TAFS105-12S2 (C) Semester Two 2012
Special Topic: Puppets, Animated Film & Gaming

Description

Materials looked at will include cave paintings, effigies, marionettes, Muppets, Japanese Bunraku, Oskar Schlemmer and Bauhaus, The Lion King on Broadway, Victorian Philosophical Toys, early films, Disney, Daffy Duck, claymation, Jan Svankmajer, World of Warcraft, Second Life, Kinect, motion capture technologies and robots.

Where the origins of theatre and performance are traced to religious ritual, the origins of animation lie in the investment of icons, effigies and talismans with divine power, the “en-souling” of matter. Broadly speaking, then, animation could be defined as the projection of qualities perceived as human or divine – life, power, agency, will, personality – outside of the self and into the sensory environment.  Such a definition allows us to look at puppetry, animated film, contemporary gaming and robotics as incarnations of the same primordial practice that arguably demarcates modern humans from their forbears.

Through these various media, we will explore the question of what it takes to bring the inanimate to life. Professionals in the fields of puppetry, animated film and gaming/robotics will lead in-class demonstrations and discussions.

Students will work in groups to create a performance or film in which they give life to everyday objects, and will have the chance in tutorials to animate robots (supported by HIT Lab NZ).

This course is also offered as a stage three course (TAFS322) with additional lectures and alternate assessments.

For further information see Theatre and Film Studies on the department and colleges page.