Researching

Love for the multiplane stand

The Fall 2021 issue of the journal JCSM (Journal of Cinema and Media Studies) includes a wonderful dossier of essays on new approaches to animation studies, edited by Ryan Pierson. This was a great opportunity for me to share my love for the multiplane animation stand and its enduring influence on animation aesthetics around the world. Entries cover a wide range of topics, including animation and scientific inquiry, contemporary Russian animation, and educational animation.

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Tuesday

Homeworkers, not freelancers

I published an article on women’s independent animation and feminized creative labour in the summer 2021 issue of Feminist Media Histories. It’s currently available to read for free on their website here.

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Tuesday

Rear Window Cinema: Letters from Isolation (2020-2021)

What can community-focused, site-specific media exhibition look like during a pandemic? How can the social intimacy that has always been a part of artists’ cinema adapt to the context of physical distancing?

Rear Window Cinema transforms artists’ private windows (domestic and studio spaces) into ephemeral screens for rear-window projections that are externally visible to passersby on the street. Between the months of October and December, animation artists displayed animated letters to their neighbourhoods, using their windows as the creative point of departure and eventual surface for projection.

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Wednesday

Research: Visiting the Len Lye Archive, New Plymouth

A photograph of just a few of Len Lye’s animation stencils held at the archive.

September 12, 2012 was my last day of research at the Len Lye Archive, maintained by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Len Lye’s ideas about the role of “kinaesthetic empathy” in art-making profoundly shaped how I think about the history of animation. As a Visiting Researcher at the archive, I got to study the documents and working tools of this pioneering experimental animator.

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Wednesday

Dr. Alla Gadassik is a media scholar, curator, and lifelong cinephile, defining “cinema” very broadly. Her research and writing investigates the history of filmmaking techniques and philosophies. While her main area of expertise is the history of animation, she is also interested in the history of cinematography and film editing. Alla currently lives, works, and commits to decolonial futures on the unceded territory of Coast Salish people, officially known as Vancouver, Canada. She is Associate Professor of Media History and Theory at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.