The Persistence of Animation

Pens and Pencils: Baroque Poetics and Silent Animation

Abstract: This paper stages the relevance of the pen of the baroque poet to the transmuting pencils, chalks and inks of the early silent animators (Émile Cohl, Winsor McCay, Otto Messmer). The conceptual and spatial mobility of baroque poetics is reprised by early animation in terms of its energetic and unfolding transformations. The artifice of baroque poetics is a productive framework by which to approach early animation, as is its desire for contact with the participant, which can be extended to the sensual privileging of texture, surface, rhythm and line in silent animation.

Biographical Statement: My research agenda pursues media archaeology to re-invigorate the sensuous scholarship of film, media and animation. This paper builds upon my dissertation, Cinema’s Baroque Flesh, which was concerned with baroque experiences of art and film. My work appears in The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero (2008), Playing with Memory: The Films of Guy Maddin (forthcoming), Lounge Critic: The Couch Theorist’s Companion (2004), Senses of Cinema, Screening the Past, ARTLINK and Metro. I teach in Screen Studies at Melbourne University and I am an Assistant Curator with ACMI, where I am collaborating on a new permanent exhibition dedicated to the moving image.

“Legitimate Peripheral Participation”: Mitigating Digital Change in Traditional 2D Animation Production

Abstract: The period between 1994 and 2004 was a time of transition for the TV animation community. The introduction of digital tools caused irreversible changes to long-established 2D animation production pipelines. These new digital pipelines altered the time-honoured traditional roles of “old timers” (senior artists) and “new comers” (junior artists). This paper uses Lave and Wegner’s concept of “legitimate peripheral participation” and Basil Bernstein’s ideas on “trainability” and “recontextualization” to discuss the challenges experienced by a community of practice in flux. It analyses and evaluates the crisis during this period of time and describes the animation artists passage from resenting change to directing change within their industry.

Biographical Statement: Tony Tarantini is a 20-year veteran of the animation industry. As an artist, he has contributed to a number of animated TV series and features including Babar the Elephant, Pippi Longtockings, Rupert the Bear, Franklin the Turtle, American Tail, George Shrinks and Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus. In addition, Tony has worked extensively in curriculum design and development and in an instructional capacity at Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. At present, he teaches an animation production course in the Bachelor of Applied Arts in Animation. This paper contributes to his ongoing research into the future of animation production.