The Animation Sculpture from Ancient Ceramic Art to Projection Mapping
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The animation sculpture From ancient ceramic art to projection mapping Diplomarbeit Ausgeführt zum Zweck der Erlangung des akademischen Grades Dipl.-Ing. für technisch-wissenschaftliche Berufe am Masterstudiengang Digitale Medientechnologien an der Fachhochschule St. Pölten, Masterklasse Experimentelle Medien von: Ing. Ani Antonova Hristova dm171528 Betreuer/in und Erstbegutachter/in: Mag. Mag. Dr. Franziska Bruckner Zweitbegutachter/in: FH-Prof. Mag. Markus Wintersberger St. Pölten, 18.05.2020 Abstract The master thesis investigates various artistic practices combining animation with three-dimensional physical objects. It suggests the term “animation sculpture” and discusses its importance as a distinctive art form in the context of visual art and new media. It starts with research on its rich history from the various predecessors in the ceramic and pottery painting. Then goes through the “pre-cinematic” devices to the contemporary video sculptures using screens and projection mapping, outlining some common sculptural, technical and narrative properties of this hybrid art-form. The theoretical research opens a dialogue with a praxis-based research whose goal is the creation of the animation sculpture prototype “Cornucopia”. The sculpture is inspired by the earliest sequential images and on formal and technical level explores the elements of rotation, circularity, repetition and brevity, characteristics bound to the first optical toys, in combination with projection mapping. Additionally, to the practical experiments, four quality interviews with experts, coming from different fields of studies: Prof. Dr. Svetoslav Ovtcharov, Dr. Paulo Viveiros, Dr. Birgitta Hosea and Stefan Stratil, were conducted. They were asked to share their expert evaluation on the practical work and to outline their personal experiences or contacts with the hybrid medium animation sculpture. III Kurzfassung Die Masterarbeit untersucht verschiedene künstlerische Praktiken, die Animationen mit dreidimensionalen physischen Objekten kombinieren. Dafür wird der Begriff „Animationsskulptur“ vorgeschlagen und seine Bedeutung als eigene Kunstform im Kontext von visueller Kunst und neuen Medien diskutiert. Die Arbeit untersucht die Geschichte der Animationsskulptur, beginnend bei Vorläufern in Keramik- und Keramikmalerei. Anschließend werden „vorkinematische“ Geräte beschrieben und schließlich zeitgenössische Videoskulpturen, die mit Bildschirmen und Projektionsmapping arbeiten, erforscht. In diesem Prozess werden gemeinsame skulpturale, technische und narrative Eigenschaften dieser hybriden Kunstform definiert. Die theoretische Forschung tritt in Dialog mit einer praxisorientierten Forschung, deren Ziel die Schaffung eines Prototyps der Animationsskulptur mit dem Titel „Cornucopia“ ist. Die Skulptur ist von Motiven aus den Anfängen der Animation inspiriert und untersucht auf formaler und technischer Ebene die Elemente Rotation, Zirkularität, Wiederholung und Kürze, Eigenschaften, die für die ersten optischen Spielzeuge bedeutsam sind, in Kombination mit Projektionsmapping. Zusätzlich zu den praktischen Experimenten wurden vier Qualitätsinterviews mit ExpertInnen aus verschiedenen Studienbereichen durchgeführt: Prof. Dr. Svetoslav Ovtcharov, Dr. Paulo Viveiros, Dr. Birgitta Hosea und Stefan Stratil. Sie wurden gebeten, zur praktischen Arbeit Stellung zu beziehen und ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen mit dem hybriden Medium Animationsskulptur zu beschreiben. IV Table of contents Ehrenwörtliche Erklärung II Abstract III Kurzfassung IV Table of contents V 1. Animation sculpture. Research context. 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Research questions, aims and objectives 2 1.3. Methodology 3 1.4. What is animation? 5 1.5. What is sculpture? 9 1.6. Animation vs. sculpture 15 2. Pre-cinematic history 18 2.1. Early history 18 2.2. Thaumatrope 20 2.3. Phénakisticope and the stroboscopic disc 21 2.4 Zoetrope 23 2.5. Stereoscopic zoetrope 25 2.6. The photosculpture 26 2.7. The praxinoscope 27 2.8. The projection praxinoscope 28 2.9. Mutoscope 30 3. History of moving-image sculptures 31 3.1. Kinetic art. Kinetic sculptures. 31 3.2. Expanded cinema 33 3.3. The television set 35 3.4. Projection mapping 37 4. State of the art and case studies 40 4.1. Case study: William Kentridge 40 4.2. Case study: Mat Collishaw 43 4.3. Case study: Akinori Goto 46 4.4. Case study: Pedro Serrazina 48 4.5. Case study: Anna Vasof 49 4.6. Case study: Kumi Yamashita 50 4.7. Case study: Anthony McCall 51 4.8. Case study: LWZ 52 V 4.9. Case study: Bill Brand 53 5. Practical experiments 55 5.1. Previous projects and studies 55 5.1.1. Kopfkino 55 5.1.2 The Outlander (animation sculpture) 56 5.2. Cornucopia (animation sculpture) 57 5.2.1. The sculptural shape 59 5.2.2. Technological aspect of the work 64 5.2.3. Projection mapping 67 5.2.4. The animation process 70 5.2.5. Expert interviews. Evaluation 80 6. Results and conclusion 84 List of figures 90 Bibliography 94 Appendix I. Interviews with experts 99 Acknowledgments 110 VI The animation sculpture 1. Animation sculpture. Research context. 1.1. Introduction In her introduction to "pervasive media" Susanne Buchan defines animation as "inva- sive in the contemporary moving image culture" (Buchan, 2013). This pervasiveness manifests itself in the omnipresence of animation in our life. The creative industries reach to animation from advertising, web, music videos, gaming, VR, news and con- cert's visualizations. The animation is there when authors of television series try to show the spectators how geniuses, who are about to save the world think. Anima- tion has become so natural to us that we no longer take it as fabricated by someone. When the catching of Osama bin Laden was presented in the news as 3D Animation simulation, we as viewers did not doubt its truthfulness. Animation comes already as a natural way to represent real events when we do not have visual material from the actual situation. Hollywood films are becoming more and more hybrid forms of live-action and an- imation in the form of special effects. The boundaries between different art-forms no longer exist, and hybrid media and hybridization are what interests me in this research. Mainly, my interest lies in the connection between sculpture and animation and the "expanding" of the animation into the physical realm taking or merging with a three-dimensional form. The term "video sculpture" exists since the 1970s, and it reflects the fascination of many artists with the sculptural properties of video monitors and combining them with objects and materials in space. The thesis suggests the term "animation sculp- ture" and discusses its importance as a distinctive art form in the context of visual art and new media. The core of my research is not the nomenclature, I will use this term to focus on a specific group of artistic practices that combine technology, animation and sculpt- ing of materials in space. I will investigate common aspects, materiality, and tech- nological aspects. Furthermore, I will also examine the aspect of rotation and circu- larity in them. In the next chapters, I will present the research questions and aims, the methodol- ogy I will apply and some of the theoretical contexts, my research is based on: from the ontology of animation, expanded animation, para-cinema and different defini- tions of sculpture. 1 The animation sculpture 1.2. Research questions, aims and objectives This interest in the connection between sculpture and animation lies in the practical experiments throughout my studies of "Experimental media". The research questions I am going to discuss through the course of this thesis are: What is an "animation sculpture" and can it be important as a distinctive art form in the context of visual and participatory arts? What common aspects can be found between the artistic practices of contemporary artists working with animation sculpture? Is a certain technicity or technicality always present? How do technological developments and open-source platforms like VVVV enable artists to reach to this hybrid medium? We are used to be exposed to a cinematic experience. We know that the technique of "montage" has changed and our spectator's eye adapted from the early slow- paced editing to the one we are accustomed now. The technological advances have irrevocably expanded the boundaries of our visual perceptions. This phenomenon is what Walter Benjamin calls "the optical unconscious" (Benjamin, 2002). And in this context, another question arises that is connected to the "montage": Does something in the "montage" of the moving images change, when we have animation cinema in a three-dimensional object? Are there any limitations of the narrative possibili- ties because of the physical form? I can recall a situation when I suddenly became excited and attracted by an object at the airport. In essence, it was a small glass pyramid, and inside there was this illusion of a hologram. An animated advertising video was playing in a loop in the pyramid. Even though I realized how this illusion works and that it functions on the old Pep- per's ghost principle, it was fascinating and hypnotizing. I have seen it before in video of a fashion show from Alexander McQueen where the ghost of Kate Moss is floating in a giant pyramid. However, it was different having this illusion in a tangible, small object in front of me. I watched the advertising clip around twenty times. In the article "Circularity and Repetition at the Heart of the Attraction" Nicolas Dulac and André Gaudreault question