University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations August 2015 Animating Aesthetics: Pixar and Digital Culture Eric DuWayne Herhuth University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Herhuth, Eric DuWayne, "Animating Aesthetics: Pixar and Digital Culture" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1000. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1000 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ANIMATING AESTHETICS: PIXAR AND DIGITAL CULTURE by Eric Herhuth A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee August 2015 ABSTRACT ANIMATING AESTHETICS: PIXAR AND DIGITAL CULTURE by Eric Herhuth The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Professor Patrice Petro In the pre-digital age of cinema, animated and live-action film shared a technological basis in photography and they continue to share a basis in digital technology. This fact limits the capacity for technological inquiries to explain the persistent distinction between animated and live-action film, especially when many scholars in film and media studies agree that all moving image media are instances of animation. Understanding the distinction in aesthetic terms, however, illuminates how animation reflexively addresses aesthetic experience and its function within contexts of technological, environmental, and socio-cultural change. “Animating Aesthetics: Pixar and Digital Culture” argues that the aesthetics that perpetuate the idea of animation as a distinct mode in a digital media environment are particularly evident in the films produced by Pixar Animation Studios.