*CFP* "ANIMATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY. RETHINKING IMAGES AND TECHNOLOGY", 27TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FILM STUDIES

Animation in the 21st Century. Rethinking Images and Technology

27th International Conference of Film Studies

Rome, 25-26 November 2021

Roma Tre University

Online – Microsoft Teams platform

 

The 27th International Conference of Film Studies Animation in the 21st Century. Rethinking Images and Technology aims to investigate the critical role played by animation in contemporary audio-visual culture. Animated images have a significant and crucial position in current Film and Media Studies: they are the audio-visual horizon in which some of the most decisive and stimulating technological, aesthetic, narrative, political, and cultural challenges are faced. While contemporary works retain some of the fundamental elements of the tradition of animated film, taking them to a new level of sophistication, they also continue to represent a field of absolute experimentation in their audio and visual aspects.

The technological and aesthetic shift from analog to digital and the converging configurations of the contemporary mediascape triggered a resurgence of interest in animation techniques. According to such perspective, the animation is conceived as an essential theoretical axis of moving images and no longer as a specific, secondary genre, separated from live-action cinema (intended mainly for children). Contemporary animated images reformulate numerous acquisitions that define the very concept of cinema, short-circuiting the auroral experiences of the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the most advanced computer frontiers of the 21st Century.

It is the idea of a conceptual and practical re-animation of the “manual techniques” of the past, created by the “digital revolution”, making the boundary between live-action and animated films increasingly blurred (as pointed out by Lev Manovich, 2002). Similarly, Suzanne Buchan speaks of the “pervasiveness” of forms of animation within contemporary visual culture, reconfiguring its imagery, cultural horizons, and stylistic and technical canons (Buchan, 2013). Siegfried Zielinski proposes the idea of “expanded animation”, interpreting it as a “sensational phenomenon” that is part of the category of living machines or those that simulate vital functions (Zielinski, 2013).

The reconsideration addresses the historical and cultural dimension as well, conceiving animation as part of a “world history” (Bendazzi, 2016, 2017) that enhances its transnational dimension and aesthetic principles (Furniss, 1998, 2017). Thomas Lamarre sees animation as the “dominant logic of the moving image” (Lamarre, 2009), presented as a set of expressive forms and techniques used to configure all kinds of practices, genres, stories (or counter-narratives), and to colonize all sorts of media and formats. Indeed, “At every point of social, cultural and artistic development, animation has expressed the continuing tension between a medium in which innovation and creativity can continually take place while aligning with, and depicting the most human of needs, desires, thoughts and feelings” (Wells, 2002).

The conference aims to propose a reflection that examines the dynamics and mechanisms behind the creation of some of the most interesting national and international contemporary animation trends. The topics will place them in close connection with the current media scenario (cinema, advertising, videogames, the web, animated documentaries, TV series, contemporary art, digital culture) and with transmedia aesthetic and narrative forms originating from different cultural paradigms.

The conference will pay particular attention to the conjunction between theories and practices and between mainstream and experimental forms. Hence, it intends to investigate animated films as an industrial, narrative, aesthetic and ideological “system” promoting imaginaries, aesthetics, and values. It also delves into the production of artists who move on the borders, free from conditioning and devoted to the more advanced technological research. Therefore, the conference’s overall aim is to revitalize and address the concept of animation in contemporary visual culture, investigating its theoretical, historical, political, and cultural nature in relation to the new moving images.

The following is an incomplete and non-binding list of possible areas for consideration:

• Theories and practices of animation: styles and aesthetics of new animation products; authorial and consumer poetics; forms of movement and sciences of bios; philosophical implications arising from the relationship between human and posthuman, also in relation to the bodies and models used for the configuration of subjectivity; the animation within the theoretical debate of contemporary Film and Media Studies; 
• Histories: animation studio cultures and styles; auteurs models; animation genres; the global concept and world history; mainstream animated series and transnational media industries; independent productions that exploit alternative distribution channels; the relationship with the new star and studio system; animated production in relation to gender policies; experimental animation (historical avant-gardes, abstract film, art cinema and underground film, video art); 
• Techniques and technologies: between digital and traditional animation; the renewal of animated drawing and computer graphics; experimental animation techniques (hand painted film, pin screen, découpage, stop motion, pixilation, slow motion animation, morphing, sand animation, etc.); artisan and computer technologies; the ambiguity in the theoretical statute of motion and performance capture techniques and technologies; animation professions; the role of user-generated, grassroots animation images and softwares for amateurs; 
• Contexts: global and transnational scenarios; the role of ideology, gender, race, and ethnicity; artivisms and political practices, especially in the scenarios of social media and online sharing; the link between methods of production and expression; analysis of the narrative, aesthetic and cultural aspects that distinguish the films produced by the major American studios (from Disney and Pixar to Dreamworks, from Blue Sky to Illumination Entertainment) in relation to those from other geographical and production contexts (such as Japan, France or Eastern Europe); 
• Reception: the role of the fandom; forms of merchandising; forms of identity, community, and participation; the production dimension and economic aspects; cross-media distribution platforms; the circulation and distribution of contemporary animation; relationships between wide and varied audiences; amateur forms; 
• Interdisciplinarity: animation in film and media, between practices of remediation, adaptation, and transmedia storytelling; relations with advertising, videogames, the web, animated documentaries, television series, contemporary art, digital culture; artistic animation and visual arts; 
• Animation and pedagogy: animation as a Film and Media Literacy tool; animation in the processes of education and awareness of contemporary audio-visual culture; new expressive languages, the use of new technologies, and the evolution of the cultural industry in the Didactics of cinema and audio-visuals; animated film schools; 
• Significant case studies in contemporary animation.

 

Proposals, 300-500 words long, should be sent to (roma3conference@uniroma3.it), accompanied by 3-5 keywords, a short biography, and contact details.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is September 30, 2021. Acceptance will be confirmed by October 8.

Speakers fee: €50.00.

Presentations will last 20 minutes. The languages of the Conference are English and Italian. The Conference will be held both online, via the Teams platform, and in presence.