Call for Papers: Collage Animation, Found Materials, and Experiential Effects

This might be of interest to some:

Since the early days of cinema, collage or cut-out animation has been an integral and continuous strand of media history. Hand-produced collage animation survives today – primarily among experimental filmmakers – despite the availability of digital animation technologies; at the same time, digital software allows for both the simulation of collage animation and the integration of collage and digital techniques. A number of scholars have examined the works of individual collage animators such as Harry Smith, Stan VanDerBeek, and Lewis Klahr, among others. This panel, however, seeks to address the broader question of the particular experiential effects generated by collage animation. In addition, it seeks to explore the intersection between collage animation and found footage filmmaking – both of which often involve the appropriation of preexisting audio and/or visual materials – as well as the persistence of collage animation and/or its aesthetics within digital contexts. Papers on, but not limited to, one of the following topics would be of particular interest:

· Collage animation and the production of affect

· The experience and appeal of “flatness,” particularly in light of the opposite tendency in other forms to attempt a 3-dimensional image experience.

· Recognizability and unrecognizability, i.e. the tension between recognizably appropriated images (and sounds) and their transformation as they are incorporated into a new text

· Collage animation and narrative (or non-narrative)

· The intersection between collage animation and found footage filmmaking

· The source materials of particular collage animators and animations and their transformation through their appropriation

· The use of digital technologies in the creation of collage animation or in approximating its aesthetics

· The works of individual filmmakers working in collage animation including but not limited to Harry Smith, Stan VanDerBeek, Hans Richter, Man Ray, Terry Gilliam, Larry Jordan, Lewis Klahr, Eric Patrick, Janie Geiser, Jodie Mack, Stacey Steers, Leslie Supnet, Robert Breer, Jeff Scher, Kelly Lynn Sears, Mary Ellen Bute, Frank Mouris, Jonesy, Martha Colburn, Kate Raney, and Michel Ocelot.

· South Park, Blue’s Clues, and other mainstream media texts that incorporate or approximate the aesthetics of collage animation.

Please send a title, a summary no longer than 2500 characters, 3-5 bibliographic sources, and a bio no longer than 500 characters to Jaimie Baron at jaimierbaron@gmail.com by August 1.