Narrative and stories have a wonderful way of transcending through time. The long honoured tradition of knowledge passed from generation to generation through stories, fables and rhyme.
The beginnings of animation with the earliest forms being sketches found in caves told tales within themselves. Within the western culture, there have been many booms in advancement throughout history. More recent events include the invention of Gutenberg's Printing Press and the industrial revolution. War radically advances technology in order for each culture to survive and the research & development of mankind's technological advances.
Communication theorists such as Shannon and Weaver, Edward DeBono (ok DeBono is more a lateral theorist, but still relevant), Marshall McLuhan and Lev Manovich challenge the way we think and the direction where we as a society and also a civilisation are heading. Some say that it's in mankind's nature to push for the total destruction of ourselves, others say we are on the brink of becoming a global empahtic civilisation.
Animation has also evolved from scores in rock, ink on papyrus to the modern times of cel ink and paint and now the digital realm. Technology improvements seem to be faster, with more storage and forming smaller devices. The audience now has an opportunity to respond and connect with the world through the web and pocket sized smart phones. Everyone has an opportunity to become an instant reporter, blogger, twitter or facebooker. The modern world is now interconnected.
Whilst growing up, CGI in animation in home entertainment was watched on a trusty old VHS. The acceptance of DVD has allowed the audience to see how special aspects of the movie was made. The internet and Blu-ray / HD formats now allow the user to interact with the movie as it is being played, with trivia, movie techniques and filming methods are becoming part of our culture. Where is animation in media heading?
The vast range of formats allow us to carry movies not only as a physical DVD media but also the digital spreads to portable media devices, laptops, mobile phones and other devices that have successfully fought their way as part of our every day life. Soon we will be streaming all sorts of data from 'the cloud'. Could we? (play on words - in many respects, think about it). Friedrich Kittler states in Gramophone, Film, Typewriter:
The general digitalization of channels and information erases the differences among individual media. Sound and image, voice and text are reduced to surface effects, known to consumers as interface … Inside the computers themselves, everything becomes a number: quantity without image, sound, or voice. And once optical fibre networks turn formerly distinct data flows into a standardized series of digitalized numbers, any medium can be translated into any other. With numbers, everything goes. Modulation, transformation, synchronization; delay, storage, transposition; scrambling, scanning, mapping – a total media link on a digital base will erase the very concept of medium. Instead of wiring people and technologies, absolute knowledge will run as an absolute loop.1
This would be the premise underpinning my research. There are reports and papers outlining how scientists are now able to transcode 90Gb of data within 1g of bacteria that will manage to survive radiation from a nuclear fallout. Is this a new era of intermediality? Are we going to be able to absorb information and breakdown the proscenium between the audience and director.....?
The journey is just as important as the final goal or performance.
1. Friedrich Kittler: Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, Stanford 1999, pp.1–2.
Further interesting reading:
Ed Krčma - Cinematic Drawing in a Digital Age
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/10autumn/krcma.shtm
Bacteria notes: http://www.bluesci.org/?p=632
Note to self....make blogs much smaller!!
Poster thoughts
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