Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis
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Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis A project submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Andrew James Buchanan Master of Arts (Animation and Interactive Media), RMIT University Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design), Newcastle University School of Media and Communication College of Design and Social Context RMIT University August 2016 Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the project is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Andrew Buchanan 08-08-2016 PLASMATIC IMPROVISING ANIMATED METAMORPHOSIS ANDREW BUCHANAN MA (AIM), BDES A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Creative Media School of Media and Communication College of Design and Social Context RMIT University August, 2016 Error! No text of specified style in document. Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 1 ABSTRACT This practice based research dissertation presents a new approach to improvisation in animation using digital sculpture. The artworks submitted are supported in this document by both a comprehensive description of the processes and practice approaches used in their creation, as well as a theoretical grounding that links improvisation, digital sculpture, and animated metamorphosis through psychology, practice, cognitive science and philosophy. Including both software tools and virtual materials in an embodied model of cognition, this research describes a new workflow based on an improvisational material interaction with virtual 3D mesh through digital sculpting software. The natural product of this iterative, improvisational process is metamorphic animation, able to convey the substantive and transitive aspects of cognition in animated form. This dissertation supports a series of works titled Plasmatic (No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3) that were produced and exhibited in 2014 and 2015, as well as a range of experiments that show the development of the workflow and unique approach to the creation of the final works. Existing theories of metamorphosis in animation focus on the cultural, political and ontological freedom offered by unconstrained graphical forms. This research expands these theories of metamorphosis by showing that animated metamorphosis can also depict functional correlations between image and thought processes. This approach is not focussed on analysis of the contents of thought, or on the contents of the animated morphing images, but rather connects the medium specific aesthetic of the metamorphic image and the processes of its creation with the temporally extended processes of thought progression. Animated metamorphosis allows for a visual depiction of the transformation from one thought to the next. The Plasmatic series submitted supports an argument that metamorphic animation can be used as a heterophenomenological vehicle for conveying the nature of a spontaneous thought impulse and stream of consciousness to an audience. In this way, this practice based research presents the process of animation as an investigation into phenomenal consciousness, and the animated metamorphic image as a unique philosophical instrument. Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 4 KEYWORDS Animation, plasmatic, metamorphosis, improvisation, 3D animation, CGI, experimental animation, embodied cognition, digital sculpture, stream of consciousness, creative technology, unconscious, psychic automatism, digital craft. Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 5 CONTENTS Abstract 4 Keywords 5 List of figures 7 1. Introduction 9 1.1 Research Motivation, Aims and Value 11 1.2 Overview 19 1.3 Summary of Creative Works Submitted for Examination 23 2. Background 35 2.1 The Stream of Thought 36 2.2 Surrealism and (Un)Consciousness 37 2.3 Cognitive Science and the Unconscious 41 2.4 Unconscious Animation 43 2.5 The Origins of the Plasmatic in Animation 46 3. Methodology 50 3.1 Practice Based Research 51 3.2 Experiments 53 3.3 A Transdisciplinary Study 54 3.4 The Iterative Cyclic Web 56 3.5 Tacit Knowledge and Reflective Practice 58 3.6 Phenomenology and the Role of Creative works as Knowledge Transferring Artefacts 60 4. Plasmatic – Improvising Digital Sculpture 67 4.1 A new Workflow for Animated Digital Sculpture and Metamorphosis 70 4.2 Preparing the Digital Mesh – Seeking Harmonious Equipotential 71 4.3 Entering a Receptive State for Improvisation 74 4.4 Improvising with Digital Materiality and Digital Craft 76 4.5 Wandering Across the Surface 88 5. Plasmatic – Animating Metamorphosis 92 5.1 Animating Morphing Sculpture 93 5.2 Metamorphosis and Medium Specificity 96 6. Conclusion and Future Work 102 6.1 Conclusion 103 6.2 Future work 110 7. Endnotes 112 8. List of Works Cited 112 9. Appendixes 112 9.1 Appendix 1 - Preliminary Experiments 112 9.2 Appendix 2 - Conference abstracts 112 Endnotes 113 List of works Cited 118 9.3 Appendix 1 - Preliminary Experiments 127 9.4 Appendix 2 - Conference Abstracts 134 Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Images from Plasmatic No. 1, Plasmatic No. 2 and Plasmatic No. 3, experiments with digital material. 10 Figure 2. Audiences experience the aesthetic of animated metamorphosis at the exhibition of Plasmatic No.1. 19 Figure 3. The Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2014. Photograph by the author. Visible in background, Lighthouse (2014) by Nick Azidis. 26 Figure 4. Installing Plasmatic No. 1 at the Gertrude Street Projection festival, 2014. 26 Figure 5. The lighting from the upper right of Plasmatic No. 1 matches the ambient lighting from the street that enters the exhibition space. 27 Figure 6. Attendees at the Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2014 observe Plasmatic No. 1 through a shopfront window in Melbourne. 28 Figure 7. Left: image credit Maraya Art Centre. Right: Installing projection screens for the ISEA exhibition. 29 Figure 8. Plasmatic No.2 at ISEA 2014, with the Maraya camera obscura in background. 30 Figure 9. Plasmatic No.2 at ISEA 2014, with mosque in background. 31 Figure 10. Left: Restored buildings in the Al Fahidi district of Dubai, used as exhibition spaces. Right: The approach to the Electric Traditions exhibition at ISEA 2014. 31 Figure 11. Plasmatic No. 2 in a gallery setting at the Electric Traditions exhibition, ISEA 2014. 32 Figure 12. The White Night 2015 event in Melbourne attracted over 450,000 visitors. 33 Figure 13. Plasmatic No. 3 at White Night Melbourne, 2015. 34 Figure 14. The Iterative Cyclic Web, a practice led research model, re-drawn with permission of the original authors. 57 Figure 15. A ‘standard primitive’ sphere, available in 3Ds Max (Autodesk, 2015). 72 Figure 16. A squirkle, created by subdividing a cube. 73 Figure 17 Three unplanned sculptures, showing an exaggerated moustache perhaps inspired by my ex-father-in-law. 83 Figure 18. These three models from Plasmatic No.2 show a range of body parts, perhaps evoking Jan Svankmajer. 84 Figure 19 A base mesh with high valency poles leads to an uncooperative mesh that is unresponsive to sculpting intentions. 85 Figure 20 As a sculpture is created, the digital material participates in its emergence. 87 Figure 21 Four images that show an example of wandering across the model surface: the initial model is captured, the model is turned and then a new arrangement of features or a new image idea asserts itself and is sculpted. 90 Figure 22 A view of the software interface showing 3 different morph targets increasing from zero to one hundred per cent over time, in an overlapping arrangement. 94 Figure 23. Progression from abstract to figural from Plasmatic No. 2. 95 Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 7 Figure EN1. An Icosphere used as the starting point for the base mesh, showing minor extraordinary vertices Figure 24. The 'straight ahead machine' designed to replace the traditional animation disc for straight ahead animation on paper at increased speed. 127 Figure 25. Frames from an animation experiment using paint on canvas under camera. 129 Figure 26. A record of experiments with unplanned sequential drawings. 130 Figure 27. Each drawing influences the next as the concepts and visual arrangements extend across the frame space and through time. 131 Figure 28. Drawn frames that show a shoe and a bowl of popcorn. 132 Figure 29. Animated white lines produced straight ahead using 2D software. 132 Figure 30. A frame from a short 2D animation experiment. 133 Figure 31. A frame from chaoscope, a generative abstract image software. 133 Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 8 1. INTRODUCTION “The easy bit is making works of art. The difficult bit is to make works of art in the way in which everyone should ideally do everything: opening open up our minds as we go to the astonishment of discovering new possibilities for regular action that we did not know were available to us until somebody or something unexpectedly showed us how.” (Brook, 2012) Plasmatic: Improvising Animated Metamorphosis 9 This dissertation is submitted as a contextualising and explanatory accompaniment to the Plasmatic series of animated projection artworks, Plasmatic No.1, Plasmatic No.2 and Plasmatic