Abstract
I begin by asking what it is for a moving image to be animated, and thus, what it is for something to be an instance of animated cinema. I next distinguish different kinds of cinematic animation, and explore why, traditionally, so little philosophical attention has been paid to animated cinema per se, and why recent developments in cinematic technology have begun to remedy this deficiency. I comment here on the exchange between Stanley Cavell and Alexander Sesonske over the status of animated movies. I then examine certain epistemological dimensions of animated cinema, and look at the conditions under which animated cinema can be art. I conclude by reflecting on the significance of the use of digital technology in the production of animated cinema.
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Notes
- 1.
Gregory Currie, Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 34–42.
- 2.
See, for example, Francis Sparshott, ‘Basic Film Aesthetics’, in Film Theory and Criticism 3rd edition, ed. Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 284.
- 3.
For a brief overview of animation processes, see David Bordwell and Kristin Thomson, Film Art: An Introduction 5th edition (London: McGraw Hill. 1997), 46–49. For a more extensive survey, see Paul Wells, Fundamentals of Animation (Lausanne: AVA, 2006).
- 4.
William Henry Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1844).
- 5.
See, for example, Roger Scruton, ‘Photography and representation’, in The Aesthetic Understanding: Essays in the Philosophy of Art and Culture (London and New York: Methuen,1983); William J. Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era (Cambridge MA: MIT Press,1992).
- 6.
Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art, 46.
- 7.
Berys Gaut, A Philosophy of Cinematic Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 7.
- 8.
See, for example, Gaut, A Philosophy of Cinematic Art, 8.
- 9.
See the 2017 BBC documentary on the making of Loving Vincent, accessed 28 September 2017, https://www.bbc.com/news/av/41422698/loving-vincent-the-first-fully-painted-film
- 10.
Paisley Livingston and Carl Plantinga, eds., The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film (London & New York: Routledge, 2009).
- 11.
For detailed histories of these criticisms, see Noël Carroll, Philosophical Problems of Classical Film Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 20–29; Patrick Maynard The Engine of Visualization: Thinking Through Photography (Ithaca: Cornell University Press.1997), 269–77, 290–93.
- 12.
Rudolph Arnheim, Film asArt (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1957).
- 13.
Scruton, ‘Photography and Representation’.
- 14.
André Bazin, What is Cinema? Vol 1, trans. Hugh Gray (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967).
- 15.
Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1971); The World Viewed: Enlarged edition (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1979).
- 16.
Alexander Sesonske, review of The World Viewed, by Stanley Cavell, The Georgia Review 28 (4) (1974), 561–70.
- 17.
Sesonske, review of The World Viewed, 563.
- 18.
Sesonske, review of The World Viewed, 566.
- 19.
Cavell, The World Viewed: Enlarged Edition, 166ff.
- 20.
Currie, Image and Mind, 80–88.
- 21.
For example, Clive Bell, Art (London: Chatto and Windus,1913); Alfred Lessing, ‘What is wrong with a forgery?’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism23.4 (Fall 1965), 461–71.
- 22.
For example, Gregory Currie, An Ontology of Art (New York: St Martin’s Press,1989), chapter 2; Jerrold Levinson, ‘Evaluating music’, in Musical Worlds, ed. Philip Alperson (College Park PA: Penn State Press,1998), 93–107; David Davies, Art as Performance (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), chapters 2 & 3.
- 23.
Michael Baxandall, Patterns of Intention (New Haven CN: Yale University Press, 1985).
- 24.
Davies, Art as Performance, 68.
- 25.
See David Davies, ‘On the Very Idea of “Outsider Art”’, British Journal of Aesthetics 49.1 (Winter 2009), 25–41; Larry Shiner, ‘“Primitive Fakes”, “Tourist Art” and the Ideology of Authenticity’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52.2 (Spring 1994), 225–34.
- 26.
Noël Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 196.
- 27.
Gaut, A Philosophy of Cinematic Art, 138–39.
- 28.
Berys Gaut, “Film Authorship and Collaboration”, in Film Theoryand Philosophy, ed. Richard Allen and Murray Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 149–72.
- 29.
For example, Paul Wells, Animation: Genre and Authorship (London: Wallflower Press, 2002).
- 30.
Richard Linklater, interview (2001) with Spence D. on A Waking Life, accessed 03 September 2017, http://ca.ign.com/articles/2001/10/20/interview-with-richard-linklater
- 31.
Charlie Kaufmann, interview about Anomalisa, Fresh Air, NPR, December 22, 2015, accessed 30 October 2017, http://www.npr.org/2015/12/22/460632027/frame-by-frame-filmmakers-make-the-mundane-miraculous-in-anomalisa
- 32.
Philip Schmerheim, ‘Scepticism’, in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory, ed. Edward Branigan and Warren Buckland (London and New York: Routledge, 2014), 413–19.
- 33.
Cavell, The World Viewed, 72.
- 34.
Lev Manovich, ‘What is Digital Cinema?’, published online in 1995, accessed at http://manovich.net on 1 November 2010. No pagination.
- 35.
William J. Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1992).
- 36.
Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye, 7.
- 37.
Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye, 225.
- 38.
Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye, 4.
- 39.
Manovich, ‘What is Digital Cinema?’.
- 40.
Gaut, A Philosophy of Cinematic Art, 16.
- 41.
Gaut, A Philosophy of Cinematic Art, 48–9.
Bibliography
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Baxandall, Michael. 1985. Patterns of Intention. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bazin, André. 1967. What Is Cinema? Vol 1. Trans. H. Gray. Berkeley: University of California Press.
BBC. 2017. Documentary on the Making of Loving Vincent.https://www.bbc.com/news/av/41422698/loving-vincent-the-first-fully-painted-film. Accessed 28 Sep 2017.
Bell, Clive. 1913. Art. London: Chatto and Windus.
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. 1997. Film Art: An Introduction. 5th ed. London: McGraw Hill.
Carroll, Noël. 1988. Philosophical Problems of Classical Film Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———. 1998. A Philosophy of Mass Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cavell, Stanley. 1971. The World Viewed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———. 1979. The World Viewed: Enlarged Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Currie, Gregory. 1989. An Ontology of Art. New York: St Martin’s Press.
———. 1995. Image and Mind: Film, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davies, David. 2004. Art as Performance. Oxford: Blackwell.
———. 2009. On the Very Idea of ‘Outsider Art. British Journal of Aesthetics 49 (1): 25–41.
Gaut, Berys. 1997. Film Authorship and Collaboration. In Film Theory and Philosophy, ed. Richard Allen and Murray Smith, 149–172. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
———. 2010. A Philosophy of Cinematic Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kaufman, Charlie. 2015. Interview about Anomalisa Broadcast on December 22nd 2015 on the NPR Programme Fresh Air.http://www.npr.org/2015/12/22/460632027/frame-by-frame-filmmakers-make-the-mundane-miraculous-in-anomalisa. Accessed 30 Oct 2017.
Lessing, Alfred. 1965. What Is Wrong with a Forgery? The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 23 (4): 461–471.
Levinson. 1998. Evaluating Music. In Musical Worlds, ed. Philip Alperson, 93–107. College Park: Penn State Press.
Linklater, Richard. 2001. Interview with Spence D. on A Waking Life. http://ca.ign.com/articles/2001/10/20/interview-with-richard-linklater. Accessed 3 Sep 2017.
Livingston, Paisley. 2009. In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film, ed. Carl Plantinga. London/New York: Routledge.
Manovich, Lev. 1995. What Is Digital Cinema? Published Online in 1995. Accessed at http://manovich.net on 1 Nov 2010. No pagination.
Maynard, Patrick. 1997. The Engine of Visualization: Thinking Through Photography. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Mitchell, William J. 1992. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schmerheim, Philip. 2014. Scepticism. In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory, ed. Edward Branigan and Warren Buckland, 413–419. London/New York: Routledge.
Scruton, Roger. 1983. Photography and Representation. In The Aesthetic Understanding: Essays in the Philosophy of Art and Culture. London/New York: Methuen.
Sesonske, Alexander. 1974. Review of Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed. The Georgia Review 28 (4): 561–570.
Shiner, Larry. 1994. ‘Primitive Fakes,’ ‘Tourist Art,’ and the Ideology of Authenticity. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52 (2): 225–234.
Sparshott, Francis. 1985. Basic Film Aesthetics. In Film Theory and Criticism, ed. Gerald Mast and M. Cohen, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Talbot, William Henry Fox. 1844. The Pencil of Nature. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
Wells, Paul. 2002. Animation: Genre and Authorship. London: Wallflower Press.
———. 2006. Fundamentals of Animation. Lausanne: AVA.
Wikipedia. 2017. Animation. Accessed 15 Aug 2017.
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Davies, D. (2019). Animation. In: Carroll, N., Di Summa, L.T., Loht, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19601-1_8
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