Paul Wells has provided an abstract of his closing keynote paper to get you in the mood:
Another Fine Messi : Animation, Sport and Theorising Fascination
As the Society for Animation Studies Conference collides with the World Cup Football Finals, animation and top class sporting action once more vie for attention, each provoking the other to find out what brings them together – both the epitome of consciously created motion for a specific, pre-determined purpose, both a language of expression for a particular gaze.
Football’s own ‘professor’, Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger, recently described Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi’s dazzling performance against his team in the Champions League quarter finals, as that of a ‘Playstation’ player. This is not the first time that animated figures have been cited as a way of thinking about sporting practices, ranging inevitably from critiques predicated on ‘cartoon’ humour through to acknowledgements of the relationship between animated choreographies and the lyrical beauty of sporting activity.
Perhaps more importantly, and less recognised is that sport has been intrinsically bound up with animation right from its outset. Arguably, Arthur Melbourne Cooper’s animated matches playing volleyball and cricket in films made in 1896 are the first extant animated films per se, and inaugurate a history of sporting animation which plays itself out, for example, through British topical cartoons, Goofy’s sporting response to the radicalism of Warner Bros’ and MGM shorts, Anime’s preoccupation with baseball and sci-fi, arthouse engagements with sport and memory, and the gender-sensitive sporting representations in global advertising.
This paper will address this history, seeking to determine how execution and expression in animation and sport come together, and may be theorised by seeking out the fundamentals and fascinations of ‘the sporting animus’, and how this in turn may provide tools by which to articulate why animation and sport are so similar, attractive, intense and emotionally provocative.
Showing posts with label Paul Wells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Wells. Show all posts
Keynote Speakers
The opening Keynote address at Animation Evolution will be delivered by Clare Kitson.
Clare Kitson organised animation programmes at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the early 70s and in 1978 became programme officer for the National Film Theatre and London Film Festival. In 1989 she joined Channel 4, where she commissioned many award-winning animated shorts and series. She also launched schemes with the Arts Council and the Museum of the Moving Image, which aimed to encourage innovation and to give young animators their first professional opportunity. In 1999 Clare was awarded the ASIFA Special Award for her contribution to British animation. She left Channel 4 in September 1999 and completed the initial stage of research into Yuri Norstein’s Tale of Tales in the context of a readership at the Animation Research Centre of the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Her book Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey was published in 2005 and her subsequent book, British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, appeared in November 2008. In 2008 she received the Animafest Zagreb award for outstanding achievement in animation theory. She has also translated two books about animation.
The closing Keynote address will be given by Paul Wells
Professor Paul Wells is Director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University, UK. He has published widely in the field of Animation Studies, including ‘Understanding Animation’ (Routledge), ‘Animation : Genre & Authorship’ (Wallflower), ‘Animation and America’ (EUP), ‘Fundamentals of Animation’ (AVA Academia), ‘Halas & Batchelor Cartoons : An Animated History’ (with Vivien Halas) (Southbank Publishing), ‘Re-Imagining Animation (with Johnny Hardstaff) and ‘Drawing for Animation’ (with Joanna Quinn) (both AVA Academia).
Paul is also an established scriptwriter and director for theatre, TV and radio, and has conducted workshops worldwide based on his book ‘Scriptwriting’ (AVA Academia), and was a consultant for the BBC’s ‘Animation Nation’. His most recent book is ‘The Animated Bestiary’ (Rutgers) looking at representations of animals in animated films. In the last year, he has directed two short documentaries – ‘From Fab Four to Ethel & Ernest’, about John Coates, pioneering producer at TVC, and ‘Taking a Country Road’, about leading animation editor, Tony Fish.
Paul is at present preparing further publications, including a journal for animation practice, and a major exhibition. He is also involved with script development on a number of projects, and is part of a steering group for an initiative seeking to create a British Animation Archive.
Clare Kitson organised animation programmes at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the early 70s and in 1978 became programme officer for the National Film Theatre and London Film Festival. In 1989 she joined Channel 4, where she commissioned many award-winning animated shorts and series. She also launched schemes with the Arts Council and the Museum of the Moving Image, which aimed to encourage innovation and to give young animators their first professional opportunity. In 1999 Clare was awarded the ASIFA Special Award for her contribution to British animation. She left Channel 4 in September 1999 and completed the initial stage of research into Yuri Norstein’s Tale of Tales in the context of a readership at the Animation Research Centre of the Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Her book Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey was published in 2005 and her subsequent book, British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, appeared in November 2008. In 2008 she received the Animafest Zagreb award for outstanding achievement in animation theory. She has also translated two books about animation.
The closing Keynote address will be given by Paul Wells
Professor Paul Wells is Director of the Animation Academy at Loughborough University, UK. He has published widely in the field of Animation Studies, including ‘Understanding Animation’ (Routledge), ‘Animation : Genre & Authorship’ (Wallflower), ‘Animation and America’ (EUP), ‘Fundamentals of Animation’ (AVA Academia), ‘Halas & Batchelor Cartoons : An Animated History’ (with Vivien Halas) (Southbank Publishing), ‘Re-Imagining Animation (with Johnny Hardstaff) and ‘Drawing for Animation’ (with Joanna Quinn) (both AVA Academia).
Paul is also an established scriptwriter and director for theatre, TV and radio, and has conducted workshops worldwide based on his book ‘Scriptwriting’ (AVA Academia), and was a consultant for the BBC’s ‘Animation Nation’. His most recent book is ‘The Animated Bestiary’ (Rutgers) looking at representations of animals in animated films. In the last year, he has directed two short documentaries – ‘From Fab Four to Ethel & Ernest’, about John Coates, pioneering producer at TVC, and ‘Taking a Country Road’, about leading animation editor, Tony Fish.
Paul is at present preparing further publications, including a journal for animation practice, and a major exhibition. He is also involved with script development on a number of projects, and is part of a steering group for an initiative seeking to create a British Animation Archive.