The 22nd Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference

Carol MacGillivray

The Darwinian rise of Urban Kinetics

Abstract:
Exp
loring the implications of an apparent new genre in animation; kinetic models that conceptualise change in space/time and address audiences outside of broadcast media. This paper asks; has a change in audience wrought a new formalism for animation? Drawing on examples of the author’s own work and analysing kinetic and ‘outsider’ animation, the paper reveals how new media and conceptualisations of kinetic expression are changing the landscape of the animation discipline. Like traditional animation, Urban Kinetics has the signature of making the impossible possible; that ‘wow’ factor and appeal that is so eagerly sought by advertisers. Is it animation’s future?

Biographical statement: Carol started her career as a film editor and animator working in claymation and later CGI. An interest in combining theoretical research with practice has led Carol to undertake a PhD in Arts and Computational Technology at Goldsmiths University. This paper combines theory with art practice drawing on Carol’s recent kinetic artworks featured at London’s Kinetica Exhibition and her PhD research into the Psychology of Kinetic Perception. Carol’s paper, ‘How Psychophysical Perception of Motion and Image relates to Animation Practice’ was runner-up for the S.A.S. McLaren/Lambart Essay Award in 2008.