University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2015 Every Frame Counts: Creative Practice and Gender in Direct Animation Parker, Kayla http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/4309 Plymouth University All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Every Frame Counts: Crea1ve Prac1ce and Gender in Direct Anima1on by Kayla Parker A thesis submi2ed to Plymouth University in par9al fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Art and Media Faculty of Arts and Humani9es January 2015 - 0 - Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condi9on that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quota9on from the thesis and no informa9on derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. - 1 - Every Frame Counts: Crea1ve Prac1ce and Gender in Direct Anima1on by Kayla Parker A thesis submi2ed to Plymouth University in par9al fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Art and Media Faculty of Arts and Humani9es January 2015 - 2 - Contents Abstract 4 Acknowledgements 6 Author's Declara9on 7 Publica9ons 8 Presenta9ons 9 Training 17 Conferences and Presenta9ons A2ended 18 List of Crea1ve Prac1ce Elements 22 Introduc1on 23 PART I Histories and Genealogies 47 Chapter One: The Origins of My Crea9ve Prac9ce in Direct Anima9on 47 Chapter Two: Becoming (a) Woman and the Prac9cing of Feminisms 62 PART II Close Looking 109 Chapter Three: Material and Maternal Bodies 109 Chapter Four: Making Glass 149 PART III Material Substrate 187 Chapter Five: Wri9ng the Body 187 Chapter Six: Women's Work: Making Meaning 229 PART IV Being In-Between 247 Chapter Seven: Embodied Prac9ces 247 Conclusion 265 Bibliography 271 Appendices: Supplementary Material 317 Appendix A: Making Glass Transcript 317 Appendix B: Her Dark Materials Transcript 319 Appendix C: Film Experiments 2008-2014 337 Appendix D: Short Films: Other Works 340 Appendix E: Copies of Publica9ons 344 - 3 - Abstract Kayla Parker Every Frame Counts: Crea1ve Prac1ce and Gender in Direct Anima1on This thesis interrogates the ways in which the body-centred prac9ces of women film ar9sts embrace the materiality of direct anima9on in order to foreground gendered, subjec9ve posi9ons. Through the researcher's own crea9ve prac9ce, it inves9gates how this mode of film-making, in which the ar9st works through physical engagement with the film materials and the material processes of film-making, might be understood as feminine and/or feminist. Direct anima9on foregrounds touch as the primary sense. Its prac9ces are process-based and highly experimental, because images are made through the agency of the body opera9ng within restric9ve parameters, making results difficult to predict or control with precision. For these reasons, direct anima9on has not been embraced by mainstream, narra9ve-focused, studio-based models of produc9on, unlike other forms of two and three dimensional anima9on. It has remained a specialist area for the individual ar9st and auteur, and, to date, there is a paucity of commentary about direct anima9on prac9ces, and what exists has been dominated by male voices. In order to develop ideas about the ways in which women represent themselves in an expanded film-making praxis that is focused on the body and materiality of process, this PhD inquiry, encompassing a body of films with wri2en contextualisa9on, is situated in the context of the direct anima9on prac9ces of three ar9sts (Caroline Leaf, Annabel Nicolson, and Margaret Tait); and informed by conceptual frameworks provided by Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva and Hélène Cixous. This thesis proposes, via - 4 - interac9on between these three axes of research, that women film ar9sts, opera9ng independently, are able to create a female imaginary that represents women and is recognised by them, by construc9ng posi9ons of prac9ce outside the dominant symbolic modes of patriarchy, which evolve through the maternal body and the materiali9es of the feminine. - 5 - Acknowledgements Liz Wells and Roberta Mock have provided invaluable guidance and advice throughout the produc9on of this body of work and thesis, with Plymouth University providing ins9tu9onal support. Thanks to Liz Nicol and Michael Punt for their support, and to Malcolm Miles for his guidance in the early stages of this thesis. I am grateful to colleagues, in par9cular Sally Waterman for her advice, and to my mother, Joanna Parker for her contribu9on. Special thanks to Stuart Moore for all his assistance. - 6 - Author's Declara1on At no 9me during the registra9on for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Commi2ee. This study was financed with the aid of fee remission from the Faculty of Arts, Plymouth University, from October 2008. Relevant seminars and conferences were regularly a2ended and art exhibi9ons and film screenings were visited for the purposes of research and an awareness of contemporary developments. Several papers were prepared for publica9on and artworks were regularly exhibited throughout the doctoral study. - 7 - Publicaons 2008/2011. 'White Body' [film, with research statement and peer reviews] in Jon Dovey (ed.) Journal of Media Pracce vol. 9 no. 3 (November 2008) 'AVPhD issue' [DVD, showcase of prac9ce-based doctorial research in screen media - moving image work on film, video and new media plamorms]. Republished in Charlo2e Crons (ed.) JMP Screenworks [online] vol. 2 (Summer 2011). Bristol: Intellect. doi: 10.1386/jmpr.9.1.5/2. Available: h2p://jmpscreenworks.com/page/vol2 2010. 'Memories wanted' [wri2en response to film frame no. 29, with photographs and video, 16 December 2010], in Nick Rombes (ed. and curator) REQUIEM // 102 minute #29 (2010-2011) Detroit: University of Detroit Mercy. Available: h2p://requiem102.tumblr.com/post/2337419526/post-29 2011. 'White Body' [film, with ar9st’s wri2en statement] HerStory [DVD, publicaon for exhibi9on, 8 June-8 July 2011, Link Gallery, University of Winchester]. Winchester: Women’s Work. 2011. 'White Body: anima9ng feminine pleasure' [paper, wri2en cri9cal reflec9on, and s9ll from film; with film embedded online] Body, Space and Technology Journal vol. 10 no. 2 (Summer 2011) [print and online]. Brunel University, West London. ISSN 1470-9120. Available: h2p://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol1002/home.html 2012. 'Making Glass' [video essay, and video art], with Stuart Moore, in Anne2e Arlander, Yvon Bonenfant, and Mary Agnes Covey-Krell (eds. and curators). Ex-trauma: the opposite of the trauma5c, 'Experiments and intensi9es' series vol. 2 (November 2012). Winchester: University of Winchester Press. ISBN 978-1-906113-04-9. Available: h2p://www.experimentsandintensi9es.com/published/vol-2/ 2013. 'Jamming the machine: The personal-poli9cal in Annabel Nicolson’s Reel Time' [chapter] in Rebecca Emme2 (ed.) in The arts and popular culture in history: proceedings of The Role of Arts in History cross-disciplinary conference. Plymouth: University of Plymouth Press (UPP). ISBN: 978-184-102-355-7. Publica9on date: 1 September 2013. 2014. 'Blobs in tartan colours: Margaret Tait's Painted Eightsome' [essay] in Eileen Rositzka and Amber Shields (eds.) Frames Cinema Journal vol. 5 'Framing anima9on' issue (November 2014). Fife: University of St Andrews. Available: h2p:/ /framescinemajournal.com/ - 8 - Presentaons Papers Presented 23 January 2008. 'The material and the maternal', Media and Photography research seminar; Plymouth University. 29 April 2008. 'These restless hands', research seminar; Plymouth College of Art and Design. 19 February 2009. 'Shape-shining, slutswool, and spaces between', f-word feminist research symposium, organised by James Daybell, Mairie Mackie, Roberta Mock, Kayla Parker, and Liz Wells; Plymouth University. 1 April 2009. 'Feeling for nature', Land/Water and the Visual Arts research seminar; Plymouth University. 9 March 2010. 'Seeing the vulva: adop9ng strategic essen9alism as a means of disrup9ng phallogocentrism, finding a subjec9ve voice, and picturing difference', f- word 2 feminist interdisciplinary research symposium, organised by James Daybell, Mairie Mackie, Roberta Mock, and Kayla Parker; Plymouth University. 5 May 2010. 'Arial visions: touching the seen and unseen', Land/Water and the Visual Arts research seminar; Plymouth University. 13 July 2010. 'Verge 360: beyond the frame', with Stuart Moore, Anima5on devia5on symposium, School of Crea9ve Arts, University of the West of England; Bower Ashton, Bristol. 3 September 2010. 'The moving image screen as a site for feminine pleasure', Radical Bri5sh screens symposium, School of Crea9ve Arts at University of the West of England and Screen Studies South West Network; Bush House, Bristol. 19 January 2011. 'Direct anima9on: Margaret Tait, Caroline Leaf and Annabel Nicolson', Land/Water and the Visual Arts research seminar; Plymouth University. 16 November 2011. 'Looking through Glass', art + sound research seminar; Plymouth University. 9 February 2012. 'Making Glass: towards a crea9ve research methodology', Theatre, Dance and Performing Arts research seminar; Plymouth