CREATIVE PRACTICE — current posts

Empowering Inclusion through Animation: Pioneering Digital Resources for Cultural Competency at King’s College London

The story began with discussions with colleagues about cultural competence content to train staff and students. I appreciated the unique insights I had on these perspectives, both as an outsider (experiences I had as a non-native) and as an insider (working as an academic in the UK for the past 17 years). Driven by a desire to address this issue, I began exploring the less overt forms of bias, i.e., microaggressions. While explicit biases are widely acknowledged for their impact, implicit biases are subtler and vary significantly based on individual backgrounds, education, and conditioning.

Review: The Evolution of Jim Henson's Puppetry - From Analog Craft to Digital Franchise

Was Jim Henson a puppet master or a Muppet pastor? This pun question, posed by writer and Muppet enthusiast Aimee Knight, has stayed with me since the two-day symposium on the legacy of Henson’s work was held at the University of Bristol – and online – on September 16th and 17th 2022.

EVENT REVIEWJuliana VarelaOctober 14, 2022AMERICA, PUPPETRY, MUPPETS, LABOUR, CREATIVE PRACTICEComment

The Man of Carton

The Man of Carton (2021) is a music video project that uses forms of fantasy and animation to provide a metaphor for, and representation of, a specific type of human behaviour related to psychopathy, exploring the relationships between emotion, empathy, and behaviour. Psychopathy’s most significant and dominant characteristics are traditionally understood as the reification of humans, a perceived lack of emotion, a need to corrupt or cause harm or pain to others, and a complex relationship to modes of innocence.

EDITORIALA. MartiApril 21, 2022CREATIVE PRACTICE, MUSIC, MUSIC VIDEO, PRODUCTIONComment

The Digital Life of The Thief and the Cobbler: Fan-editing and Film Reconfiguration

The climactic sequence of The Thief and the Cobbler/The Princess and the Cobbler/Arabian Knight (unfinished, 1993, 1995, Richard Williams) or the ‘War Machine sequence’ - as it is commonly found on YouTube - is a long and intricate piece of experimental animation.

EDITORIALJuliana VarelaFebruary 11, 2022UNMADE CINEMA, ANIMATION, HOLLYWOOD, ADAPTATION, CREATIVE PRACTICE, YOUTUBE, INTERNETComment

What does fantasy sound like? Finding a new sound for the Fantasy-Animation podcast

Imagination is deeply intertwined with sensorial experience. One sensorial perception can prompt us to imagine a whole setting to go with it, and function as a catalyst for both simple and extremely complex cognitive processes (Berger, 2016). Sound can be a powerful tool to invite the audience to experience something that is not actually there, and because of this, it has been extensively used for world-building and character development within a range of animated and fantasy media.

EDITORIALFrancisca NaranjoNovember 12, 2021THEME, MUSIC, SOUND, SOUND DESIGN, CREATIVITY, CREATIVE PRACTICE Comments

The Transition from Subject to Producer: Longhorn Miao’s Participatory Collaboration in Animation

The development of animated documentaries has expanded the functions of animation art, including recording the culture and life of ethnic minority communities or particular social groups and conveying their voices. Animations like The Stitches Speak (Nina Sabnani, 2009) and They Call Us Maids: The Domestic Workers' Story (Leeds Animation Workshop, 2018) endeavoured to make animation content represent the subjects’ views more accurately.

EDITORIALYijing WangAugust 20, 2021DOCUMENTARY, LABOUR, CREATIVE PRACTICE, ASIAN ANIMATIONComment

Review: Ray Harryhausen - Titan of Cinema

When it comes to the subject of the relationship between fantasy and animation, few bodies of work are as pertinent to the conversation as the special effects of Ray Harryhausen. The Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema exhibit was set to open in Edinburgh in the summer of 2020 at the National Galleries of Scotland.

EVENT REVIEWToby JungiusJune 11, 2021CHARACTER, STOP-MOTION, ANIMATION, FANTASY, LABOUR, CREATIVE PRACTICE, MONSTERS, PUPPETRYComment

Review: Tze-yue G. Hu, Masao Yokota and Gyongyi Horvath (eds.), Animating the Spirited: Journeys and Transformations (2020)

Fantasy storytelling reached a new level of cultural visibility and mainstream popularity with the immense success of Game of Thrones (2011-19). As Game of Thrones rose to prominence, it inspired The Simpsons creator Matt Groening to develop a new animated series, his first major new series since Futurama (1999-2013).

BOOK REVIEWSteven GilApril 16, 2021NARRATIVE, FANTASY, HIGH FANTASY, CREATIVE PRACTICEComment

Review: Kotatsu Animation Festival - 10th Anniversary (2020)

During October 24th-26th 2020, the Kotatsu Animation Festival held its 10th anniversary festival. Sponsored by Japan Foundation London and hailed as Wales’ premiere event for Japanese animation, this year’s event was held online due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with showings of the festival films live on the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival YouTube channel and several Zoom Q+A’s and workshops were held.

EVENT REVIEWAnastasia Marika WilliamsNovember 20, 2020ANIME, JAPAN, CREATIVITY, CREATIVE PRACTICEComment

Art and Science in Animation

Quantum LOGOS (vision serpent) is an immersive reactive film that uses Mesoamerican culture as inspiration for design ideas that explore the basics of quantum mechanics. This project uses abstract animated imagery to metaphorically represent the quantum world. I use this approach because of the parallels that are evident between Mesoamerican art and philosophy and the quantum mechanics vision of the nature of reality.

CREATIVE REFLECTIONMark ChavezOctober 23, 2020INTERACTIVITY, ENVIRONMENT, ENGAGEMENT, CREATIVITY, CREATIVE PRACTICEComment

Anti-Racism in Fantasy/Animation and Academia

At Annecy 2020, Women in Animation held a digital summit on the theme ‘Reimagining the Future: Race, Solidarity and the Culture of Work’. At the panel ‘Black Women in Animation: Looking to the Future’, moderator Jamal Joseph from Columbia University asked, ‘What needs to happen now? How do we get more women in animation and how do we get more women of colour in animation and film?’

EDITORIALKodi MaierOctober 2, 2020DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, RACE, CREATIVE PRACTICE, ACADEMIA Comment

Fostering Empathy and Compassion through Fantasy/Animation

During the production of my animated film Anna, I began to contemplate questions about the intersection between empathy, animation and fantasy, and how they feed into the value of storytelling through film. The further into production I went, the more interesting and complex this became as I saw how fantasy and storytelling could play a powerful role in developing empathetic sensitivities in both filmmakers and viewers.

CREATIVE REFLECTIONJess MountfieldMay 8, 2020CREATIVE PRACTICE, FILMMAKING, EMPATHY, EMOTIONComment

Review: Todd James Pierce, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball: Maverick of Disney Animation (2019)

Despite working at the Walt Disney studios during the Golden Age of American animation, Ward Kimball is in some ways an odd choice of subject for a biography. The animator worked mostly behind the scenes, never directed a feature film, most of his work on famous films was cut, and he was never a household name in his own lifetime. On the other hand, he is as fascinating a subject as a biographer could hope for: a talented, creative craftsman, an eccentric who built a stretch of railroad and drove a steam train around his suburban backyard, and a skilled musician who played trombone in a long-running Dixieland jazz band.

BOOK REVIEWJohn A. RileyJanuary 31, 2020DISNEY, CREATIVE PRACTICE, HOLLYWOOD, INDUSTRY, CARTOONComment