Over the past few weeks Animation Studies 2.0 has explored the theme of animation and philosophy through posts by Deborah Levitt, Scott Birdwise, Carol MacGillivray, Robby Gilbert, and Bella Honess Roe. I had the privilege of curating this theme and,…
Philosophy
Animation as (Performance) Philosophy
by Bella Honess Roe • December 10, 2018 • 1 Comment
This post is going to make a speculative claim and then ask a speculative question. The claim is that we can think about animation as a type of performance. The question is that if we do so, then what can…
Mind the Gap: Considering the Practice of Animation as a Form of Applied Philosophy
by Robby Gilbert • December 3, 2018 • 6 Comments
Leave the door open to the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, and where you will go. —Rebecca Solnit The mechanics of animation as illustrated by the zoetrope and film shutter…
The D-Scope: A New Medium of Animation that Raises Philosophical Questions about Issues of Time/space and the Ontology of the Screen
by Carol MacGillivary • November 26, 2018 • 3 Comments
Originally christened the Diasynchronoscope in a nod to a rich ancestry of mechanical devices of wonder, the D-Scope is a new tool for investigating the expressive power of embodied screen-less animation. It takes place in an architectural black-out where prepared…
Walking On Thin Air: Agamben and Animation
by Scott Birdwise • November 12, 2018 • 2 Comments
Tricksters or fakes, assistants or ‘toons, they are exemplars of the coming community. — Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community They are animations, disembodiments, pure spirits.— Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed With few exceptions, commentators on Giorgio Agamben’s notion…
Rendering Worlds: Animation-Philosophy, Cosmotechnics, Conviviality
by Deborah Levitt • November 5, 2018 • 10 Comments
1. For theorists of decoloniality, and of the “ontological turn” in anthropology, the concept of a “world of many worlds” has urgent political stakes. Walter Mignolo has long proposed the concept of the pluriverse as a way to think beyond…
Pre-Cinema in the Classroom: The Philosophical Opportunity of Red Raven Movie Records
by Robby Gilbert • October 29, 2018 • 2 Comments
Not long ago I happened upon an original Reynaud praxinoscope for sale in a shop in Paris. Unable to justify its asking price, I began to research more affordable alternatives to share with animation students with whom I have made…