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Real-Time Animation and the Expanded Field 35 Figure 1 (Left): Real-Time Animation Prompt Exercises

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Real-Time Animation and the Expanded Field 35 Figure 1 (Left): Real-Time Animation Prompt Exercises This paper explores historical and theoretical examples related to animation in the expanded field. In particular, it considers improvisational and chance Making Room for Chance: operations as structures for expressive practice, reimagined through real-time animation pedagogy. Framed by the historical avant-garde, Real-time Animation and the Expanded Cinema, and immersive storytelling practice, this paper explores new prospects for animation at the intersection of art and technology. Expanded Field Keywords: real-time animation, animation studies, motion design, immersive media design, intermedia art, arts pedagogy Johannes DeYoung Carnegie Mellon University, United States Staid Foundations Animation is not a medium. Defining animation has been a longstanding topic of interest for animation studies scholars. Its diverse field encompasses a ABSTRACT Animation is an expressive field. Its etymology elicits the breath breadth of processes and practices, drawing upon equally rich histories. Why of life, drawing upon the Indo-European root, ane- (to breathe), and the is definition important? As a means to shape conceptual frameworks, definition Latin root, anima (life). The sentiment isn’t lost on those who explore the demonstrates capacity to frame both pedagogy and cultural production. Too field’s possibilities. Animate forms evoke profound perceptual sensations. narrow a definition yields boxed-in thinking; too liberal a definition yields end- Yet, while the illusion of life appears spontaneous and unrestrained, audi- less uncertainty. It would be vain to attempt an absolute definition. I fear the ences are rarely sensitive to the labor involved in the production of animated effort would snuff the very breath of life that animation evokes. Yet, it’s helpful content. For all that its immediate sensations suggest, animation is to indicate theoretical frameworks for consideration, as both measures for traditionally time and energy intensive—commonly involving projects planned establishing common foundations and as platforms for expanded possibilities. years in advance, organized through industrialized systems of labor. In such At the very least, we might consider alternatives to the staid foundations that models, risk mitigation reigns supreme and capital loss is avoided at all costs. lock animation into popular idioms of filmic cartoons. Oxymoronic? Traditional production leaves little room for chance. Declaring that animation is not a medium unbinds the constraints of medium The expanded field of animation has long suggested alternatives to Twentieth specificity. In their essay, Approaching Animation and Animation Studies, Lilly Century industrialized film paradigms. Artists, theorists, and engineers con- Husbands and Caroline Ruddell address the challenges that definition entails. tinually press the boundaries of the field in search of more direct, expressive, While they point to techniques that might distinguish animation from other and idiomatic forms. While such alternatives have historically proven chal- fields—namely frame-by-frame production that is entirely constructed (Hus- lenging to scale—often limited by cost and the accessibility of production and bands and Ruddell 6)—they provide numerous contradictory examples where distribution systems the practice and pedagogy of animation has reached a efforts have been made to both establish and collapse notions of medium critical inflection point. Advancements in virtual production and motion cap- specificity. Certainly there is a need to account for breadth and depth, including ture technologies, real-time 3D computer graphics engines, machine learn- the plurality of forms, processes, and histories that inform the field. ing, and visual programming tools provide open technological frameworks for exploration in more improvisational, spatial, and interactive contexts. While Maureen Furniss expands upon the many deep historical origins of animation, such changing technological paradigms offer revolutionary new possibilities, noting the limitations by which popular idioms are generally understood, they also present opportunities to reframe thought and pedagogy. especially in contrast to the varied modalities that emerge from related fields (Furniss 12). A reductive historical framework precludes a great many possibil- ities. If we unlock animation from a dominant industrialized cinema model, we might better understand it within a continuum of immersive and time-based arts practice. We find relevant traces of animation in countless examples of 34 MODE 2021 Edited Conference Proceedings pre-cinema art, ranging from cave painting, to ancient Egyptian papyrus draw- of the disc (e.g. a bird on one side, a cage on the other). The phenomenon ings, to ancient Greek pottery, to the optical technologies of theater—Pepper’s established the groundwork for what would be called persistence of vision, a Ghost and the Magic Lantern, for instance. Tom Gunning elucidates how devel- leading moving-image theory during the Nineteenth and early-Twentieth opments in optical technologies proliferated post-Enlightenment, giving rise Centuries (Gunning 499). Examples of the thaumatrope and phantasmagoric to philosophical toys and rational amusements—fore-bearers of animated theater underscore a few relevant themes: perception of after-image effects; film and cinema technologies (Gunning, Hand and Eye 498). “These optical spatiotemporal collapse; performative frameworks that enable expressive devices display a double function. On the one hand, they produce an image improvisations; and varying degrees of interactivity and immersion. and a visual experience; on the other hand, they seek to demonstrate the processes of visual perception through their operation” (498). Some devices In his chapter Defining Animation, Ülo Pikkov describes animation as an illusion indeed produced early forms of moving image. Examples include the zoetrope, that happens within the mind (Pikkov 14–18). Certainly what Gunning and phenakistoscope, and flip-book. Their constructions inform later developments Furniss outline as pre-cinematic origins have significant bearing on the forms of like the Mutoscope and the modern film projector. Alongside this filmic lineage the field; however, we must also consider the perceptual frameworks by which we find a few related examples that inform our understanding of animation the phenomenon of animation is experienced. Given its unfixed definition, better relative to other fields—namely computation and theater. Charles Babbage’s understanding animation through its relationship to human cognition will prove thaumatrope (a spinning disc device in which recto and verso images appear illuminating. combined when activated) and Étienne-Gaspard Robert’s phantasmagoric theater are examples of the latter. Carnegie’s Monocle Gunning’s notion of the technological image outlines the advancements that Phantasmagoria plays an especially interesting role during the post-Enlighten- made animation craft possible. Such technological developments are not ment period. It paradoxically leverages some of the more advanced scientific divorced from philosophical consideration, nor do they happen in isolation optical engineering technologies of its time to create ghostly Romantic period without impact on human behavior. In his book, Understanding Media: illusions. The juxtaposition of Enlightenment and Romantic period tendencies Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan points to the cyclical relationship is complex and fascinating. The operating mechanism behind the phantasma- between humanity and its technologies (McLuhan). The ensuing relationship goric theater was essentially a kinetic Magic Lantern on rails. While versions of presents a kind of feedback loop: change the means by which you see the phantasmagoric theater are evidenced as early as the 1780s, credit for its inven- world and you’ll entirely change what you see. The contemporary technological tion is most often attributed to Étienne-Gaspard Robert (stage name Robertson) landscape has thrown the loop into hyperdrive. in 1798. The phantasmagoric experience involved the projection of ghostly apparitions on a variety of screen surfaces, including smoke screens and vapor Considering this brave new world, a new foundations curriculum was developed columns. As Laurent Mannoni describes, “When the lights in the auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University’s Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology pro- went out, a ghost appeared on the screen, at first very small; it grew rapidly and gram to investigate changing paradigms for making and experiencing animation. seemed to move towards the audience […] The illuminated views were animat- Real-time Animation was introduced in Spring 2019 in an effort to reshape the ed and mobile, they seemed to surge towards the terrified spectators, not at all core curriculum (Figure 1). In relation to other animation studio curricula, which accustomed to such pictorial assaults” (Mannoni 390). This late Eighteenth often emphasize filmic grammar, Real-time Animation explores the expanded Century theatrical production provides direct lineage to immersive entertain- field, emphasizing hybridity, spatiality, and interdisciplinary practice in relation ment experiences like Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction, as well as to more theatrical models of experience design. Research and practice are more contemporary Augmented Reality (AR) and holographic displays. framed through examples of art history, social practice, and cognitive science. Significantly, the curriculum
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