Introduction

Abstract

This project began partly with the realization that there had not been a book devoted to experimental animation since Robert Russett and Cecile Starr’s book. It had been our intention to trace developments since the 1970s, but things have turned out rather differently in the end, and perhaps inevitably, given the incalculable explosion of all kinds of animation everywhere. The pervasiveness of animated phenomena, and the impossibility of capturing or summarizing its multifarious forms and manifestations were addressed by Suzanne Buchan’s conference (Tate Modern, 2004) and subsequent book Pervasive Animation (Routledge, 2013). We invited a number of authors who we felt could contribute something interesting to write about what they wanted, but with an emphasis on expanded forms of animation. The result is a wide-ranging set of essays which focus on specific aspects of practice, from detailed analyses of individual filmmakers’ work to consideration of some of the fundamental philosophical and aesthetic issues arising from expanded and experimental forms of animation.