The Persistence of Animation

Simulational Animation and Re-mediated Observation: An ontological study of 3D animation and the stop-motion camera in some early animated shorts of the Aardman studio

Abstract: This paper proposes the concept of “re-mediated observation,” or how the stop-motion camera may provide intense experiences of observation and scrutiny in similar yet discrete ways by recourse to the specificities shared by traditional 3D animation and live-action. This is studied in a specific type of animation termed as “simulational” in some early clay-puppet films of the Aardman studio. It demonstrates that the stop-motion camera is capable of an “observational” function akin to the live-action camera. It is argued that in such modes of simulational animation, notions of reality, observation and the real as recorded, observed and “revealed” by the camera are simultaneously emphasised, interrogated, subverted and eventually re-visited and redeemed.

Biographical Statement: Fatemeh Hosseini-Shakib is a researcher and PhD candidate, completing the final stages of her PhD in animation studies. She is also a lecturer in animation theory at the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, UK.

Fatemeh has a BA in Graphic Communication from University of Tehran (1993 — Faculty of Fine Arts) and an MA in animation from Tehran Art University (1995 — Faculty of Cinema and Theatre). She has also been engaged in the practice of visual arts (including animation filmmaking) as well as teaching animation history and theory to MA students, prior to her arrival in the UK to start her doctorate in animation theory.

Her current research interests include the question of representation and realism (and its hybrid nature) in the works of Aardman studio, traditional 3D/puppet animation, medium specificity thesis regarding the interpenetrating relationship of cinema and animation, as well as “Iranian Animation” and its emerging forms and institutions, and finally animation as a tangible element of modernity in the non-western worlds.

The current paper proposed for this conference relates to part of her doctorate research on the “Hybrid Nature of Realism in Some Early Animated Shorts of the Aardman Studio.”

Update: Unfortunately, Fatemeh will not be able to attend the conference due to problem in obtaining a U.S. visa.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 12:17 am and is filed under Animation studios, Live action and animation, Stop motion animation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.