The Study of animation at the Royal College of Art began in 1963 within the Film and Television Course. Animation became a separate area of study in 0ctober 1985 under the direction of Professors Bob Godfrey and Dick Taylor. The first of these graduates were in 1987. The Animation Department is located within the School of Communication, and the Head of Department is Professor Joan Ashworth who has ran the course since 1994. The range of films shown is from 1983 – 2005.
The Royal College of Art ethos is to employ practitioners to teach. The academic staff in all departments has a professional life and consequently most are part time. This is true for the staff in animation and the films presented in this retrospective range from the last 13 years. Over the last ten years, those remarkable films have been (or will be) regularly invited to specialist events and international festivals where they have won numerous awards.
In/Dividu,Nicole Hewitt, Croatia, 1999, 16mm/Beta, 7’ 33’’
In chronophotography, in editing processes, in the surprising solutions of the avant-garde film, and in contemporary computer animation, technique and manipulation have the same starting point and the same goal – to give a time dimension (manifested as motion) to a static figure. The time created through the means of such space-time pastiche is the time of simulation, hybrid time; where photographs and moving scenes evolve into an illusion of mechanically created motion – the basis of film.
Nicole claims that the frame is the basic point of departure in her work. The frame inside the footage is motionless on the level of photography and it is set in motion on the level of film. [“When I say film, I mean a moving sequence of still images.“ Nicole Hewitt]
From her early works such as Herman's Burden (1989) to her most recent film Waltz, A Mock Ball (2004) by using artistic, film, mechanical, technical, and digital media in animated films and in experimental films and videos Nicole Hewitt has been questioning the conventional view and definition of animation, i.e. forms of editing as its basic procedure, and has been opening the discussion on the problems of media, picture, language, translation, society, and culture. Her works deal with social conventions and also question cinematic conventions – the conventions of her own means of expression.
The core of the opus presented at the retrospective contains her works produced in the last five years – from 1999 to 2004 – which also include the films In/Dividu, In Between, Bridge, and Waltz, A Mock Ball..
The reference field of Waltz, A Mock Ball is connected to the hegemonic discourse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the preserving of the Viennese tradition and the Viennese Waltz, which slide into the fictional realm. In Waltz, A Mock Ball the slow motion, the slowing down that makes an illusion of a dissolving picture (dissolve is an animation technique, an effect she uses), and the stop frame editing all add to the rise of prolonged duration of photographic images. Using film syntax on the edges of the film and video media she creates a video inscription in slow motion, which is similar to dreams (the transition into dreams or the waking state). She emphasises the collision of the static and dynamic images. Extending the time dimension of the image in its paradoxical structure the figurative motion conventionally depicted with moving images implodes at the point of a single image unit – that is how the time continuity is destroyed and the frozen incrusted image is created.
The film Gloria made in the cross-section of (spoken and foreign) languages, as well as the language of film, questions film's means of communication and its genre conventions (for instance romantic or soap opera), but its surprising structure, its long duration and numerous prolonged cuts of monochrome blackness, as well as its specific sound and image editing make it demanding for the audience. In Between contains an environmental consciousness, it uses a documentary-type technique, and it animates frame by frame discarded objects/the city dump. Notes on Continuity is an animation of puppets inspired by silent films from the early period of German cinematography, i.e. with an atmosphere of film expressionism.
Through the communication with other territories, for instance by connecting dance, film and painting, the works of Nicole Hewitt become treasuries that deny the clean distinctions between individual artistic means of expression. Using the techniques of image 'metamorphosis' and hybridisation she intertwines artistic genres and media and (re)constructs stories, history, and culture. And thus using different technical possibilities a connection to history (with the help) of media is created.
Branka Benčič
Holland Animation Film Festival 2004, Han Hoogerbrugge, The Netherlands
529/Five2Nine,Niek Castricum, Maarten de With, The Netherlands, 2004, Beta, 6’30’’
The Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF) excitedly celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2004. The jubilee programme covered everything from exciting music videos, to hilarious cartoons, conventional films and spectacular computer animation. The HAFF is the only large animation festival in the Netherlands and numbered among the most important in the world in the field of animation.
The Study of animation at the Royal College of Art began in 1963 within the Film and Television Course. Animation became a separate area of study in 0ctober 1985 under the direction of Professors Bob Godfrey and Dick Taylor. The first of these graduates were in 1987. The Animation Department is located within the School of Communication, and the Head of Department is Professor Joan Ashworth who has ran the course since 1994. The range of films shown is from 1983 - 2005.
The Royal College of Art is the world-s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, specialising in teaching and research and offering the degrees of MA, MPhil and PhD across the disciplines of fine art, applied art, design, communications and humanities.
By reflecting on and engaging with contemporary practice, the Animation Department intends to move the medium into a new position in the art world and to find new audiences and new contexts. Animation has a special ability to straddle the commercial and the art world in a way that benefits both. From this position, it is possible to discern the needs and the possibilities of the future. They intend to build a research environment that is informed by, and useful to, both worlds.
The Animation Department is a vibrant environment which enables students to extend the study and practice of animation and to develop an individual voice. Narrative and non-narrative methods are encouraged and it is important to the department to select a range of approaches each year to encourage cross-pollination between different and challenging means of expression. Structure, pace and rhythm and the interplay between image and sound are key elements explored during the course. Additionally, character development, animation skill, directing actors, pace and timing remain important elements in the study of animation. Construction of images and the compositing of elements from many sources including live action, models, photos and textures is encouraged and supported, and there is the opportunity to combine new and traditional forms of animation to create exciting and original methods of image-making.
Creative-writing workshops develop and stimulate the students- creativity with the written word and extend their use of language as a creative tool. These writing skills help students towards successful funding applications after graduation. Story-boarding workshops are also offered to enable students to improve and reflect on the content and structure of the work. Creative approaches to editing are taught and are being developed through staff research.
Drawing is one of the core skills developed in the department and there are close links with the Drawing Studio. Specialist workshops have been devised to develop the skills of drawing movement and interpreting sound. Adapting an illustration style and refining lines and marks to find what is necessary to the communication of movement is an important issue for some animation artists, and the course offers an ideal opportunity to develop a personal style. It encourages students to be as creative and inventive with sound as they are with their visuals. There are opportunities to collaborate with sound designers and musicians outside the College particularly with students from the Royal College of Music and the National Film and Television School.
Research students are encouraged to question and reflect on their own practice and that of others at a deeper level. Through action research students can excavate the meaning behind their own images and sounds and those of others. This can result in finding new knowledge, developing new methods of working, and inventing ways of presenting and viewing animation. Animation Research students work alongside the Master-s students and share access to facilities and technical support. They also benefit from the support and stimulation of school- and college-wide research events.
The majority of the students- learning is done through individual practice and tutorials with both staff and students. As well as a series of short practical workshops in the first year, students create a short film or a series of experiments to research and develop a particular aspect of their work. Specialist visiting artists and film-makers offer a range of approaches and critiques of students- work. Representatives from the animation industry and from other departments are also invited to give feedback on students- projects during the two years.
Films produced within the department are regularly screened at festivals worldwide and exhibited in museums and galleries, and many are licensed to terrestrial and satellite television. Many have won prizes for artistic achievement and on two occasions recently a graduation film from the department has won the BAFTA (British Association of Film and Television Arts) for the Best Animated Short. These are Dog, directed by Susie Templeton 2002, and Fish Never Sleep, directed by Gaelle Denis, 2003. Graduates include Richard Kenworthy of Shynola, Philip Hunt of Studio AKA, Brian Wood, author of the Cramp Twins series, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes, directors of the wonderful multi award-winning Honda clean diesel engine (Hate Something: Change Something) advert, amongst many others whose work is regularly seen on TV, in music videos, at festivals and in galleries.