Janeann Dill's Blog

IIACI INSTITUTE PROGRAM LAUNCHES DURING CANNES AT AMERICAN PAVILION

IIACI — Fri, 07 May 2010 09:43:00 GMT

IIACI PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Janeann Dill, Institute Founder-Director
IIACI.com@gmail.com
THINK IIACI! (pronounced ee-ah’-chee)
Advancing the creative practice and study of the global arts across the disciplines.

The chilled air is a delight as the sun rises over the Mediterranean and the yachts begin to dock for the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL ... all quite exciting as the IIACI Institute prepares for its launch party in partnership with the Capstone International Study Abroad Program at the University of Alabama on May 19th at the AMERICAN PAVILION to celebrate the first IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNSHIP PROGRAM and IIACI INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PROGRAM at Cannes! Twenty-one academic students were selected by the Institute Director, Dr. Janeann Dill, and the Director of the AMPAV Student Program, Walter Harris, to be IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNS when the American Pavilion opens its 22nd year as the hospitality center to the American production companies at Cannes in 2010. Exciting days ahead for IIACI INTERNS!

The IIACI launch event will be held at the American Pavilion and will focus on the Institute of Interdisciplinary Art's ACADEMIC INTERNSHIPS with a program of Dr. Dill's experimental shorts and documentary feature in-progress and films by students she has mentored and guests: Laura Godorecci (Cambridge, M.Phil. candidate in Screen Studies), Anna Brenner (Oxford, M.A. candidate, Aesthetic Studies), and Courtney Marr (entering NYU, Steinhardt School, M.A. Candidate in Arts Administration). Jens Blank (guest presenter from the National Film School, United Kingdom) is showing his film, "Cooked," at the Cinefondation Short Film Competition and will present a brief talk about his work and screen another of his films not in competition. Ryan Davis, IIACI INTERN, debut in a live performance his HipHop song, IIACI MISSION STATEMENT (composed by Davis and published by MississippiBlueMusic, ASCAP).

Don't miss this if you are at the Cannes Film Festival: May 19th, 7:30pm, American Pavilion!

Dr. Dill's short film of excerpted, rare footage, “Jules Engel: An Artist For All Seasons,” will screen in non-competition at the SHORT FILM CORNER alongside the "Behind the Scenes of Ourselves" short documentary directed by Hallie Carroll. Carroll is an IIACI INTERN and former student who filmed the making of Dr. Dill's experimental film, “MAH: Moving Around Heidegger,“ a collaboration employing a unique sound track of poetry by Dr. Hank Lazer, and another of Dill's students who choreographed to Dill's monumental drawings and arrangement of Lazer’s sound track, Courtney Marr. Marr is presently the IIACI Program Administrative Assistant for the academic internships.

Two more IIACI INTERNS, Alan Lazer and Nick Mahone, both students at the University of Alabama, will screen their student films with the American Pavilion's program at the SHORT FILM CORNER. This will be a memorable inauguration of the IIACI INTERNSHIPS in collaboration with the AMERICAN PAVILION and CAPSTONE INTERNATIONAL STUDY ABROAD at University of Alabama!

To learn more about the IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNSHIPS,
read Interns’ BLOG, & follow on twitter:
http://intern.iiaci.net
www.twitter.com/IIACI_INTERNS
www.twitter.com/JaneannDill
http://www.interdisciplinaryartinstitute.com/ACADEMIC_INTERNSHIPS_OF9Z.html

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IIACI SUPPORTS HEZZIE AND THE CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS CENTER IN THE PEPSI CHALLENGE GRANT: Revitalization Project

IIACI — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:27:00 GMT

Hello folks!

I am working with a great art organization in Troy New York.

It's a national artist residency program and exhibition space in a historic church that needs our (mine and yours) help

to keep moving forward. Hezzie is the Executive Director and I can't say enough about how dedicated and brilliant

this woman is as she leads CAC into this period of revitalization.

Right now the Contemporary Artists Center is in the running for a $50K grant from Pepsi to finish renovations on its building.

The Pepsi winner is determined solely by the number of VOTES ONLINE.

I am asking you to help me help them by signing-up to vote for the month of APRIL. Join us in making this happen!

We have only two weeks remaining to push them into the TOP 10 and right now they are #27: THIS IS DOABLE !

Go to their site but remember that you must also register with Pepsi to complete your vote! It's a "vote twice" scenario but it only

takes two minutes of your day to do this: www.cactroy.org/grant

Will you please tell them that IIACI and Dr. Dill sent you to them?

Please forward along to friends and family! We've got to get the word out and swell our support for them during the next two

weeks only! I love the grassroots quality of this campaign and hope you will join me in your daily votes for CAC and Hezzie!

DAILY: VOTE YES FOR THE REVITALIZATION OF THIS CULTURAL COMMUNITY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY MISSION!!!!

IIACI TRAVELS TO SAUDI ARABIA!

IIACI — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:54:00 GMT

WHAT A JOY TO VISIT DAR AL-HEKMA WOMAN'S COLLEGE

SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE IN JEDDAH ...

You may have become aware of this woman's college recently because

Dar Al-Hekma is the woman's college in Saudi Arabia where our Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton held a Town Hall Meeting a few weeks ago. Dr. Salfeha Abdein

is the Vice-Dean in charge of Institutional Development at Dar Al-Hekma and

is the person who slated the college as Secretary Clinton's site for her Town Hall

meeting while in Saudi Arabia. And I understand why! Like Secretary Clinton,

these are a m a z i n g women who run this university as brilliant scholars

and thinkers in their own right; such as Dr. Abedin who earned her Ph.D. at

Cambridge in Sociology. What a pleasure to meet Dr. Abedin and to have the

privilege of spending time with her.

My positive impressions didn't stop with Dr. Abedin however! This invitation

to present my work and to teach Experimental Animation to the girls at

Dar Al-Hekma came from an impressive Chair of the Design Department,

Professor Dima Schneider. Professor Schneider came to Dar Al-Hekma from

the American University in Beruit, Lebanon five years ago where she had taught

for thirteen years and since taking the reins in Jeddah, she has led

the Department of Design into a School of Design that is internationally

accredited through the UK/London. Yet another brilliant woman who's

background prior to Dar Al-Hekma was as a 3-D computer animation artist.

The faculty! A widely diverse and highly educated international faculty of artists,

graphic designers, and scholars from Poland, Lithuania, Portugal, America, and

Saudi Arabia. Do not misunderstand me here: not only highly educated, but

warm, inviting, humorous and supportive women who ROCK!

And the girls: twenty-one lovely young women in their black abayas who

impressed me with their intelligence and authentic desire to be introduced to

the history of experimental animation and to the creative practice of

experimental animation outside the digital environment: in this case,

an 'analogue' art of experimenting with animation that leaves the marks of

the artist's hands on the drawn images. These girls are the brightest of

undergrads, not unlike my terrific students in America! While the cultural

differences are enormous between the two, the love of learning and taking

intellectual risks remains constant.

Are you beginning to get the sense of this now? Of how delighted I was

to find myself invited to present in this cultural environment?

Finally (until I return to share photos with you), I presented the IIACI Institute

alongside my paintings, drawings, scholarship, and film, PARIS IS A WOMAN,

the final evening of the TAWASUL II Conference. The two keynote speakers

presented: myself and Monsieur Phillipe Jalladeau, a French filmmaker and

Film Festival Director who was the first film scholar to bring a Middle Eastern

Film Program to Europe many years ago. Jalladeau was educated in France

and majored in Oceanography as an undergrad but found himself at Princeton

for his graduate work in film with a post-grad stint at Stanford Film Institute

where he produced award winning films world-wide. Every morning while there

I delighted in his company while eating the absolutely delicious breakfasts at

the Hotel Intercontinental ... yummy fresh figs, salmon, and hummus.

While I am not speaking here specifically about the challenges of a Kingdom

that prohibits women from driving or from going out in public without covering

themselves or for even going out in public alone, I was not unaware of those

prohibitions. I was given a lovely abaya to wear while there and I wore it in

respect for a culture I, as a Westerner, was visiting. In this short visit to Saudi

Arabia, these prohibitions didn't deter from my sense of purpose towards

my academic colleagues and my students. IIACI and I were there to advance

the artist as a philosopher of creative intelligence, one whose necessity is to

access the intuitive and the intellectual simultaneously.

How longer visits to such a diverse international culture will challenge me

in the future remains to be seen, but I am quite clear on this visit:

an absolute delight!

Dr. Janeann Dill

IIACI: Institute Founder-Director

GLOBALSCREEN EXHIBITION OF DIGITAL ARTS OPENS IN THE FILM MUSEUM, Düsseldorf, Germany

IIACI — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:36:00 GMT

Globalscreen zeigt in Kooperation mit der Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf im Filmmuseum das aktuelle Programm “Simulations” :
Black Box - Kino im Filmmuseum – Montag 22.3.2010,

20 Uhr Schulstr. 4 - Düsseldorf-Altstadt, T. 0211.899 22 32

Globalscreen in cooperation with Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf / Filmmuseum/ Black Box
www.filmwerkstatt-duesseldorf.de <http://www.filmwerkd.de

Mo 22.3. 20:00 / March 22, 2010 8:00 PM Opening of Exhibition

Globalscreen: „Simulations“
26 Videos (Gesamtlänge: 59 Min.) als Auseinandersetzung mit Fragen der Wahrnehmung in einer Zeit der Bilderfluten und Realitäts-Simulationen. In Anwesenheit der Initiatoren Judith Nothnagel und Hubert Baumann, sowie der Düsseldorfer Künstler Weitere Infos: http://www.filmwerkstatt-duesseldorf.de/filmbeschreibungen/globalscreen/

Künstler/ Artists :
Sky David, USA;
Janeann Dill, USA with Hank Lazer;
Reynald Drouhin, FR;
Shahram Entekhabi in coop. with Martina Schoene-Radunski IR/D;
Susanne Fasbender, D;
Gabriela Gerber und Lukas Bardill, CH (Galerie Luciano Fasciati, CH);
Nikos Giavropoulos, GR;
Astrid Hagenguth. D;
Anneke Ingwersen; NL;
José Jimenez, RA;
Gudrun Kemsa, D;
Axel Klepsch, D;
Detlef Klepsch, D;
Norbert Kraus, D;
Lena Lapschina RUS/A;
Franziska Megert, D/CH;
Agnes Meyer-Brandis, D;
Ibrahima Niang, SN;
Judith Nothnagel, D;
Irena Paskali, MK/D;
Juanjo Fernández Rivero, E;
Ran Slavin, IL;
Jan Verbeek, D/JP;
André Chi Sing Yuen, D and Frank Schablewski, Poem
Nelly-Eve Rajotte, CDN

Globalscreen is a flexible media-art platform for artists and arts institutions. It stands for collaboration worldwide among video and media artists engaged in finding new, contemporary avenues in art and communication. Globalscreen presents videos by media artists in themebased projects. :: In line with the overall Globalscreen concept, artists and curators taking part are augmenting the DVD collection with their own screenings, installations, performances, talks, workshops. The growing circle in the :Simulations: project is being developed continuously until the end of 2010.

IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNS™ SELECTED FOR IIACI_CANNES FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM!

IIACI — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:08:00 GMT

Twenty-two AWESOME
IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNS™
LAUNCHING 2010 PROGRAM IN CANNES MAY 9TH!
Follow them on
http://Twitter.com/THINK_IIACI_Int
Subscribe to Interns' daily blogs from the
French Riveria bringing you news on films!
Listen to IIACI iTunes for hip-hop and song:
http://intern.iiaci.net
Check out IIACI CHANNEL for video up-dates!
http://youtube.com/user/IIACI

STAY TUNED FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNS™ SELECTED FOR VENICE FILM FESTIVAL TOO!

Interested in participating? See how to apply below!

NOTE:
APPLICATIONS FOR CANNES WILL REOPEN AGAIN IN NOVEMBER, 2010. IF YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED, GO TO ENTER_IIACI, SIGN IN AND VERIFY YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO BE ON LIST OF ANNOUNCEMENTS!

IIACI ACADEMIC INTERNSHIPS at Cannes and Venice Film Festivals

IIACI — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:16:00 GMT

IIACI has created an innovative academic internship program for film students, recent grads, and students not currently enrolled but fall into the 'twenty-something' generation.

The American Pavilion (AMPAV), the Institute for Interdisciplinary Art andCreative Intelligence (IIACI) and Dr. Janeann Dill are partners in a highly innovative festival program of IIACI Academic Internships™ for the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals.

Open to all inquiries: IIACI.intern@gmail.com
2010 GUIDELINES TO APPLY: http://tinyurl.com/IIACI-Intern

General Deadline: January 15, 2009 (or until filled)

Final Deadline: February 12, 2009 (no more applications accepted)

THINK IIACI ! (pronounced ee-ah'chee)
Institute for Interdisciplinary Art and Creative Intelligence
A virtual Think Tank advancing the practice and study of the arts across the disciplines.

http://www.interdisciplinaryartinstitute.com

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL RETROSPECTIVE PROGRAM FOCUSED ON ABSTRACT ANIMATION INCLUDES JULES ENGEL's FILMS

IIACI — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:23:00 GMT

View these GREAT experimental animation films curated by Larry Cuba and the iotaCenter. The retrospective program
includes Jules Engel's TRAIN LANDSCAPE and MEADOW with citations of critical comments by Janeann Dill.

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Jules Engel
[Budapest, Hungary 1909 | USA +2003]

Jules Engel is a pioneer in the field of animation as a visual art form. Born in Budapest in 1909, Engel grew up
outside of Chicago and then moved to Los Angeles as a young man, where he successfully created dual careers
as an abstract artist and experimental filmmaker. Engel's aesthetic is informed by the principle of abstraction,
whether or not the work is representational, and regardless of purpose.

Engel's contribution to two Disney films in particular, Fantasia and Bambi,contains a finely tuned visual aesthetic
that Engel subsequently explored and developed into his work as a filmmaker and as an artist. Acknowledged as
an early California Modernist, Engel's extensive fine art exhibition record has paralleled his completion of more
than thirty independent experimental animation films.

Engel has also been enormously influential as a teacher to international artists and filmmakers who have created
a presence for their work from Harvard to Hollywood.

-- Janeann Dill [excerpt]
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punto y raya festival, Barcelona, SPAIN 25th - 29th of November 2009 Arts Santa Mónica

iotaCenter, Los Angeles

IIACI; Institute for Interdisciplinary Art and Creative Intelligence

IIACI_CHANNEL

SPONGE BOB's BIRTHDAY BASH: A STOP-MOTON EVENT!!

IIACI — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:33:00 GMT

Nickelodeon Culminates SpongeBob's 10th Anniversary Celebration with Star-Studded Prime Time TV Event SpongeBob SquarePants 'Truth or Square' Premiering Friday, Nov. 6 at 8:00 p.m.

Rosario Dawson, Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, LeBron James, P!nk, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Robin Williams Appear in Hour-Long Special Featuring Never-Before-Seen SpongeBob Flashbacks, Plus Cee-Lo Green Performs All-New Opening Theme Song

BURBANK, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon culminates the 10th anniversary celebration of pop-icon and top-rated kids' series SpongeBob SquarePants with the premiere of "Truth or Square" a star-studded one-hour prime time television event airing on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). Celebrity guest stars Rosario Dawson, Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, LeBron James, P!nk, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Robin Williams appear as themselves in live-action sequences throughout the special, which follows SpongeBob and the Bikini Bottom gang as they reminisce through a series of original, never-before-seen flashbacks. Ricky Gervais narrates the special and Cee-Lo Green (Gnarles Barkley) performs a cover of the SpongeBob theme song to an all-new stop-motion opening title sequence.

Big congrats to Steve Hillenburg (creator) and Paul Tibbitt (producer)!!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nickelodeon-culminates-spongebobs-10th-anniversary-celebration-with-star-studded-prime-time-tv-event-spongebob-squarepants-truth-or-square-premiering-friday-nov-6-at-800-pm-64092142.html

IIACI: VIMEO CHANNEL FEATURES JULES ENGEL PROJECT

IIACI — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:24:00 GMT

"9" : TIM BURTON'S RELEASE OF SHANE ACKER'S FILM

IIACI — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:55:00 GMT

HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE I WROTE PUBLISHED IN FPS (CANADIAN) ANIMATION MAGAZINE.

The feature film produced by Tim Burton, "9," was once a short film by Shane Acker that garnered "Best of Show"

at SIGGRAPH 2005. With Burton's feature release in 2009, here were my thoughts about "9" then!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Immersed in Domes, Falling Bodies and Stereo Vision:

Where's the Gravity?

"I think SIGGRAPH 2005 was meant to prepare our bodies for space travel and, doubly, for the loss of earth’s natural environment by redefining 'nature.' [ ... ]
9, a beautiful and poignant film by Shane Acker, received top honours as Best of Show by the jury (on which our esteemed editor sat). While viewing the film, I couldn’t help but think of Tim Burton and Henry Selick’s Nightmare Before Christmas and, somewhat, the Brothers Quay, both in imagery and sensitivity. In fact, these influences alongside John Lasseter and his PIXAR productions were spread throughout the shorts, probably largely due to the number of films screened in the festival that were student films, and secondly, because these animation artists are of the age to have seen these works as children so that these figures now replace the Disney film as early influences. Beautiful in 9 is the choreography of a kind of mime-movement of its character, who faces a Gollum-like skeleton portrayed as a stalking force of death. In contrast to Nightmare, this film is of a sombre, industrial colour palatte and reads as a futuristic dismissal of warring skeletons, textures and mechanical structures—a fabricated rebirth of wandering into a circle of light—the hero’s journey. Its universal theme both grounds the story and differentiates it from its predecessors. It was only after returning home that I read Tim Burton had picked up the film to develop a feature. How much of the feature version will remain Acker’s will be interesting to note after he is absorbed into the machinery of bigger budget Hollywood. That said, what might or might not happen in the evolution of 9 as a feature can not diminish the beauty of the animation of Acker’s ten-minute version." --- Janeann Dill
fps, Festival Watch feature article, Emru Townsend, Ed., pp 14-16.
__________________________________________________________
To download the complete .pdf of the Sept. 2005 issue of fps, go here:

http://www.fpsmagazine.com/festival/050901siggraph.php

British Animation Awards releases DVDs of Patrick Bokanowski's films!

IIACI — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:22:00 GMT

I received a note from Jayne Pilling that Patrick Bokanowski's films are now available on DVD. While I am familiar with Monsieur Bokanowski's films, I can highly recommend this and any DVD produced by Jayne Pilling, a respected scholar in animation, producer, and Director of the British Animation Awards. You'll find other DVDs on BAA's website you will want to add to your library, as well! www.britishanimationawards.com ------- JD

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For the very first time on DVD, the legendary work of Patrick Bokanowski is released on two discs!
His feature film L’Ange and Bokanowski: Short Films on DVD, each with its own bonus features.

"Magisterial images seething in the amber of transcendent soundscapes. Drink in these films through eyes and ears."

------ The Brothers Quay

BOKANOWSKI: SHORT FILMS
Bokanowski employs an extraordinary range of technical invention – combining live-action with optical experiments, drawing, performance, painting, and animation – to conjure magical forays into a parallel universe: from dread and terror in the early films, via bursts of zany humour, to sublime serenity in the landscape films and a joyous kinetic energy in his most recent work.
Bonus features: Interviews with Patrick Bokanowski (English subtitles) All films are without dialogue.
Total running time: 110 mins. Region Free. Available in NTSC or PAL.

L’ANGE
Dubbed ‘the artist-alchemist of celluloid’ avant-garde filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s legendary opus defies all categorisation, in its unique combination of experimental cinema, photography, animation and painting.

Bonus features: The Making of L’Ange & Interview with composer Michèle Bokanowski. (English subtitles)

Total running time: 106 mins. Region Free. Available in NTSC or PAL.

"Blending different media and concepts about filmmaking in challenging new ways, rather than alienating, it remains thoroughly dazzling and engaging" –--- Benjamin Ettinger, Anipages

Evoking comparisons as various as Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’, Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, "this mesmerising feature creates a labyrinthine, Kafka-esque halfworld of chambers and baroque, macabre characters, all connected by a central staircase. Visually stunning’. ---- Aurora, 2008

Order online from www.britishanimationawards.com

SpongeBob is 10 years old! What'a boy!!!

IIACI — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:28:00 GMT

CONGRATULATIONS TO STEVE HILLENBURG !

Honestly, it seems as if only last week that Steve and I were having a conversation at Cal Arts in the Experimental Animation lab while Steve was drawing backgrounds on his thesis film, "Wormholes." Such a great film ... I show it to students all the time. I remember that he had just won the Princess Grace award. Who would have ever guessed that SpongeBob was in his future? Likely, Jules.

This entry is starting to sound like geezers talking about the past so I won't continue down that road, but big congratulations, Steve, on SpongeBob's tenth birthday! You continue to keep a smile on my face ... and on massive amounts of other kids' faces no matter their age.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a well-written and interesting interview, see Michael Cavna's piece in the Washington Post:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2009/07/_tom_kenny_who_voices.html

And if you truly want to begin research on this cultural phenomenon:

http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2009/07/_tom_kenny_who_voices.html&hl=en

Jules Engel Films: iotaCenter releases DVD

IIACI — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:45:00 GMT

GOOD NEWS! This first DVD of Jules Engel’s films offers a selection of fifteen films from "Carnival, 1963" to "The Toy Shop, 1998." Arranged chronologically, the DVD collection includes an excerpt from A Janeann Dill Film, "Jules Engel: An Artist For All Seasons," a documentary feature coming in 2010 that contains rare footage of his artwork and interviews.

You can view a small clip from Janeann Dill’s documentary included as an extra on the dvd here and here’s the Facebook page devoted to Engel. See also http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/JulesEngelFilms.

To purchase DVD go to:
http://www.iotacenter.org/store/videos/engel_dvd

SOCIETY FOR ANIMATION STUDIES CONFERENCE

IIACI — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:25:00 GMT

2009 Conference Theme: The Persistence of Animation

The Society for Animation Studies (SAS) is an international organization dedicated to the study of animation history and theory. The Society is an international membershiporganization that supports and encourages animation scholarship throughvarious means, including its annual conferences. This year’s conference in Atlanta willinclude presentations, workshops, screenings and keynote address.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"At Death's Insistence : Theorising Animation and Death"

A Preconstituted Panel
Engaging the theme of this conference, “The Persistence of Animation,”the papers on this panel will explore and elaborate key theoreticalapproaches to animation in terms of death.

Death is a subject which has not only never had a panel dedicated toit at SAS conferences (as far as research reveals), it has not even hadmore than a few papers dedicated to it at them. Yet this subject, soforegrounded in and by not only cinema but Western culture as to formone of the two privileged foci of both, is likewise, it will beclaimed, privileged by animation.

Panelists: Dr. Alan Cholodenko, Chair of Panel; Dr. Freida Riggs; Dr. Michael Dow (abd); Dr. Janeann Dill.

Alan Cholodenko

(The) Death (of) the Animator, or: The Felicity of Felix, Part III: The Death of Death

Abstract:This paper will elaborate animation’s centrality to contemporaryculture, the paramount nature of animation’s relation to the uncanny inthat centrality, and the profound implications of that centrality forthe contemporary world and subject. To that end it will foreground theassertions of animation theorist Taihei Imamura in 1948 and philosopherSlavoj Zizek in 1991 of the relevance of the return of the dead forcontemporary culture, then turn to Jean Baudrillard for a larger visionof the (lifedead) matter.

Biographical Statement: The paper I propose is part 3 of the paper whose first part I presented at the 2007 Animated DialoguesConference in Melbourne and second part at the 2007 SAS conference atPortland. It extends my theorizing in those parts of the relation ofanimation to death, as well extends that theorizing in my Introductionsto The Illusion of Life and The Illusion of Life 2 andin a number of my articles. Dr. Cholodenko is an Honorary Associate atThe University of Sydney’s Department of Art History and Film Studies.

Freida Riggs

The Lifeworld of Wall-E: A New Generation

Abstract: Birth and death — crucial components of the social — are all turned upside down in Wall-E.An examination of this film through Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology,especially his characterisation of generativity and “lifeworld” withtheir focus on life and death — generation — will demonstrate clearlyhow the medium of animation is best suited to grasp the poignancy of acharacter locked in a dead world, the tenderness of the love betweenbinoculars on a box and an egg, the degradation of humanity when freewill is denied it and the optimism of the rebirth of our planet.

Biographical Statement: I took my PhD at theUniversity of Sydney in 2002. My thesis, entitled “The Community ofFilm,” investigated the analysis of live action film and animationthrough the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. My essay, “The InfiniteQuest: Husserl, Bakshi, the Rotoscope and the Ring,” is published in The Illusion of Life 2: More Essays on Animation,ed. Alan Cholodenko, 2007. The paper I propose for this conference isan extension of this work. Dr. Riggs is an independent scholar basedin Sydney.

Michael Dow

It’s Raining Coyotes: Death and/in the Chase

Abstract:In surveying a number of American cartoons during the post-World War IIera, this paper seeks to demonstrate the ways in which popularanimation engages in an aporetical uncertainty, focusing primarily onthe investiture of sapience into the cartoon character, the existentialconnotations of the chase, and the “death confrontation” signified bythe blackout gag. The motifs of acknowledgment and “deceleration” inthe cartoons of the era will be addressed: how does this phenomenologyof the personified form produce this effect? How is the acknowledgmentof a “life/death” state enacted, and what are its implications forpost-World War II culture?

Biographical Statement: Michael Vincent Dow iscurrently completing his dissertation, “The Death of the Chase: TheSocial Psychology of the Post-World War II American Animated Cartoon”at New York University. He teaches film and animation studies atNortheastern University in Boston. His paper is an extension of his dissertation, which focuses on American cartoons as reflection of the postwar social condition.

Janeann Dill

Insisting Persistence: An Eclipsed Birth Meets An Eclipsed Death

Abstract:Taking inspiration from George Bataille’s statement, “A dictionarybegins when it no longer gives the meaning of words, but their tasks,”this paper is a questioning look at the early birth and seeming deathof critical histories for experimental film and experimental animation.Insisting upon the persistence of experimental animation as a uniquelydistinct aesthetic, this scholar distinguishes the art form whilesimultaneously reaching across the disciplines of art history, cinemahistory and philosophical inquiry. While this paper does not analyzeBataille per se, its author is inspired by the quote.

Biographical Statement: Founder-Director of the virtual Think Tank, Institute for Interdisciplinary Art and Creative Intelligence,Janeann Dill reaches across the creative disciplines to inhabit acritical landscape at a four-point intersect of experimental animation,cinema, fine art, and philosophy. Dr. Dill’s global research examinesexperimental animation as an inherently interdisciplinary andneo-aesthetic experimental fine arts practice per se. Imbuing a praxisin experimental animation with a praxis in painting and drawing, herscholarship and research largely takes its critical cues fromEisenstein, Eggeling, Krauss, Adams-Sitney, Moritz, Deleuze andHeidegger. In doing so, she tentatively joins thought to the unthought. Dr. Dill is also Visiting Faculty and Experimental Animation Artist,University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PANEL AND CONFERENCE: http://blog.scad.edu/sasc/category/paper-topics/death-and-animation/

JULES ENGEL : AN ARTIST FOR ALL SEASONS, A Janeann Dill Film

IIACI — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:38:00 GMT

CALARTS® CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS

See trailer of documentary film coming 2010: http://interdisciplinaryartinstitute.com

Jules Engel, Courtesy of Jules Engel Archives

Jules Engel Centennial Celebration Honored Legendary Animation Artist and Founder of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Animation Program

Valencia, April 22, 2009--The legendary Jules Engel (1909-2003) was a pioneer in the art of animation and one of the most influential educators in California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) history. On Saturday, April 18th, CalArts commemorated Engel's 100th birthday with a celebration of his life and work at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater) in Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The celebration featured a film screening of a trailer of the upcoming documentary, Jules Engel: An Artist for All Seasons, by Janeann Dill, Ph.D., Engel's official biographer, experimental animation artist and former student. A panel presentation with prominent animators who studied with Engel followed the screening. Mark Osborne [2] (Kung Fu Panda), Jorge Gutierrez [3] (El Tigre), Steve Hillenburg [4] (SpongeBob SquarePants), Mark Kirkland [5] (The Simpsons), Joanna Priestley [6](Utopia Parkway) and Henry Selick [7] (Coraline) addressed Engel's influence on contemporary animation with moderator Ramin Zahed, editor ofAnimation Magazine. The discussion was followed by a cocktail reception and sale of Engel's fine art. Proceeds from the tickets and sale will benefit the Jules Engel Endowed Scholarship Fund which Engel established to support the education of animators at CalArts.

Engel's illustrious career ranged from working on the Walt Disney classics Fantasia [8] and Bambi [9] to creating the characters Mr. Magoo [10] andGerald McBoing Boing [11]; from his own internationally celebrated abstract animation, live-action work and fine art. He originated the Character and Experimental Animation Programs at CalArts and was the founding Director of the Experimental Animation program.

"No other school has had the dynamic impact on contemporary animation as CalArts and this is due, in significant measure, to Jules Engel's legacy," said CalArts President Steven Lavine. "Jules was an artist to his core, and that's what he wanted for his students. He would send students away for the summer, with just the right book for inspiration, maybe Cezanne, maybe Matisse. And then he was so proud as they made their way into the world, becoming leaders in contemporary animation. He stands as the model of the artist-teacher which, at its best, is what CalArts is all about."

Director Mark Osborne commented, "Jules Engel was an amazing mentor to me and countless others. His enormous body of personal and professional work not only inspired us to be as prolific as he was, but inspired us to create with personal passion, no matter what the piece. He encouraged us to experiment, to follow our ideas wherever they would take us. Jules set a wonderful example for us to take chances and find our own voices, which is the most valuable thing for a filmmaker to have."

In honor of Engel's centennial, Tobey C. Moss Gallery held a special showing of his fine art. His paintings, drawings and prints embody the gifts that also distinguished his work in animation: clever, lucid composition, inventive use of color, and his trademark elegant dynamism. His fine art is held in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as in many private collections.

The most generous of teachers, Engel cherished above all else the personal vision of each individual artist and took great pleasure in how each student developed and refined his or hers. So much so that he gave his parting gift to the next generation of animators--by establishing The Jules Engel Endowed Scholarship Fund at CalArts.

Click here [12] for an interview with Jules Engel.

The event was sponsored in part by Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Inc. [13], Animation Magazine [14], The iotaCenter [15], Cartoon Network [16], andCenter for Visual Music [17].

California Institute of the Arts is recognized internationally as a leading laboratory for the visual, performing, media and literary arts. Housing six schools--Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater--CalArts educates professional artists in an intensive learning environment founded on artmaking excellence, creative experimentation, cross-pollination among diverse artistic disciplines, and a broad context of social and cultural understanding. CalArts also operates the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles.

Source URL: http://calarts.edu/news/22-apr-2009/julesengelcentennialcelebrationhonoredlegendaryanimatorandfoundercalartsanimation

GLOBAL CONVERSATION IN CREATIVITY: TELE-SEMINAR APRIL 4th

IIACI — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:33:00 GMT

All you need is a telephone!!! http://thecreativityseminar.com

O.K. WORLD!

Please join me in the tele-seminar class on April 4th! It's gonna be a G R E A T day for the creative soul

and a moment to initiate a global, sustainable cultural ecology!

Jules Engel Centennial Celebration: Press Release from Cal Arts

IIACI — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:48:00 GMT

As a note of introduction to this release, I am giving some opening remarks as one of Jules' students and as his official biographer and scholar. I am also screening an excerpt of footage from my documentary film, JULES ENGEL: AN ARTIST FOR ALL SEASONS. ---JD

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

5 pm “The Influence of Jules Engel on Contemporary Animation”
7 pm Cocktail Reception and Exhibition of Fine Art by Jules Engel

Tickets
Program and cocktail reception: $100
Cocktail reception and art show only: $50

To purchase tickets or make a donation to support The Jules Engel Endowed Scholarship Fund, please go to the secure Jules Engel Centennial Celebration ticket page.

Some of today’s most inventive practitioners in the art of animation come together to honor the far-reaching legacy of Jules Engel (1909–2003)—animation pioneer, fine artist, and one of the most beloved educators in CalArts history.

The Jules Engel Centennial Celebration begins with a roundtable discussion entitled “The Influence of Jules Engel on Contemporary Animation.” The distinguished panelists are all former students of Jules at CalArts:

Jorge Gutierrez, creator of El Tigre
Steve Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants
Mark Kirkland, director on The Simpsons
Mark Osborne, director of Kung Fu Panda
Joanna Priestley, independent animator
Henry Selick, director of Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas

The roundtable is followed by a cocktail reception and an exhibition of fine art by Jules Engel, now available for purchase.

Jules founded the world-renowned Program in Experimental Animation in 1970 and Directed the program for more than three decades. A generous teacher, he cherished above all else the personal vision of each individual artist and took great pleasure in each of his students. So much so, that he bequeathed The Jules Engel Endowed Scholarship Fund at CalArts at his death. Jules understood the critical importance of scholarships and their essential role in giving talented young students the time and resources they need to grow as artists.

As Cal Arts pays tribute to Jules on his Centennial, they honor his unsurpassed dedication to his students. Proceeds from the sale of tickets and artworks will support The Jules Engel Endowed Scholarship Fund and help broaden the legacy Jules left for the artists who will shape the direction of animation tomorrow and in the years to come.

Interdisciplinary Art Collaboration

IIACI — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:39:00 GMT

UA Digital Cinema Collaboration ‘Moving Around Heidegger’ Chosen for Prestigous European Exhibition

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – “MAH: Moving Around Heidegger,” an interdisciplinary art project conceived and produced by University of Alabama faculty and students, has been chosen for screening in the international exhibition “Globalscreen 2008-2010: Simulations.”

The exhibit opened Feb. 13 at the Schloss Ringenberg Institute in Hamminkeln-Ringenberg, Germany, and is touring Europe throughout 2009-2010, including stops in Germany, Italy and Bosnia. “MAH: Moving Around Heidegger” has been selected for inclusion in a DVD compilation of 26 international artists.

Collaborators Dr. Hank Lazer, poet and UA associate provost, and Dr. Janeann Dill, an interdisciplinary artist and faculty member of UA’s New College, engaged 25 undergraduate student-artists and alumni to produce “Moving Around Heidegger.”

The collaboration involves elements of digital video, poetry, music, animation, dance, drawings, art installation and dome projection. Students participating included student choreographer Courtney Marr; dancers Caitlin McGee, Noel Pollard and Bryant Henderson; alumnae India Williams and LeNa’ Powe; and undergraduate athlete Kathryn Marr.

Principal photography for the project was shot in the broadcast studio of the Center for Public Television at UA and in the art department’s Woods Gallery.

Dill’s students from her Seminar in Creativity, Seminar in Contemporary Animation Studies, Independent Studies and Fine Arts 200 served as film crew and production assistants alongside CPT’s Mike Letcher and Ben Henson, Dickie Cox (formerly UA Libraries), Justin Gaar (alumnus) and Scott Barnes (UA Libraries) as principal crew members. A father of a student was involved as well. Jeff Burgjohann served on the crew with his daughter, Carri.

“Hank and I spent a year in discussion to thoroughly conceptualize this work ‘from the inside out’ before giving form to this first part of a rather complex project that will be fully realized in stages,” says Dill, executive producer and director of the digital film.

“It was equally exciting to take my students into a laboratory environment where they could not only bear witness to pedagogy in action, but to directly participate in its realization. I really loved working with these students! Not to mention, my former students, my colleagues and, especially, Hank Lazer.”

A link to the “Simulations” exhibition of digital art, curated by Judith Nothnagel, can be found at http://globalscreen.org

Partial funding came from New College, the Creative Campus Initiative and the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office. In-kind contributions were provided by University of Alabama’s Schools of Music (recording), theatre and dance (costuming and props), art department (gallery facilities) and Center for Public Television (staff and studio facilities).

UA’s College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.

The University of Alabama, a student-centered research university, is in the midst of planned, steady enrollment growth with a goal of reaching 28,000 students by 2010. This growth, which is positively impacting the campus and the state's economy, is in keeping with UA’s vision to be the university of choice for the best and brightest students. UA, the state's flagship university, is an academic community united in its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Alabamians.

AN ALERT FROM AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS !

IIACI — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:27:05 GMT

A VICTORY FOR ARTS IN AMERICA:

On Friday, February 13th the U.S. House of Representatives approved their final version of the Economic Recovery bill. We can now confirm that the package DOES include $50 million in direct support for arts jobs through National Endowment for the Arts grants. We are also happy to report that the exclusionary Coburn Amendment language banning certain arts groups from receiving any other economic recovery funds has also been successfully removed. Tonight the Senate is scheduled to have their final vote, and President Obama plans to sign the bill on Monday - President's Day.

A United Voice
This is an important victory for all of you as arts advocates. More than 85,000 letters were sent to Congress, thousands of calls were made, and hundreds of op-eds, letters to the editor, news stories, and blog entries were generated in print and online media about the role of the arts in the economy. Artists, business leaders, mayors, governors, and a full range of national, state, and local arts groups all united together on this advocacy issue. This outcome marks a stunning turnaround of events and exemplifies the power of grassroots arts advocacy.

We would like to also thank some key leaders on Capitol Hill who really carried our voices into the conference negotiation room and throughout the halls of Congress: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI), House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA), and Congressional Arts Caucus Co-Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY). We also want to publicly thank President Obama for taking the early lead in recognizing the role of the arts in economic development. These leaders were able to convincingly make the case that protecting jobs in the creative sector is integral to the U.S. economy.

What's Next
As we wrap up our work on the Economic Recovery legislation, we wanted to share with you other upcoming legislative action that we are tracking:

Finalization by early March of the FY 2009 appropriations, which has been operating under a continuing resolution for the last five months.

Release of President Obama's first federal budget for FY 2010 is expected in late March/early April.

Hearings in the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee on the FY 2010 budget.

Hearings in the House Education & Labor Committee on arts in the workforce and arts education.

The 22nd Annual National Arts Advocacy Day conference on Capitol Hill on March 30-31, 2009.
http://www.artsusa.org/events/2009/aad/default.asp

Henry Sellick's newest release:

IIACI — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:52:00 GMT

“CORALINE” IS A VISUALLY DAZZLING ANIMATED MASTERPIECE!

by Karl Cohen*

Feburary’s ASIFA-SF Newsletter

Henry Selick, who directed Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), has pushed the art of stop-motion animation to new heights in Coraline. It is a wonderful sophisticated surreal fantasy, a noble magical quest against evil, shot in 3D. It is so well told that I quickly forgot I was looking at puppets. I became engrossed in every moment of the young heroine’s adventures. Along the way she meets wonderfully inventive creatures including flowers that talk, eccentric humans, bizarre spirits and other unusual things. The girl is bright and lovable so it is easy to emphasize with her as she explores her new home, a Victorian mansion with a magic garden. This mysterious Lewis Carol-like feature opens Feb. 6.

My eyes were riveted to the screen the entire time. One of the first images is a long shot of the mansion that shows off the depth of the enormous set. It also hints that this will not be a Psycho-type horror film as you can barely see a strange looking acrobat doing exercises on the steep roof. What follows is a story constantly full of surprises including a circus performance with trained mice. The voice talent is exceptional and Skywalker Sound provided the finishing touches.

The well-constructed screenplay was written by Henry; based on the bookCoraline by Neil Gaiman. I consider the film better than Nightmare Before Christmas (both are terrific films) and this leaves no doubt in my mind that when given the proper property and budget Henry can be an exceptional director.

Parents should be aware that the film’s script is scary at times, just as the climax to Disney’s Snow White is scary. This is a dramatic Gothic fantasy with many intense moments, but Henry avoids gross visuals or ugly violence. It is rated PG “for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.” The film is distributed by Focus Features (Milk, Burn After Reading).

*KARL COHEN is editor for ASIFA San Francisco. Contact: karlcohen@earthlink.net