In this post, I describe some of my interactive animated artworks that incorporate archival sources. In particular, I focus on three titles: Flora (2018)–which is on view at the Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego, CA) in the exhibition Illusion:…
Animation Archives
Animation’s Uncharted Territories and the Archive Issue: The Tunisian Case
by Maya Ben Ayed • March 16, 2020 • 1 Comment
The absence of a memorial policy for animated films, in Tunisia and throughout Africa and the Middle East, is mainly explained by a lack of awareness of this art not only among the large audience but also among the insiders.…
‘Scrutinizing the Archive’: A Response to Chris Pallant
by Nichola Dobson • March 9, 2020 • 0 Comments
The recent post by Chris Pallant on the value of archives was indeed a great rally call for the value of the hidden treasures which archives can provide. As many of you know, I am one of those Chris identifies…
Archiving Animation: A 10,000 Foot View
by Chris deWitt • March 2, 2020 • 2 Comments
Our society is either at the precipice of the most significant informational loss or the beginning of a new golden age of recorded information. The capabilities of the Internet, much like film and the printing press, has skewed our collective…
Animation Archives: We’ve Got Your Back
by Chris Pallant • February 24, 2020 • 2 Comments
Archives are divine. They have the power to transport us back to a forgotten time; they can suggest, with tantalizing incompleteness, new revelations about a hitherto familiar subject; and they can bend, warp, break, and remake history. Archives are also…
A Treasure Still to Digitalize: Arthur Humberstone’s Private Archive
by Nigel Humberstone • February 17, 2020 • 1 Comment
When our late father, Arthur Humberstone, died on the eve of the millennium, we did not anticipate that we were to inherit a historical animation archive. It was ordinary everyday life for us to pass the door of his pencil-scented…
Neglect and Omission: Irish Animation Archives
by Yvonne Hennessy • February 10, 2020 • 2 Comments
Ireland’s geographical position is an important factor to consider when taking into account the animation practices and techniques that were developing in both North America and Europe during the early-twentieth-century. Irish artists and filmmakers traveled widely for education and exhibition…
After Decades of Obscurity an Animation Legend Receives His Due
by J.J. Sedelmaier • March 5, 2018 • 0 Comments
Several years ago, I wrote an article for Print Magazine’s online blog Imprint about a book written by artist/cartoonist Edwin George “E.G.” Lutz – a 1920 manual titled Animated Cartoons – How They Are Made Their Origin and Development. According…
At the Archive: Access, Preservation and Discoveries
by Cindy Keefer • June 30, 2015 • 2 Comments
The Center for Visual Music (CVM), a nonprofit archive based in Los Angeles dedicated to visual music and experimental animation, has extensive mixed media animation collections. Its largest collections are the films of Oskar Fischinger and Jordan Belson, plus Fischinger’s…
Animation Archives: Process and Materiality
by Mette Peters • June 22, 2015 • 0 Comments
The animation process often combines film and fine arts practices, whether for experimental or commercial production. Animation filmmakers make use of commercially available artist supplies (paints, inks, brushes, pencils) and specific equipment (pegbars or drawing tables), but also more unconventional…