Theory of Animation

I really like this one a lot.

I believe it really bridges the gap between orthodox and experimental animation. On one hand you have the narrative continuity, and dialogue, yet at the same time there is a degree of abstract choices that punctuate the scene. (e.g. colors altering with emotion, the artist experimenting with different forms of art.

Anyway, Wells' article pretty much details both sides of the same coin, in this case the coin is animation. Orthodox animation and Abstract animation are the two sides.

When it gets down to it, orthodox animation subscribes to many of the same principles of classic narrative forms. However, there is definitely a suspension of belief that goes with animated stories. The example given in the article is Wile E. Coyote/ Road Runner cartoons where the boulder that saves the Road Runner spontaneously generates over Coyote.

Abstract animation is essentially an interpretive exercise that comes from the personal realm of the artist. Essentially Abstract animation (let's have an A. A. meeting...sorry) is more rhythmic and musical than orthodox. It is more of a chore to the inexperienced viewer. This is pretty much the same as the avant garde/experimental arm of cinema.

It's really fascinating how every mode of film has two camps: the traditionalist narrative, and the challenging experimental. Animation, though it already strays from the traditional mode of film making, still has an area that branches from the norms.

I do like abstract animation though. It's something a little more visceral and instinctively emotive. For me it ties into the earlier readings of synesthesia.

Anyway I leave you with an interesting little find. Donald Duck during his bigot stage:

Soooooo politically incorrect.

Crowd Sourcing

 All I'm saying is I'm using crowd funding for everything now whether it be film making, buying an apartment, surgery, or giant pandas encrusted with diamonds. Anyway on to the more serious stuff.

I really like the concept of crowd sourcing; however, there are a few issues I dislike about it...but I mean that  's everything.

The overall idea of crowd sourcing is quite fascinating, its understandable that this ideaovation really took off with the internet/media fed generation. I believe this is the case simply because crowd sourcing is a child dependent on the importance of participation and community. Its kind of like communism, y'know only the good things, y'know without Stalin, and the KGB.

Crowd sourcing allows for everyone to tack on a significant piece to a larger idea, allowing everyone to feel they have contributed to something important. Now you can just sit at a computer screen and achieve, as Andy Warhol put it, "five minutes of fame".

Now every obscure idea or thought can be documented and compiled, allow more intelligence to be accessed with ease more than ever before.

However, there are two things that I dislike about the whole crowd sourcing secret society.

Although its a pro that people can get a forum to state their ideals and ethics, some will abuse that right. (e.g. hate groups, bigots, trolls and whatnot). Also, now some crowd sourcers (or sorcerers) will unintentionally undermine crowd sourcing projects due to failure to check facts. Relying on old wives tales and rumors.

And of course, there is the fear of the dreaded information overload. Basically way too much info bombarding viewers and basically driving human senses crazy.

But in the end, crowd sourcing is pretty much the way of the world today. Individual creation is even stronger when it thrives off of togetherness.

acoustic ecology

Acoustic Ecology is the relation between the living and the sonic environment surrounding them. The human body and the sound environment, whether natural or manufactured, are tightly correlated. This is obvious in several examples: how alpha brainwaves become hypnotized by repetitive, percussive beats; how loud sounds can lead to health problems, including heart disease; how listening to certain types of music can increase the listener's ability to concentrate and emotion.

Essentially the human body runs off of rhythm and frequencies. So it makes sense that the sound environment can affect the body.

I find it interesting that some areas are actually trying to protect the acoustic environment by banning certain sounds from areas in order to allow the relaxing ambient tones of nature flourish. This is beneficial to both the humans and animals in the area. I think acoustic ecology is overlooked by many people. Sound is usually taken for granted and naively ignored. Because we're so immersed in sound we tend to forget we're around it, much like breathing, we do it but we forget that we're going through the process. Just stop for a few minutes a day and listen to the natural sounds and relax.

Reading about the concept on synesthesia made me utterly jealous that couldn't color coat numbers, or taste the alphabet and whatnot. The concept is very intriguing. The whole idea of the neurological stapling of sensation and emotion to numbers, letters, and sounds opens up a whole new creative doorway. Two things really caught my eye in the materials: 

        1. Synesthesia being laden with affect- Emotion, creativity, and the mundane all rolled into one. It's taking a perspective on something trite in life transforming it into pure feeling. Sand being transmuted into gold in you will.

        2. During the TED video the speaker mentions synesthesia allowing him to "feel" if something was out of place in a work, and to just "feel" what would fit the part right. Surgery with intuition. 

Duke Ellington had a nice quote about his synesthesia , 

"I hear a note by one of the fellows in the band and it’s one color. I hear the same note played by someone else and it’s a different color. When I hear sustained musical tones, I see just about the same colors that you do, but I see them in textures. If Harry Carney is playing, D is dark blue burlap. If Johnny Hodges is playing, G becomes light blue satin."

He was able to just "feel" what  would go well with these notes. Again, I'm jealous. But there's hope, true believers! Head trauma and psychedelics can cause synesthesia to occur. So let's all go do a pound of peyote and lay our heads down in the road so we can see some purple sevens.

Cymatics is pretty cool too. The physical form of sound. Sound is vibration. And the different vibrations of certain notes creates some unique patterns. It makes me think of string theory, the theory of how vibrations play an integral in the formation of everything. Are sound and form interrelated? 

I feel the both the topics of synesthesia (had to do it one more time) and cymatics both deal with the connecting of small links that we overlook. Maybe everything is one under the sun.

"Pull a thread here and you'll find it's attached to the rest of the world".

--Nadeem Aslam

"The Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself".

--Chief Seattle