What does animation when utilised in cinema have to do with the Anthropocene? This term emerged in the scientific community at the turn of the millennium as a way of categorically establishing the impact of humans (or Anthropos) on Earth by naming the current geological era after them. I seek here in this blog post to think about the relationship between special effects and a geological era characterised by human activity on Earth – global warming, the sixth mass extinction, mass migration.
Read MoreAnnihilation (Alex Garland, 2018), a science fiction film set in the present day, stands out as a compelling example of fantasy/animation through its representation of chimerical monstrous creatures. The film contains uncanny imaginings of alligator-shark hybrids, skull-faced bears that growl with human voices and flower patches spectrally arranged in the shape of the human body.
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