The relationship animation has regarding memory, trauma, and nostalgia are all aspects that can be looked into in further depth. The subconscious understanding an individual has of the “fakeness” regarding the animated picture and understanding the human craftsman behind each shot breaks the barrier between media and real life. This empathises the essence of human manipulation, especially regarding stop motion, which is reminiscent of that of childhood playtime with toys (Walden, 2019: 82). Particularly accentuating this is the Pixar film “Toy Story” (Lasseter, 1995) as it gives the viewers the perceptual understanding that what they are perceiving is graphically produced in its stylised manner. It brings forward the real-world human association with todays and childhood that build a sense of nostalgia in the viewer. Another film that aids this aesthetically is Coraline (Selick, 2009). The toy-like perceptions and signs assist the overall context of the film, with a lot of the themes revolving around childhood and playtime. Aesthetically it is also worth mentioning that this nostalgic essence of design does not work as effectively with computer-generated hyper-realism due to phenomenons such as Masahiro Moris’ Uncanny Valley’, as this causes viewers feelings of discomfort in a way that affects memory and trauma theorised by Freud to remind a viewer of their own repressed childhood traumatic events (2003).
McLuhan’s understanding media (1987) delves into the idea that media can act as an extension of the human experience, thereby making individual experiences associative with the stories that they consume (McLuhan in Walden, 2019). Walden mentions the work of Alison Landsburg and how her argument states that media serves as a “prosthetic” that coaxes viewers into experiencing an extent of the emotional and bodily reactions and history displayed on the screen that they have never engaged with on a personal level (2019:82). Interestingly, the psychological and emotional impact that media (like animation) seems to partake in society is interesting. It is something I would potentially investigate further as a potential research project. Media proposes a never-ending loop of raising expectations of life while simultaneously providing comfort for those who feel their lives are lacking, highlighting success as a medium of entertainment.
In its relation to the animated documentary, it has been mentioned how animation has the ability to “emphasise subjective reality” and allows exploration of the movement and reactions of historical events not able to be represented through photographic imagery (Walden, 2019:83). The portrayal of historical accounts through animation from the perspective of a group of people can be portrayed in a light that might not be historically possible to provide photographically ( for example, manipulated and controlled imagery from the holocaust) (Walden, 2019). Using animation as a tool to assist documentary film can highlight the formation of memories from the “Organic and the non-organic, the past and the present for the future” (Walden, 2019: 84). Creating and understanding visually to a viewer the specific context of an event in time and reality. This prevalence can help underline the potential significance of the animated documentary as a medium, despite its controversy of not portraying real life. An example Walden provides to illustrate this point further is ‘abductees’ (Vesters, 1994), as animated imagery depicts things that are not possible in live-action, such as people accounts of alien abduction.
Paul Vester, interested in untutored and’ technically bad’ art, found a certain beauty in them that is reflective in Abductees styles (Kitson, 2008). The different animators used to differentiate the abductees’ stories are also based on `illustrations done by the abductees themselves, who are all just ‘ordinary’ non artistically trained citizens (Kitson, 2008). As Hodgson (one of the Animators visualising the stories) mentions:
“The idea that a memory is not a solid thing, but something that changes over time could be visualised with subtle multilayering of slightly different versions of the same information” (Hodgson in Kitson, 2008, p. 154)
The intentionality behind the animation insinuates how controlled and stylistic aspects of experience can be presented at times even more accurately than live-action, especially in the instance of claimed alien abductions.
List of Figures-
.VESTER, Paul. 1994 [Film Still]. Abductees. United Kingdom: speedy films.
Bibliography-
.KITSON, C. 2008. “British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor”. Indiana: Indiana University Press. Pp-152-156.
.WALDEN, G, V. 2019. “Animation and Memory” in “The Animated Studies Reader“. Edited by Nichola Dobon, Abbavekke Honess Roe, Amy Ratelle and Caroline Ruddell. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.
Potential sources for further research-
.Monochrome Mickey: Modern Nostalgia Texts and the Animated Star Image: EBSCOhost (oclc.org)
Full details and actions for Understanding media: a popular philosophy (oclc.org)