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Puppets Between Human, Animal and Machine: Towards the Modes of Movement Contesting the Anthropocentric View of Life in Animation

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Puppets Between Human, Animal and Machine: Towards the Modes of Movement Contesting the Anthropocentric View of Life in Animation Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Kim, Joon Yang (2020) Puppets between human, animal and machine: towards the modes of movement contesting the anthropocentric view of life in animation. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/33346/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. Works, including theses and research projects, may not be reproduced in any format or medium, or extensive quotations taken from them, or their content changed in any way, without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). They may not be sold or exploited commercially in any format or medium without the prior written permission of the copyright holder(s). Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author’s name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pag- ination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Middlesex University via the following email address: [email protected] The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Puppets between Human, Animal and Machine: Towards the Modes of Movement Contesting the Anthropocentric View of Life in Animation by Joon Yang KIM School of Art and Design Middlesex University 2019 Puppets between Human, Animal and Machine: Towards the Modes of Movement Contesting the Anthropocentric View of Life in Animation by Joon Yang KIM M00462237 A dissertation submitted to Middlesex University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Art and Design September, 2019 Abstract In this PhD thesis, I challenge animation studies’ conventional notion that animation can bring something inanimate to “life”. This emphasis on animation’s capacity to make a figure appear to move on screen has led to the problematic notion that movement has a synonymous relationship with life. Contesting these discourses, I show in this thesis that not every animated figure suggests the impression of life. In order to prove this, I put forward as a critical focus the puppet-as-puppet figure, that is, the figure of a puppet depicted as a puppet per se in the film diegesis, which problematises the impression of life even if appearing to move on screen. A related focus in my thesis is the mode of movement which functions as a visual and physical parameter in order to analyse what an animated (or static) figure is intended to look like, instead of reducing it to a question of life. Through case studies of these puppet-as-puppet figures, which I classify into four groups, I examine the varying ways in which they are depicted as inanimate or sub/nonhuman, even when in human form, in contrast to human or (anthropomorphic) animal figures, both in terms of their mode of movement as well as their appearance. Examining how these depictions demonstrate anthropocentric views of puppets, I consider religio-philosophical, scientific and aesthetic discourses on puppets and human/animal simulacra. Further, I explore a selection of puppet-as-puppet figures as alternatives to these anthropocentric conventions, examining their defamiliarisation of the animating human subject’s mastery over the animated non/subhuman object, and the non-anthropocentric sensations which their movements arouse on screen in the relationship between humanity and materiality. i Acknowledgment For this thesis, I have been animated and also re-animated by many people, scholars, professionals, colleagues, friends and my family. I am deeply indebted to all of them, and afraid in these few pages that words might elude and escape from me. I appreciate my fantastic supervisors, Suzanne Buchan, Stewart Martin and John Timberlake. Suzanne was always strict as well as passionate about my research. I spent many years and hours talking to her about the issues and questions that I need to focus on, make clear and develop for this thesis. And I learned so much from Suzanne about what being a scholar should be like. In retrospect, thanks to her, I could determine to start this research because I was sure that she would understand what I was aiming at in it; I was right. Stewart has shown not only scholarly rigour but also great patience, in particular, while my research suffered vagueness and confusion at its early stages. As a modest person, he always addressed crucial questions and intriguing issues, which kept stimulating me to rethink and clarify the direction and central issues of this thesis whenever I seemed to get lost. At the later stages, Stewart’s evaluation of my thesis in progress helped so much me keep going on this long journey to the end. John was a late addition to my supervisory team, but it did not take so much time for him to grasp a full picture of this thesis because we had ever spent a fascinating time talking about my research subject and others about two years before he joined the team. I was inspired and energised whenever talking to him about more issues than required in this thesis to the extent that I lost track of time. ii This thesis on animation films was realised by my conversations with many animators, filmmakers and artists. The anime director, Hideo Watanabe, gave me invaluable chances to research the hand drawings, cel drawings and other raw materials that he had obtained and collected working in Japanese animation industry for decades. Those chances were a fertiliser, in particular, for my analysis in Chapter Two. Correspondence with the Quay Brothers was such an oneiric, inspiring and informing experience for me, and when I visited their London studio, they kindly arranged time for me to talk about their film and puppet world. I also owed my sense and ideas of stop-motion models to Woochan Kim, an international armature builder. He kindly answered many questions I asked about the mechanical structure and traits of the armature. At a later stage of my research, it was a marvellous opportunity for me to conduct a long interview with the ningyo- joruri puppeteer Hachirobei Nishihashi. He did not miss any tiny point of my sudden and unpredictable questions, and further, gave me chances to touch, grab, hoist and manipulate some of his puppets. This interview was arranged by Masami Suzuki, a professor of Russian literature and also puppetry at Niigata University. Without their generosity, I could not complete the last chapter in this thesis. Not only my thesis but also my academic life have been long supported and stimulated by Masashi Koide who offered me a place for visiting researcher at Tokyo Zokei University and also kindly suggested a lot of chances to communicate in the Japan Society for Animation Studies, Jaqueline Berndt who invited me to give a presentation and have conversation with international scholars at the second ICOMAG and other conferences, Esther Leslie who as discussant made valuable additions to my talk on the depiction of death and the dead body in animation film iii at Birkbeck, University of London, Mitsuko Okamoto who showed a serious interest in my research on human simulacra even before I started it at Middlesex University and also provided me with a chance to talk to the animation film director Mamoru Oshii at Tokyo University of the Arts. I must express my most heartfelt thanks Dario Lolli and Roberta Antonaci. They have presented me with their priceless friendship since I visited London for the intelligently exciting talk event which Dario, deserving my respect, planned and hosted for me at Birkbeck. While my thesis was in progress, I was truly lucky to invite Sheuo Hui Gan and Marc Steinberg to the symposium during the annual conference of the Japan Society for Animation Studies held at Niigata University. Their highly informing talks about the body in anime made me feel much more confident about the subject of my thesis. I have a slightly unique memory of Alexander Zahlten, who I met in Seoul, South Korea for the first time and then worked with, as if a manzai team, for a couple of talk events in Japan. In doing so, I was triggered and spurred on to rethink and research beyond what I had been engaged thus far in animation studies. No gratitude to all of them can be too extreme. Before starting this thesis, I got a lot of precious advice and information on the degree course. I take this opportunity to appreciate Howon Nah and Hei-Rim Hwang who kindly let me know what studying in the UK and working with supervisors therein would be like. Han Sang Kim and Yu Sung Kim are one of the most wonderful couples who I have ever known in my personal, as well as academic, life. They have always stayed in my mind with profound respect. Sung-il Jung is a truly important person who led me to film world and film studies in my iv earliest career.
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