people illustrates the importance of Indigenous young people reappraising their cultural heritage. In societies that have lived in secluded tracts at the periphery of India, knowledge was traditionally passed on from generation to generation through oral communication and literacy was typically introduced much later through modern education. In these localities, bookshops and libraries are few and far between; whereas literature is difficult to access, animation is widely viewed and enjoyed on mobile technology which reaches even the more distant areas and competes for the attention of young people. Becoming familiarized with the applications of digital audio-visual production would liberate new tools and methods to share stories and speak about local history, identity and ways of life. This article aims to describe the two projects and how they addressed the subject of decolonizing animation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embodying and balancing the European avant-garde movement of the 1920s and the dialectical U.S. neo-avant-garde aesthetics of the 1960s, Robert Breer encompassed various art forms in his painting, sculpture and film. In doing so, he created a distinct style that embraces both photographic representation and non-figurative abstraction – a heterogeneous assemblage of sorts – to advocate taking an intermediate stance in the act of rendering the relation between artistic tradition and innovation. By looking at A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957), Fuji (1974) and LMNO (1978), I show three strategies devised by Breer that help generate the vital energy in these animations: metamorphosis, gradational abstraction, and self-moving objects. All three strategies point to Breer’s dualistic endeavour to experiment with the aesthetic and ontological possibilities of moving images and with the animated objects within the frame in spite of photographic, realist and rational confinements.

Outside the realm of feature films, smaller creative collectives and individual animators are exploring the creative applications of motion capture data to develop compelling and unique abstract animated short films. However, despite an increasing number of examples, there has been little detailed documentation of this practice and the processes involved in this format of animation production. More specifically, there has been little analysis of the key considerations and issues that might confront practitioners when integrating motion capture movement data into their abstract animation practice. As such, a more developed understanding of approaches to incorporating motion capture technologies into the field of abstract animation is called for. This study emerges at the intersection of two key areas of knowledge: abstract animation and computational generative art. The outcomes of this study contribute to building a better understanding of abstract animation practice by exploring and documenting possible strategies and approaches for generating elements that compose abstract animated short films from captured dance movements. This article reveals a possible framework for this type of practice and outlines five key considerations: capture of human movement, retention of human form and movement, influence of the simulation, influence of the virtual environment and visual connection to practice, which should be taken into account by practitioners who use motion capture in the production of abstract animated short films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stories of reconciliation is a transmedia experience that collects the memories of people who have lived with violence and war in Colombia. Their stories are the script of an animated feature film and an interactive documentary. This project, directed by Carlos Santa and Rubén Monroy, was born in 2015, in response to the need to open opportunities for animation students at SENA - Center for the Graphic Communication Industry, will be linked to industry and development of real projects, in such a way that they will strengthen their performance as animators and the creative industry companies will generate confidence in their training. It was an experience in which it was mixed, or better, reconciled technique, research, artistic expression and forms of commercial and experimental production, in order to contribute to the construction of social fabric; which guides students to develop critical thinking related to such a complex issue as the war in Colombia.

The article discusses animated works by Wojciech Bąkowski and the broader context of their origins addressing Jean-Luc Nancy's philosophy of division of voices and its hermeneutical implications. Making explicit reference to these theoretical considerations, the author analyzes "Speaking Movies" by Bąkowski and his new productions for art galleries, employing digital tools to reinvestigate their meaning and interpret his autotelic recitation. The analysis follows several distinctive examples that highlight, via different experimental techniques, the interplay between verbal articulations, echo-like effects, and reverberations in the production of a differentiated audiovisual landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a tendency in animation studies to discuss sound in the language of images, stressing sound's alignment with visual cues (as in mickey mousing and leitmotifs). But sounds do not only mimic images: they add textures and emotions that change what we see. This article explores grain (texture) and timbre (tone color produced by specific instruments and techniques) as qualities shared by visual and sonic material. To do so, the author closely reads Sand or Peter and the Wolf (1969), where Caroline Leaf's haptic sand animation is matched by Michael Riesman's electroacoustic score. Leaf painstakingly molds animals by scraping away individual sand grains, and Riesman sculpts sonic textures with tiny adjustments to knobs and touch-sensitive pads on the Buchla modular synthesizer. Their collective improvisation with sands and sounds reveals new ways to think about artists' material practices and the friction and interplay between images and sounds. They encourage spectators to perceive the animals as not merely plasmatic, or Sergei Eisenstein's notion of contour-bending character animation. Instead, Leaf and Riesman deploy what the author calls 'granular modulation', expressing sand and animals with sensuous materiality. In Leaf's and Riesman's improvisations, grainy textures are the seeds of understanding how sound and vision become symbiotic - and encounter friction - in animation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary animation is typically viewed in a digital format which is subject to the mechanics of cinema: a frame-by-frame presentation of a sequence of images (at a constant rate) so that the illusion of continuous motion is experienced by the viewer. In this article I argue that by altering the way we view animation, we could influence the viewer's experience and understanding of an animated work. The research is a culmination of my Ph.D. by creative practice, which unpacks modes of viewing practice through the creation of an experimental short film and the presentation of an art exhibition that reveal movement for the viewer in a deliberately playful manner. The short film expands on the experimental animation technique known as strata-stencil that uses a multiple layered approach, revealing the consecutive frames of a movement on every frame. Drawing on techniques of nineteenth-century chronophotography, my work focuses on the representation of movement in classic cartoon-style animation and reveals the construction of animation for the viewer through static and animated sequences. My interest lies in the imperceptible moments that are lost in standard viewing practice, forcing the viewer to question their understanding of a movement and the aesthetics involved in seeing more than one frame at a time. I propose that we look at the individual animation frames not in isolation but simultaneously as sequences, so that the notion of seriality informs the viewer's understanding of animated movement as a distinct aesthetic experience. In doing this, I challenge the viewer to look at animation in a different way and create an innovative viewing experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous cultures worldwide have long held distinctive beliefs that ascribed a living soul or anima to biological and non-biological entities including plants, particular inanimate objects and to natural phenomena. To the people who belonged to these traditional social groups, organic matter was vibrant, sentient and existed in dynamic relationship to Humankind. Anthropological studies seek to decode the nuances of tribal rituals and the traditional practices of ‘other’ cultures; however, the underpinning of objectivity is challenged by indigenous research, to question the underlying authority. For these societies, the merit is present in the interconnections and relationships. In India, liminal local perspectives have been largely excluded from mainstream media and this project investigates ethnographic film and animation as participatory media practice by indigenous storytellers in collaborations with the filmmaker. The aim is to also present the contemporary experiences recounted by the participants as we revisit their timeless narratives. In the process this becomes a transformative experience that reconnects us with the social function of the artistic practices that have sustained traditional societies.

Contemporary motion design has become ubiquitous across all platforms of the modern media landscape, and yet even the term itself enjoys little cultural awareness and has attracted notably less scholarly attention. Like the motion graphics tradition out of which it evolved, it is an inherently hybrid practice that draws upon the histories and techniques of a broad spectrum of time-based media and, in spite of its unreservedly commercial aims, is both deeply rooted in and a concentrated distillation of experimental animation practices in particular. Drawing upon my own recent experience designing a motion sequence for a documentary feature film, this article explores the unique aesthetic qualities and metaphors of motion that characterize motion design, and ultimately seeks to define it as a distinct discipline in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese ink animation has won worldwide respect for its ethereal and refined approach to ink painting. From the 1950s to 1980s, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio produced a number of award-winning ink animations. These animations share a unique traditional Chinese aesthetic based on Chinese literature and philosophy. However, the complex and long hand-made production process is one of the factors that caused the decline of Chinese ink animation following the 1980s. Since the millennium, three-dimensional ink modelling and digital painting technology have contributed to the revival of Chinese ink animation. This article summarizes the development of the production process of Chinese ink animation, together with its artistic features in both the analogue and digital age. Theoretically, this article focuses on a Chinese poetic framework, 'the Xiang system', as both a creative strategy for producing Chinese ink animation and an analytical lens to critique it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the experimental animation works of Choi Sai-Ho, Carla Chan, Tobias Gremmler and Chris Cheung Hon-Him to probe animated abstraction as a discursive space through which meaning can be negotiated. These Hong Kong artists explore alternative, open-ended and fluid ways of meaning-making that are emerging in response to more traditional modes of moving image storytelling. In developing a narrative-abstraction vocabulary for artists and scholars to work with, what role can the works of Hong Kong artists play in shaping this, and what perspectives can these works offer for such an endeavour? A range of preoccupations with references ranging from spiritual symbolism and abstracted landscape to Chinese opera and Hong Kong architecture bring to light some of those other visions and possible modes of animated abstraction engaged with producing meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers further reflections on a chapter I published in the anthology Experimental Animation: From Analogue to Digital. I begin by exploring the reticence artists and critics have shown in attempting to define what experimental animation is, and I then offer a way to provide a definition without delimiting what it is or can be. Subsequent to this, three additional traits of experimental animation are added to the original list of defining features that were published in the original article. They are as follows: the subversion of unchecked assumptions about filmic experience, a willingness to potentially alienate viewers, and the application of symbolism in which viewers might not be able to discern the artist's original intentions. Following this, the unique relationship experimental animation has with the commercial realm (notably in idents, title sequences and music videos) is also considered. Finally, the conclusion points towards the experimental animator's creative process as a further avenue of exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the self-taught experimental animation practice of German-Australian moving image artist Paul Winkler. His practice embraces an array of image manipulation techniques, some of which he invented. This practice originated in 1964, spanning over 50 years, and has recently productively migrated from analogue to digital production. What happens to this practice when we move to digital production? Winkler's trajectory offers a case study in the shifts and resilience of experimental animation practice through the lens of Vilém Flusser's 'technical image'. Flusser's concept was developed in response to a pervasive digital culture but also reaches back into proto-cinema, maps and prehistoric cave painting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Chinese Language Teaching Methodology & Technology (CLTMT) is the property of Cleveland State University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Con A de Animación is the property of Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Arte e Industria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article proposes the phytogram, an image made by using the internal chemistry of plants in conjunction with photographic emulsion. First, a theoretical framework is set out, drawing inspiration from structural/materialist film theory, biosemiotics and perspectivism. The notion of plant sensations/perceptions is questioned, developing the real possibility of human–plant communication. Subsequently, a summary of the materials and methods involved in making phytograms is included in order to show how an inter-dependency of technological and natural elements can lead to evocative results and spontaneous animation. Instead of bringing inert matter to life, the image moves by itself. This practice can bring people together, sharing knowledge about their environment while enjoying the cohesion of a wider community and history of people and plants. Making such an extended community visible is significant with regard to a heightened awareness of the natural environment. Instead of preaching ecological propriety and austere behaviour, phytography offers a positive and fulfilling engagement with our living environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview on a rare genre from independent animation, the animated 'jams' or collective films, where all invited authors are free to contribute creatively to the ensemble. Animated 'jams' have, therefore, a great power to free the imagination, so that the results are virtually unrepeatable by another group of animators, much less through a planned work system. Therefore, animated 'jams' stimulate innovation, leading to experimental films that achieve notoriety at cinema and animation festivals because of their originality. Musicality, absurd humour, improvisation and abstraction are common features of these art films, where any narrative will remain in the background. Several examples of this unusual genre are discussed, from Marv Newland's bold proposal to produce the film Anijam (Newland, 1984) - which shows a strong influence of the surrealistic 'exquisite corpse' - to learning experiences using the animated 'jam' as a strategy to introduce students to animation, often coordinated by renowned animators who share their techniques and procedures in the workshops. The article will also pay attention to a singular figure, Dr Miquel Guillem, who significantly supported the realization of animated 'jams' at Universitat Politècnica de València, as a teaching methodology that promotes collective work. Furthermore, this article will gather first-hand the production process of one of these 'jams': The Cat Dances with its Shadow (Lorenzo, 2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, PhD Tania de León Yong introduces the characteristics of limited animation compared to full animation, and experimental animation set side by side to orthodox animation: this means, which are the peculiarities of the animated image, and how many frames per second are used? In the same way, the different purposes of films will be compared. Without the intention to be inflexible, the classifying of animation is important because it allow us to think over, to identify, to group and to analyze other's productions and personal work. These activities constitute a fertile ground for creative productions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exhibition hall Josep Renau, UPV hosted in 2014 the exhibition The Lost World of Jiří Barta, devoted to the renowned Czech animator. This exhibition, curated by Beatriz Herráiz and Miguel Vidal, was possible thanks to the collaboration between the Czech Centre, the Valencian Filmoteque - CulturArts, and the Master Degree in Animation UPV, and it allowed us to admire the material that the master had used in several of his productions. The sample included dolls, story boards and sketches, all them displayed with great elegance to the delight of visitors, familiar or not, with this animator's career. The following article discusses the work of Jiří Barta, one of my first contacts with auteur animation, and how I revisited his work as a result of this exhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an essay for creating and abstract painting. It states about the areas of animated Flash painting and further mentions about Clam Bake, the rare project that was incredibly fun to do and everything came together with ease. It further discusses that Clam Bake is about making choices and the fantastic variety of choices we have in our lives.

Abstract: Compared with the rapid development of substantial non-mainstream experimental animation short films abroad, domestic experimental animation has many deficiencies in artistry and ideological content. Generally, artists prefer to apply collage and diverting concept of postmodern theory into their animation creations, borrowing abundant fashion elements, so that less and less pure expression of certain ideas and emotions are presented in animation short films. To look ahead, experimental animation in our country would carry out more explorations on expression forms, methods and media etc, and more inspirations and nutrition would be draw from Chinese traditional culture in terms of subject selection and theme expression. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Renowned collage filmmaker Lewis Klahr has created a collage of personal statements and images from his films to reflect upon his cut-out animation films. The piece discusses his artistic process and his use of artifacts, documents and detritus to explore ephemeral aspects of history and the passage of time. He comments on his use of animated movement and stillness and the idea of reanimating objects from the past. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The experimental film _grau(Robert Seidel, 10:01 min, Germany 2004) deals with personal issues on a visually abstracted level. It establishes a system of interwoven complexity born out of memories, scientific visualization and real data to create a modernized version of a tableau vivant, dealing with surreal and abstract images that come alive. The film is part of ongoing research to create organic imagery that is inspired by nature, art and technology. The ideas and inspirations of the film are partly disclosed, as the works are sometimes perceived as ‘eye candy’ or some kind of screen saver: somewhat related to the classic problem of modern art when it is often claimed that abstract paintings could just as easily be created by children. It is important to recognize that no technique is in itself predestined to capture an emotional experience, rather it is the artist’s vision that shapes the experience to become more than just pretty pictures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]