lecture 1: evolution of animation as art

Pre-Class Preparation

Watch these foundational works before class:

Winsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" (1914)
Why This Matters: First interactive animation - McCay performed live with Gertie, creating spatial experience between artist and animated character. 10,000 hand-drawn frames establishing animation as performance art.

Read More About Gertie →
Lotte Reiniger's "Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed" (1926) - Technique Demonstration
Historic Significance: First surviving animated feature film. Revolutionary silhouette technique using cardboard cutouts and lead sheets. 3 years of production (1923-1926).

Reiniger's Innovation →

Additional Required Viewing

Opening Question (5 minutes)

"What is animation?"

Students share definitions, then we challenge assumptions:

  • Is a GIF animation?
  • Is a video game animation?
  • Is a sculpture that moves animation?
  • Is an AI generating images frame-by-frame animation?

Part I: Pre-Cinema Animation (10 minutes)

The Art of Moving Images Before Film

Key Concepts:

  • Persistence of vision - the neurological foundation of all animation
  • Ancient precedents: Egyptian wall paintings showing sequential movement, Chinese shadow puppets, European magic lanterns
Optical Toys Demonstration: Zoetrope, Phenakistoscope, Praxinoscope
Why This Matters: These devices transformed static images into a continuous loop of motion, a core principle of animation that exists before film.
Animation existed as ART before it became ENTERTAINMENT
1832
Phenakistoscope invented by Joseph Plateau - spinning disc creates illusion of movement
1834
Zoetrope by William Horner - cylindrical animation device for multiple viewers
1877
Praxinoscope by Émile Reynaud - eliminated flicker using mirrors

Part II: Early Film Pioneers (15 minutes)

Winsor McCay (1869-1934)

Revolutionary Approach: Animation as performance art, not just moving pictures
  • "Gertie the Dinosaur" - FIRST INTERACTIVE ANIMATION
  • McCay drew himself into the animated world during vaudeville performances
  • Key Innovation: Animation as spatial experience - breaking the fourth wall
  • 10,000 individual drawings with consistent background redrawing

Émile Cohl (1857-1938)

Fantasmagorie (1908)
Why This Matters: This film is famous for its fluid transformations and its "metamorphosis" technique, where objects constantly change and evolve, showing what live-action cannot.
  • Metamorphosis technique - fluid transformation between objects
  • Animation's unique ability to visualize the impossible
  • Key Point: Animation can show what live-action cannot

Georges Méliès

  • Stop-motion discovery through accidental camera jam
  • Replacement technique - objects becoming other objects
  • Key Innovation: Animation as magic, transformation as art

Part III: Animation as Fine Art (20 minutes)

Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) - SILHOUETTE REVOLUTION

Pioneered the art of silhouette animation, connecting it to ancient traditions of shadow art.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) - Full Film
Technical Innovation: This is the first full-length animated feature film, created using a multi-plane camera setup with cardboard and lead cutouts. Each frame required individual positioning of hundreds of elements.
  • "Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed" (1926) - first full-length animated film
  • Political Context: Working during Weimar Germany, fled Nazis in 1933
  • Technical Mastery: 96,000 frames over 3 years of production

Abstract Film Movement (1920s Germany)

Oskar Fischinger - Study No. 8 (1931)
Why This Matters: Fischinger was a master of "visual music," creating abstract films that synchronized with music, freeing cinema from narrative constraints.
  • Hans Richter & Viking Eggeling - "Absolute Film"
  • Goal: Cinema freed from narrative constraints
  • Oskar Fischinger - Visual music, synesthetic art
Animation as pure visual composition - the birth of abstract cinema

Direct-on-Film Techniques

Norman McLaren's "Dots" (1940)
Revolutionary Technique: Both visuals AND sound created by painting directly on film. No cameras, no microphones - pure hand-drawn cinema.

Technical Analysis: How McLaren Made Dots →
  • Len Lye (1901-1980) - Painting directly on celluloid
  • "Motion Painting" - no cameras needed
  • Norman McLaren - Multiple cameraless techniques
Animation as graphic art, bypassing photography entirely

Part IV: The Material Revolution (15 minutes)

Traditional Cel Animation

This section is a brief history of a traditional industrial approach to animation that students should be aware of to find new ways of creating.

Cel Animation Process
Why This Matters: Cel animation standardized the animation process. Understanding these limitations can inspire new artistic expression.
  • Industrial standardization vs. artistic expression
  • How commercial studios limited experimental possibilities
Students should know this history to rebel against it

Stop-Motion as Art

Jan Švankmajer - Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)
Why This Matters: Švankmajer used found objects and surrealism to create political and philosophical animation, showing how objects can become characters and materials can convey meaning.
  • Jan Švankmajer - Surrealist political animation under Communist regime
  • Czech animation as resistance art
  • Key Innovation: Objects as characters, materials as meaning

Sand Animation

Caroline Leaf - The Street (1976)
Why This Matters: Leaf's use of sand on a light-box created a tactile, organic, and constantly shifting aesthetic, a stark contrast to the clean lines of cel animation.
  • Caroline Leaf - Tactile, organic imagery

Part V: Digital Transformation (15 minutes)

Early Computer Animation

John Whitney - Permutations (1968)
Why This Matters: Whitney is a founding father of computer art, using algorithms to create complex animated patterns and "digital fractals," where the code itself is the creative tool.
  • Mary Ellen Bute - Electronic imagery synchronized to music
  • John Whitney - Computer-generated abstract films
Mathematical precision in visual composition - algorithms as co-creator

Personal Computer Revolution

  • Democratization of animation tools
  • Individual artistic expression enabled by technology

3D Animation as Art

David OReilly - The External World (2010)
Why This Matters: OReilly's work subverts the hyper-realistic, commercial aesthetic of 3D, instead using the tools to create a unique, intentionally simple visual world.
  • Beyond Pixar: 3D as experimental medium
  • Volumetric space - animation in three dimensions
  • Key Innovation: Virtual sculpture in motion

Part VI: Internet and New Media (10 minutes)

Net Art Animation

The First GIF (1987)
Why This Matters: The GIF's return as a cultural form showcases how animation can be a bite-sized, lo-fi loop that's a fundamental unit of internet communication.
  • Web-based interactive animations
  • GIF culture - animation as communication
Distribution method changes artistic possibilities

Virtual and Augmented Reality

VR Animation Experience
Why This Matters: VR and AR allow for immersive animation, where the viewer is inside the work, and animation is integrated with physical space.
  • Immersive animation - viewer inside the work
  • AR sketching - animation integrated with physical space
  • Key Innovation: Animation as environmental experience

AI and Procedural Animation

  • Machine learning as creative collaborator
  • Procedural generation - systems creating animation
What is the role of the artist when machines can animate?

Part VII: Contemporary Forms (10 minutes)

Animation Everywhere

Projection Mapping on Sculpture
Why This Matters: Contemporary artists are breaking animation out of the screen and into the real world, using it in installation, sculpture, and performance art.
  • Video Game Animation - Interactive narrative animation
  • Player as collaborator in animated storytelling
  • Installation Animation - Gallery contexts for animated work
  • Projection mapping - animation on architectural surfaces
  • Social Media Animation - TikTok, Instagram as animation platforms
  • Vertical format animations
Platform shapes artistic expression - form follows function follows infrastructure

Discussion Questions (10 minutes)

1. How has the definition of animation changed over time?
2. Which technological shift most radically changed animation as an art form?
3. How do contemporary platforms (social media, VR, AI) offer new possibilities for experimental animation?
4. In what field did animation begin? Art or entertainment?
5. What is the role of the artist when machines can animate?

Assignment for Next Week

Project: Metamorphosis Animation

Goal: To challenge the idea of a fixed character or object and embrace the fundamental power of animation to show the impossible.

Recommended Artists to Research for Inspiration

  • Lotte Reiniger, Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Caroline Leaf
  • Faith Hubley, Susan Pitt, Jan Švankmajer, Mary Ellen Bute
  • Joan Jonas, Martha Colburn, Ryan Larkin, Carmen D'Avino
  • Rose Bond, Will Vinton, George Pal

Resources for Further Exploration

Key Academic Readings

  • "Experimental Animation: Origins of a New Art" - Robert Russett
  • "Pulses of Abstraction: Episodes from a History of Animation" - Buchan
  • "Frame by Frame: A Materialist Aesthetics of Animated Cartoons" - Crafton
  • "Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde" - Leslie

Contemporary Examples

  • Max Hattler - abstract animation installations
  • Mirai Mizue - digital experimental animation
  • Don Hertzfeldt - independent experimental narrative
  • Michel Ocelot - contemporary silhouette animation

Key Takeaways

1. Animation began as ART, not entertainment
2. Technology enables new forms of artistic expression
3. The platform of distribution shapes artistic possibilities
4. Animation is transformation itself - the art of bringing static elements to life

Next Week: We analyze YOUR current work and explore how to transform it using these historical innovations!