Teaching Block 2

Reportage, visual journalism

and animated documentary

This week we will briefly go over the schedule for this teaching block and key information, as well as introducing the second assignment, the essay. We will then look at the first of our core areas of illustration animation practice:

We begin by considering illustration and animation as forms of reportage and documentary. We will look at the historical relationship between illustration and journalism, in the form of the illustrated press, political cartooning and editorial illustration, and chart the contemporary resurgence of reportage illustration. We will also look at the current rise of animated documentary and its relationship to older forms of non-fiction animation. We will question how these visual forms challenge existing conventions of journalism and documentary, how they raise issues of witnessing, memory, truth and the real, and how they relate to ethnography as a mode or research.

Set reading:

Adams, B. (2009) ‘When Docs Get Graphic: Animation Meets Actuality’. IdA: International Documentary Association. March 18.

reportage

/ˌrɛpɔːˈtɑːʒ,rɪˈpɔːtɪdʒ/

noun

the reporting of news by the press and the broadcasting media.

"extensive reportage of elections"
- the factual, journalistic presentation of an account in a book or other text.

Records can preserve our history. As history progressed, many artists began to record with paintings. In later generations, paintings could feel and understand history more vividly than writing. The records of paintings were noteworthy to improve. People expanded their ideas by developing posters and picture books.

‘Much current illustration, of which there are very good examples, exists either as ambient decoration, or page filler, and only really engages us on a purely aesthetic level. Much contemporary illustration doesn’t really comment, debate or inform, but merely exists on a secondary level to support the text.’

‘There are examples where illustrators are acting as visual journalists, proactively, authorially making work about issues and subjects, which interest them. Illustrators are being commissioned as reporters to go out and document on a range of

subjects, locations and issues.’

Sensory Design, illustration, animation

and touch

We will have a quick recap of the research and learning resources available, looking forward to the essay assignment.This week we will look at illustration and animation in the context of multisensory design. How do these artforms, and the various processes, media and materials used, address different human senses? How do different sensory modes interrelate to communicate meaning or tell stories? We will look in particular at the haptic and tactile qualities of illustration animation, in relation to innovations in book design, 3-D illustration and stop-motion animation.

Set reading:

Rocha, E. (2016) ‘Beyond Materiality in Animation: Sensuous Perception and Touch in the Tactile Existence of “Would a Heart Die?”’Animation Studies Online 11.

Man lives by using various senses. Using these senses, art is on the rise. The animations that the teacher showed today were expressed in a stop motion using cloth or clay. I could see from these images that it conveys different vibes depending on the material of the object. For example, warm animation was produced using cloth and paper, and scary images were produced using cold materials, i.e. clay or iron. I think I can quote this effect in my work in the future.

‘dramatizes and literalizes the palpable connection between film and spectator that exists in all cinematic experience... revealing the way the film’s meaning and significance emerge in the fleshy, muscular and visceral encounter between films and viewers’

(Barker, 2011, p. 149)

Information Design:

Scientific Illustration, Industrial Animation and Visual Literacy.

This week we will move on to look at still and moving image as a means of conveying information visually. We will look at the history of how illustration and animation have been used to communicate information in a variety of scientific, technical and educational contexts, from medical illustration to industrial animation, 5th century herbals to astronomical infographics. What makes visual modes suited to conveying information clearly and concisely and how does this relate to ideas of visual literacy? What are the devices of visual communication that produce meaning in these contexts, and what does this tell us about the relationship between art and science? Why are increasing numbers of scientific researchers producing their own illustration and animation, and what can professional illustrators and animators offer them?

Set reading:

Scriberia (2017) ‘Science communication in a visual world’. Scriberia.

As the technology of our society developed, illustrations developed. Parts that were difficult to describe in writing were often replaced by pictures, and the paintings provided a quick overview of various information. For example, medical information or social issues are pictured to enhance the status of people. It was most surprising to me that the way to convey information in pictures existed even in ancient times. In prehistoric times, the information was expressed through mural paintings, and those paintings developed into writing. In a way, the oldest way to convey information seems to be painting.

‘We seek visual reinforcement of our knowledge for many reasons, but primary among them is the directness of the information, the closeness to the real experience... Seeing is a direct experience and the use of visual data to report information is the closest we can get to the true nature of the reality...

(Dondis , 1973 p. 2)

We learn about things we are prevented from experiencing directly through visual media, through demonstrations, through examples in model form. Although a verbal description can be an extremely effective explanation, the visual means are quite different in character from language, particularly in their directness. No intervening coded systems need be employed to facilitate understanding, no decoding

to delay comprehension’

(Dondis, 1973 p. 14)

CHS Study Skills Programme

This week you will have the option of signing up to different sessions run by the department of Critical and Historical Studies available to students across all Level 4 courses in the Design School and the School of Fine Art. These sessions will be focused on developing different research and study skills, with a view towards your essay assignment.

Set reading:

Adams, B. (2009) ‘When Docs Get Graphic: Animation Meets Actuality’. IdA: International Documentary Association. March 18.

bibliography

/ˌbɪblɪˈɒɡrəfi/

noun: bibliography; plural noun: bibliographies

a list of the books referred to in a scholarly work, typically printed as an appendix.

synonyms:list of references, book list, list of books, catalogue, record
- a list of the books of a specific author or publisher, or on a specific subject.
  
  "a bibliography of his publications"
  
  synonyms:list of references, book list, list of books, catalogue, record
- the history or systematic description of books, their authorship, printing, publication, editions, etc.

Interaction Design

This week you will be divided into groups for a research field trip to the ‘Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt’ exhibition at the V&A Museum in South Kensington. See details of groups, times, meeting place, etc. below.

We will use this trip to consider how illustration and animation relate to game design. We will explore both the work illustrators and animators do in this field (in concept art, prototyping, interface and graphic design), and more generally what illustration and animation can learn from gaming in terms of audience engagement through character design, world-building and immersion, and emergent narratives. We will consider how the impact of new digital technologies like VR, AR and AI is encouraging illustrators and animators to experiment with new forms of interactive storytelling, virtual environments, and audience involvement. Finally, we will think about how play as a mode of engagement can be used to educate and inform, speculate and critique.

Comics and Visual Narrative

This week we will look at comics and sequential art as a particular mode of visual narrative, thinking about relationships between panel and page, time and space, and tensions between sequentiality and simultaneity, juxtaposition and succession. We will look at a global range of comics practices and think about the impact of genre, process, context and audience on the stories that are told and the way they are visually communicated.

Set reading:

Dodds, N. (2013) ‘Control of Time and Space in Graphic Narratives’. Varoom!Lab Journal 2, Spatialising Illustration. pp. 41-50

I think the biggest attraction of cartoons is the frame. Explain the situation through frames and express relationships between people through frames. Expressing a series of situations in writing and in pictures increases the reader's comprehension and concentration. For this reason, readers become more and more involved in conversation. There are also cartoons without writing. These comics have the ability to enhance your imagination and immersion. Also, in my case, when I see these cartoons, the situation in the comic book is vivid in my mind.

a ‘Comics World’ from Howard Becker’s idea of an ‘Art World’

‘comics are better understood through the collective activities that constitute their production and circulation, not simply as discrete end products defined by the relation of juxtaposed images. Comics...can be defined as objects recognized by the comics world as comics’

Study Skills Lecture:

Essay Briefing Guidance

This week we will go over the Essay brief in detail and provide guidance on finding, evaluating, and interpreting different research resources; using a range of research methods; interpreting the question; and structuring your argument.

I was confused when I wrote my essay last year. It's my first time using it, so I often feel awkward and evasive. However, through these exercises, I have the confidence to write this essay more deeply and abundantly. My topic is Interaction design. Research > planning > writing > editing. This process will challenge more constructive writing.

Spatial Design, environmental illustration and extracinematic animation

This week we will explore illustration animation in spaces apart from the page or screen; in particular, in the public spaces of the city. We will look at environmental illustration, street art, installation and extracinematic animation, and reflect on concepts of site specificity, the public sphere and the social production of space, and the interactions between the body and place in these kinds of encounters. We will think about how we perceive, interpret and invest meaning in different kinds of physical spaces.

Play and Participation:

Children's Media

This week we will consider how illustration and animation address distinct target audiences, by focusing on work directed at children. We will look at a range of media, including picture books, TV animation, toys, apps and games, and consider the specific ways they visually communicate and the specific relationships they invite the viewer to have with narratives. We will focus in particular on how children are engaged through forms of play and participation, and the connection between play, creativity and learning

Follow up with Film:

BBC4 (2009) Picture Book, BBC4 (2007) Goodbye Children Everywhere, How Children Learn , Edward J Delaney (2010) Library of the Early Mind

Historically, the world has tried to do something that is educational for children. Looking back on the past, it has enriched children's growth by using various activities as well as books. In my case, my mother majored in art, so I had a lot of activities and books related to art. Through this class and my experience, I realized how important the education or experience I learned when I was young.