Tuesday 14 August 2012

Summary of 'The Thoughts of the Study of Animation'.


Inferiority Complex: animation is seen to be overrated by those who have  studied it and this seems to be because it is undermined as an art form compared to other media. Scholars have started to recover the history of animation in order to find it's diversity and to have a better understanding of the cultural significance of animation. animation is seen as a super medium which is limited to the imagination of those who create it. Like all media it has limitations which allow and prohibit certain things. it is important that the diversity within the field is fully recognized.

Essentialism: Animation is claimed to be a film language and art which is more complex however as a medium it is more flexible than live-action films (Welles, 1998). There is also the idea of that animation has intrinsic characteristics which make it different from other media. Animation is also claimed to be abstract as to the conventional linear story classified to be for live-action(Moritz). Animation works as a medium of expression, as there are things one can do with animation that one cannot do with other media. however animation shares much with other media like live-action in certain aspects of it.

Super Medium: Further claims have also been made about animation being more based on imagination more so than any other moving image forms and it has a higher degree of control which give it a hand-made quality. Animation represents what the artist makes with their own hands (Alexeieff). Animation allows for a degree of control and possibilities when it comes to the creation of image. Animation has it's basis on drawing, painting, puppets, etc, which allows for a greater palette for the artist. Considering the limitations of animation, the expressivity and the imagination have to include generic and also stylistic objectives which allows possibility and as the same time prohibit others.

Theoretical Dilemmas: Claims have been made that theoretical accounts of animation/moving image suggest that it disrupts the catagorising  and  the pre-concieved ideas of animation. This essay does not foreground animation as a mode of representation and an art but it shows a way of which animation becomes an  alibi for theorizing. theorizing depends on the similar, and associative which then leads to a rational understanding however with animation the ideas have very little relation to reality

Conclusion: There have been exaggerated claims about the animation medium's superiority and the fact that animation is much more expressive and imaginative then any other media. Animation is not any more or any less superior than any other medium as animation can be a form which has a great amount of fascination.