This lecture as the title suggests was looking in to the histor(ies) of animation. The word 'histories' being used and not 'history' due to the plurality and complexity of history. Tony Fry refers to histories as 'an affront to personal memory'.
The 'motif' for the lecture was an animation called 'The Wolfman' by Tim Hope, made in 1999 it went against the realism of its time.
We then went through a sort of timeline of animation in terms of the different processes and technology that were used to animate over time.
Zeotrope - invented in 1834 by a mathmetician
Rotoscope - invented in 1915 by Max Fleischer
Cell Animation - invented in 1915
Rotoscoping was used as a way to trace live action and introduced slow life like animation. Two examples are Koko the Clown and Gertie the Dinosaur, 1914 which show an interesting perspective of technique/fluid animation 'world building' and creating of the fantastic -> Nemo in Slumberland.
We then looked at Realism vs Anti-realism.
Realism being everything that is stable - ordered world - linear consistencies - character, predict behaviour, cause and effect, regularities, story with predictable pattern.
Anti- realism is the opposite. Chaotic scenario (examples: Bruce Bickerford, Prometheus' Garden, 1988 + Emile Cohl - Fantasmagorie, 1908 - often positioned as very first animation -> no constant narrative) Inversion of social order.
Early animation was abstract and experimental. Influence of Kandinsky and the Bauhaus in terms of relationship between colour and shape. 'The Critic' is a parody of abstract animation.
Even though my course area is Graphic Design I did find this lecture quite engaging, learning about the early animation techniques.
