I was not interested and confused during the lesson but really tried my best to understand those complicated terms. The very one part I was aware of was the part where we discussed about animation auteur. It is said that persistent view that animation is largely for a children's audience which is not interested in issue of authorship and I think this is totally wrong. Also, it is also said that the conception idea of animation compare to other area of art, for example fine art, is absolutely unfair to us as animators. General public always put a stereotype on fine art or any other subjects that they are not familiar with and think they are high class or they are the true art. However, they have neglected the efforts, the ideas and the messages behind an animation which should have treated as equal as the 'noble fine art'.
This thought reminds my of a video about two people served McDonald's food at one of the most popular cusine exhibitions in Europe, as organic snacks. Most people think the food taste amazing and rich in flavour, they were blind by the surrounding and probably has set a stereotype on organic food that they are really good for health. I think the respond would be the same if they turned it round and put real organic food into a McDonald's box, they would reject eating them and talked about how unhealthy the food tasted?
After this seminar, I was more sure about choosing animation as my future career and I hope my work could change the misunderstanding of the public in the future. There were also other issues we talked about at the seminar but I am only interested in this one. I might need to do some further research on the rest and rethink about what I have learnt from it.
How do we define good illustration? It should have a message or cause emotional impact to the audience.
I really enjoy this lecture because it is about illustration which is closely link to animation and my own interest. I have learnt to differ an illustration and a drawing, an illustration is foundational and it is used with the context of visual communication to convey meaning or concept.
Different illustrations are different in their concept, aesthetic, function and purpose, most obvious illustrations are embracing the artists' tone of voice. Tone of voices are for example the crafting, consistency of art and individuality that will inform the artist success as an applied artist. Therefore an illustration is a combination of individual visual aesthetic and the use of functional symbols. There are a great demand of illustrators in the art industry, they are nearly capable to do every job using their unique aesthetic and ability to communicate through pictures. They have potential to overlap with other communities of creative practice and are able to develop stronger relationship with the audience.
I feel like illustration is essential for life. Animation is illustration, graphic is illustration vice versa. It spreads through the whole art industry and artists are illustrators. I appreciate the fact that I can illustrate characters and other things while studying animation and this takes illustration to another level, not only showing the message behind silently but dynamically with movement and sound.
The lecture was not particularly enjoyable because I did not connect with the topic and I was a bit mess up the concept of this lecture. The lecture is about the power of print and how it is important for communication, reproduction of information and distribution. It is believe that print has already being used since ancient time and was already used in communication. It got to a point that the lecturer talked about types and graphics and this is where I was confused about the lecture. I did not think she has explained much about the true meaning of printing and the lecture was a bit off topic.
Nevertheless, after this lecture, I am aware of different kinds of types and how the colours could make a big impact visually and logically on prints. Personally, what is special about print is the organic touch and the humanity that shown on paper through the ink and paint. This is why we do not create mental connection with digital print as strong as traditional print and this is why traditional printing was so popular at the past and now. However, the obsession of efficiency in today's world has rejected the traditional print as it is time consuming and requires effort. This is definitely a lost to the human beings culture and the true meanings of print is fading away with time.
The lecture we had about genre was informative and made me think outside the box. I have never heard of the term 'genre' before this lesson, it was a bit difficult to understand at the start but I could slowly get the idea as the lecture went on. Genre is used to categorise the types of films and is suppose to differ them from each other. However, it is believe that it sets a stereotype that could limit the types of audience or mislead them and genre is gradually becoming contradiction and deficient.
Here are some genetic plots:
Maturation (coming to age)
Redemption (Character transforms from bad to good)
Punitive (character behaves badly and get punished)
Testing (willpower versus temptation)
Education (move from negative to positive perception of the world)
Disillusionment (reverse to educate)
These plots always appear in films and audience could easily guess the flow of the story and normally allows a film to be more understandable.
I am not good at judging and critical thinking so I will just type what appeared in my head during that lesson. Basically, I think genre is a good classification for people like me who is not a 'film watcher' and giving a film a genre could help preventing discomfort and time wasting. It aids audience to choose a type of experience they want to go through at that time for example I would not want to watch a horror movie when I was happy (very personal). It is definitely helpful but at some point, it limits me from exploring different kinds of movies that might also interests me. At the end, is it that vital to have a genre? I would say yes because it makes our life easier and reduce confusion.
I really have no idea how to catagorise a film as it could share various genres, would people decide on what it mainly contains? or they classify whatever they want? I think genre has been facing a change since the technology has become popular. At the past, only the rich could enjoy films, but now, everyone could watch films online, on DVD or go to cinema therefore the accessibility is no longer limited so that the filming market expands and equally as the genres.
Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids Season 2 Episode 4
For example, this cartoon is classified for children but it is sort of horror at the same time. Might this have a bad influence on children or scared them when they are watching 'kid's' cartoon? This is something we have to think about when making an animation. I enjoyed this lecture as I was able to learn some minor problems we face in every day life and could really have a good reflection on the society and cultural factors that may cause the confusion of genre. The discussion the class had was useful and full of power views which is mind provoking.
We are introduced to the topic history of type in a variety of way at the beginning of the lecture, showing how the types can affect the reaction and respond of the receivers. It is suggested that types can mean more than just words and have the ability to control the way people respond. Typography is the overlap between visual and verbal communication and words therefore it is more than just reading words but to create meanings from them which is how our brain functions.
American Psycho
It is a really funny scene to see the characters react sarcastic about the type and layout of the business cards and what the lecturer want to say is the power of type.
In the past, people how create type had some shuttle idea for examples type should represent who you are and how the proportion of the letter should be related to human shapes where type became disciplined and not a lot of people can access type. There are huge amount of new types appearing in nowadays society, the technology can create consistence type by computer and increase ability for people to create and play around type individually. The types are now designed away from grid or animal human related classical style but new perspective of seeing the world. What's more, it increases and improves order, organisation of the type followed by the change of the society. We are also given example of the use of Gill Sans and Time New Roman, suggesting the different meanings and used in different ways.
I am really inspired and interested in this lecture as I have never noticed the power of types and how I have already benign affected in daily life. I may consider carefully from now on when choosing a type that is relevant with the historical and cultural background with the content and how to present it.
The context of practice seminar we had on tuesday was all about considering the context of animation or art. I was not sure about the word context and though it is meant content. We were told the meaning of context is about the which, what, when, who and how of the art piece. I think it is very important for us as the artist in this new generation to learn how to look at a art piece and to discuss it so as to learn seeing things in from a different angle and also understand the true meanings that the artists wanted to show publicly.
There were two pictures given to us to discuss, the first one is the cover page of the Time magazine, showing the crash of the World Trade Centre on 9/11, 2001. The feeling of panic and horror had instantly rushed to my head as this is one of the most unbelievable terrorist attacks in the globe. When we were asked about the comments of this crisis, I did not say anything due to my poor English but I actually very interested in the conspiracy (after googling it now I know what it is called in English )within it. There are a lot of documentaries on youtube that I suggest everyone should have a good reconsider and think about the meaning behind this event. We were talking about the date we saw this news on TV and it was amazing how nearly everyone of class remember this so well and had a great feeling about that on the day they watched the news. For me, I did not know this is a serious crisis and was not taking this seriously due to the young age and the poor sense of politic at that time. I had a feeling that I need to know more about the politics and keep update with the news while listening to other's comments on this cover page.
With a really serious emotion, we were introduced to this ridiculous CD cover. The first thing came to my head were, what are those two idiots doing; it is so offensive to the people who past away or have suffered from serious mental and physical damages since that date. I think they are disgraceful as a citizen and the whole design is just awful. However, this CD cover was surprising released before 9/11/2001, what a coincidence. The feeling before had gone unexpectedly and I feel sorry for those 'singers'. I think the way we think are so easily changed by looking at a different way or know the meaning behind, I indignantly changed my thought of the CD cover and feel so shame about it. Understanding the context of an art piece or everything is vital in responding and judging correctly and learning to learn is equally important. I found this seminar extremely thought provoking and I enjoy theoretical lessons like this where I can listen and respond and learn from others.
We were also given two animations to analyse:
Jiri Trnka, The Hand, 1965
The first emotion after
watching this animation was uneasy and quite gloomy. There are no speech
or catalogue in this animation where as the sound effects and images speak
for him. I see the main puppet character as the artists or normal citizens in a
country. He seems like a pottery artist who specifically makes pots for
his treasure plant which he gives careful care and protection to. There is a
big hand keeps harassing him from his daily life. It brainwash him by forcing
the puppet to watch documents about how good the hand is and to force him to
make statue out of him. To me, the hand indicates the government or any power
to control others, stopping the artists from creating and confiscate their
freedom. The puppet fights so hard against the hand but unfortunately he is so
weak to win and therefore he is captive and controlled to work in a birdcage.
The hand gives him badges and awards but they mean nothing to him. At the
end, the puppet escapes but no one is waiting
for him but death. The meaning behind is deep and considerable. As a citizen,
should we agree everything the government suggests even they could be
wrong? This allows me to relate to Hong Kong nowadays, where the protesters are
fighting against the government for their own right to elect the chief
executive. He
is weak and vulnerable when fighting alone
but what if the puppet has friends or a group of teammates, the ending of the
story might change into a happy ending. I think the settings and the sound
effects are absolutely amazing, I feel so tense when the thrilling music
comes and I think the music has successfully bring the right atmosphere to the
animation. The settings are delicately made and the use of different material
allows textural experience to the audience. I also like the storyline, which
slowly and clearly bring out the topic, the camera angles are also well
planned to show key moments in order to explain the story in detail.
Dusan Vokotic & Zagreb Film, Surogat, 1961
The animation graphic and
has an old style of art that the characters and stage are mainly consist of
simple lines and shapes. Again, this animation is also no catalogue but
this time the main character whistle to show his mood. At first, the little man
goes to the beach and pulls out a lot of random shapes out and starts
inflating them into different objects. I laughed when he hangs the fish on the
hook to pretend he catches it, good sense of humor and brilliantly
use of the props. He then inflates a relatively sexy lady so as to fit his
prefect vacation however a hot guy ruins his plan. Eventually, he manages to
get over it and pack up home but the ending is quite un-expectable where he is
also deflated. I think the story is easy to understand and I do not see any
complicated meaning behind but it amazed me by its creativity. I appreciate the
use of shapes and the colour, which simplify the animation and suitable to any
age group. The idea of deflating the things he unwanted is useful but too much erases
might leads to the death of him. Liny illustration is something I have never
tried before, there are a lot of useful materials in the animation I can take reference
from and I hope to try this working style.
Visual Literacy - The Language of Design by Fred Bates
From the lecture, we are informed that the visual literacy is the ability to interpret the meaning of the image based on the idea that pictures can be read.There should be an agreement amongst a group of people that an image has the meaning results from the exit contexts and it is a combination of universal and cultural symbols that will stand for another. People how try to understand the 'language' should require the awareness of the relationship between visual syntax and visual semantic which refer to the visual organisation of elements for instance format, colour or shape.
Visual Literacy is all about the words in pictures and the how we can understand a certain symbols or signs that are used worldwide and in our everyday life. The way we can interpret the meanings f the images maybe vary due to different audience, context or media but most of the time we can share an understanding of them. Images are powerful tools to spread messages around, they are visually simple and efficient; they are also flexible in embracing different meaning when companied by other symbols for example, = is equal, adding a slash / will reverse the meaning into ≠ which is not equal. Semiotics are vitally important for artist like us who communicate visually to the audience by sharing understanding about the symbols and pictures. It is all about how we shape the image to allow others to acknowledge the meanings behind and which may requires some cultural references and social ideals and other basic knowledge about world. This is like how red would be referred to apple; orange would be referred to orange etc. The lecture also suggests that every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent and it is all about the visual synecdoche, metonym & metaphor ( Scary words!) As an artist, I think paying attention to the surrounding is the key to have a common understanding with the audience is very important in creating a successful and effective art to communicate visually.
