Strands

STRAND 1: Hybrid Media Studio: Little Gods

Paul Vester & Rose Bond, July 13-24

IM355-0 (3 credits)
Pre-requisites: IM251 or equivalent

Space is limited. To Register please call Cassandra Chang at 503.821.8903.

Syllabus→

This is an upper division hybrid studio course. Students will work with a theme to produce a time-based piece for exhibition at the end of this two-week course. Using a workshop setting, participants will analyze the principles of animation as a medium for producing movement in order to apply approaches to expanding notions of sequential imaging. Emphasis will be placed on advanced skills in creative practice, critical thinking and oral and written communication as a means to investigate the possibilities of the use animation, with a focus on creating meanings and activating spaces. Software programs available for use include Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack, Photoshop, Flash, LunchBox Sync and After Effects. This studio intensive course is structured by lectures and screenings on historical and contemporary art and ideas, collaborative project development, discussions of readings, and critiques of work in progress to support in-depth explorations.

For people who have a good command of software tools, some experience with animation and a desire to make something now.

About the theme: Little Gods
There is no location in the brain for a sense of self. Our notion of a soul or spirit must be replaced by the notion of a distributed neuronal process. There is no free will: the idea of making “conscious decisions from a little self inside” must be discarded. We are machines for copying and handing on bits of culture. We are part of a multi-dimensional and multi-universed entity that is doing its stuff.

In this context the idea of a single god-figure, especially one that recognizes us as individuals, seems somewhat limited. From what we know there are no real singularities in the universe. Let us therefore bring back the little gods. They are waiting to be rediscovered and re-appropriated. They are, in other words, out there and quite available, somewhat neglected; possibly forlorn even, unrecognized. How do we find them and reconnect to them? The purpose of this workshop is to Look for the Little Gods.

We shall do this by investigating the magic of objects, concepts and notions that we have one way or another invested with special meaning: talismans and charms, lucky articles, measurements, numbers, clocks, calendars, schedules and routines, weekends, the dollar, drugs, medicines, caffeine, clothing that bestows power of one kind or another, speed, sex, success, achievement, popularity, recognition, denying our mortality with works that we shall leave behind to say “I was here”, oracles, horoscopes, memories, families, favorite things – stuff that endows our lives with a sensation of meaning and helps us get through our days.

STRAND 2A: Devising Narrative Structures: Script & Storyboard

Paul Wells, July 13-17

IM305-1/ IM4051 (1.5 credits)
Pre-requisites: IM201 or equivalent

Space is limited. To Register please call Cassandra Chang at 503.821.8903.

Syllabus→

This one-week upper division course will investigate narrative construction, both implied and explicit, through the frame of literature, film and critical theory with a focus on developing animated narratives. Through applied exercises, lecture/screenings, critiques and discussions of readings, participants will explore how the particular language of animation can be used to create original and challenging work. Projects will address associative thinking, visualization, narrative events, event analysis, and structural processes with direct reference to comic forms, documentary and experimental practice. Through collaborative, provocative, and spirited investigations of a variety of approaches, students will engage in advanced critical thinking as a means to investigate narrative structures and creative practice within moving image arts.

For illustrators, writers, and creative’s who want to know more about how animation works to propel story and meaning. For people who may be pondering their own idea or work collaboratively with a creative team.

STRAND 3: Animation Aesthetics: Artefact to Media/ Text, Image, Sound

Prof Dr. Suzanne Buchan, July 13-24

AH415/ 515 (3 credits)
Pre-requisites: AH 300 level, or consent of instructor

Space is limited. To Register please call Cassandra Chang at 503.821.8903.

Syllabus→

This theory-based upper-division course utilizes the central concepts of Film and Media studies to provide participants with an assortment of instruments for visual/aural comprehension, analysis, and enjoyment of films made outside commercial hegemonies and beyond traditional screen formats. Understanding the complex aesthetics of independent animation requires a varied and interdisciplinary approach. During the first week, the artefact and its translation to the animated image will be the focus – tracing a trajectory from pre-cinematic manifestations to the Avant-garde. Week two concentrates on critical engagement and analysis of the interplay of text and image, from celluloid to digital and installation, and includes explorations of the sound track. The process of creating “the manipulated moving image” (a term Buchan prefers to the nebulous one of animation) is built upon the histories, theories, and relationships of Fine Arts, Architecture, and Literary and Critical Theory. The course introduces students to master’s level reading, writing and thinking and teaches advanced research methodology. Students read a variety of scholarly and critical articles, view and analyse a wide range of films, complete at least one research project, and actively participate in discussions.

For thinkers, artists, and students hungry for contemporary ‘art history’ who want to soak in ideas, see significant work, and research their own related interests.