elisadeveloping-extendedpractice

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A few online responses to me sharing the animation. 

- Was surprised that it made a lot of people emotional

- It prompted people to share their adoption stories/or their family’s connection with adoption

- Valid point that maybe not an obvious enough inclusive of LGBTQA adopters. I think I’d thought that by just having anonymous figures that it didn’t need to be specified. Also I was working with the audio I got and there was no verbal mention of same sex couples. 

- People picked out really liking the part where the little girls gets pulled out of a rock pool and then say ‘daddy never let me go’

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My final animation. 

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DESIGN FOR SOCIAL CHANGE  and REFLEXIVE COLLABORATIVE PRACTITIONERS 

My research has been particularly driven towards designers and artists who are ‘designing for social change’. I want my work to serve its beneficiaries. My 1st year research essay was about illustrators having a voice, now I am inspired to give others a voice and for their needs to be at the forefront. 

it’s a large part about giving that autonomy away and the voice your are trying to make known is that of the beneficiary of the project. 

Can you do both? 

Perhaps need to learn to relinquish control. Don’t have to completely control and manage what the audience are thinking. Don’t want to just construct and present a narrative.

Social impact design is distinguished by its human-centered approach, a practice ripe for storytelling and evaluation, with the unique potential to change hearts and minds. (designing for social change youtube)

During lockdown I attended a talk on Zoom help by the Royal School of Drawing called ‘Artists in isolation: Animation, Arrivants & activism’. The themes expressed in the titled seem in line with my project. The discussed visual story telling; stories in transit. I saw how research and creation could be reflexive(???).  Displaced peoples’ right to imagination. They taught animation in Sicily and worked out how collaborative animation could be used for story telling. ‘ignite a narrative that fosters an attitude of sharing and stories.’ They based their film on a story already written and nested stories within the main narrative. Puppets in Palemo museum influenced what they made. Their involvement had dual purpose - teach animation skills so key members could teach others. They used a free animation app on Iphone. Built a story together. A lot of translating over many languages. They became very creative and able to deeply concentrate. They would use games to work out narrative problems. Wool game - great form of visually writing/solving narrative questions involving games. A window into the joy and freedom of company. Their drawings have a lot of screen presence. Improvisation, trusting, games and storytelling. Binary of can be a slow, deliberate process, which forms trusting connections, and often reliant on technology, but alongside this is the flow and energy of improvisation. (Reminds me of the quick drawings I made at adoption talks). Collective visual storytelling, transcending language barriers. 

The role of Drawing in visual story telling. Stories in transit. Displaced individuals.  

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ForMed Films showreel from ForMed Films on Vimeo.

ForMED Films - Perinatal positivity ‘Helping you get the right information, to the right people, at the right time’. ForMed Films can work with you to help people better understand medical and health issues, make informed health choices and engage in treatment. We do this through compelling animated films, illustrations, engaging audio interviews and creative workshops. In collaboration with health professionals, charities, patients and academics we make authentic, factual and beautiful work based on people’s real experiences. We’ll help you connect meaningfully with colleagues, patients and the general public. Our work combines in-depth research, patient interviews and professional input to tell stories that people remember.

Research shows that 43-61% of adults don't have adequate literacy and/or numeracy skills to understand health information.  Animated films fill the gap between written materials and face-to-face support. Compelling stories and audio of real experiences mean that people remember information.Experience films can be made to explore any issue. They can tackle difficult subjects in a moving and compassionate way. We interview a range of people with lived experience of a particular issue. These interviews provide the base of the film. We also collaborate with health professionals to ensure that our films are accurate and reflect the procedures and support that is in place to help people. This adds up to a powerful, rounded, informative and engaging film.We also make podcasts which give insight into a subject from a broader perspective, interviewing a range of people who have experienced an issue.Gathered experience might be a collection of edited interviews with people who have lived experience of a health condition, or might look at one issue from different points of view e.g. hospital doctor, GP, health visitor, patient, family.

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Posting on social media

Posted it on my facebook, illustration facebook, twitter, to Krish via email, Morphē, CRTD, Woodlands Church, Instagram and instagram stories

Put on showcase as I can’t ‘showcase’ it at our exhibition  

People began sharing on instagram

I tend to get very little interaction on twitter 

would love to get a Vimeo staff pick

Even if it just touches a few people in my social circles, that has achieved something and let voices be heard, but I think it could go further than that too. 

It was interesting what words people were giving as feedback. Quiet, honest, intimate, personal, heart warming, beautiful. 

https://growtraffic.com/blog/2019/03/more-views-vimeo-video

It’s inviting people to have their little bit of story. Sharing that they love their adopted grandchildren or their older siblings are adopted. 

A lot of people are saying they cried! And particularly liked the ‘never let me go’ bit

My aunt in America shared it, which made me think it is mostly relevant to a UK audience, as adoption looks very different in different countries. That made me think that some of my Instagram followers aren't UK based. As I didn’t have a show to launch it at on location in Bristol, it’s extra into the world is at a different audience. 

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How the visual composition of images works to engage the emotions, and how the elements of an artwork can give it the power to tell a story. Why are diagonals dramatic? Why are curves calming? Why does red feel hot and blue feel cold? She asks the right questions to get your wheels turning while the illustrations and thoughtful designs bring the words to life. 

Encourages you to answer the question, “How does the structure of a picture―or any visual art form―affect our emotional response?”

Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang – a simple way to understand composition

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2d animation revival?

Talking to Jimmy Makepeace, animator from Sons Of Graham animation studio, Bristol. 

Talking about the trend of DEMASTERING. To make the human hand more obvious in the work. Lower frame rates. More obvious 2D frame by frame drawing.

As the animation world is developing and tugging between 2d and 3d want to keep up and learn. The pandemic has shown me that digital media is at forefront.  Many believe 3D animation is the way forward for both technical and storytelling aspects, whatever type of video production it is: be that a full length movie, or an animated explainer video. But that’s not necessarily a view we subscribe to. Whatever technique you choose for your animation, it needs to help you tell the story – it’s a means to an end, not the end in itself. (https://www.curveball-media.co.uk/2d-animation-isnt-dead/) In the early years, 3D was slow, expensive and underdeveloped, with very little talent to call on. After investing in talent over the years, studios specialising in 3D are now producing good stories. And software has become cheaper and faster, which means it has potential to feed into TV productions. As seems to be the case. Let’s not forget, it’s the story/concept that makes a great piece, not the technique used. It always pays to think about your animation with respect to its purpose, place and audience, not just how the animation is created. The Internet’s popularity outweighs TV and the appeal of platforms such as YouTube as a form of monetising your work is forever growing.

Furthermore, if we look back to the John Lewis 2013 Christmas ad (‘The Bear and Hare’), we can see there’s hybrid of animation starting to form. See the making of video here. This is the result of a constant shift between 2D and 3D worlds and combined with the compelling narrative, struck a nostalgic cord in people. 

Even at the end of 2019 Netflix released a 98 minute 2d animated Klaus

The film combines newer tech to deliver a film that brings traditional 2D animation into the 21st century by making "Klaus" feel both nostalgic and fresh at the same time. (https://www.insider.com/klaus-netflix-movie-review-2019-11) The technological advances made to traditional animation for "Klaus" push the medium into the 21st century while still feeling nostalgic. Working with 250 animators, "Klaus" uses lighting tools to give an added depth to the 2D characters seen on screen.

It’s time to finally shake off the

lingering aftertaste and indigestion of the Disney renaissance and look forward

to a much more varied future where both technological and creative films can be

possible and popular. There’s a few more rounds in this fighter yet. (https://www.indiewire.com/2014/09/its-time-to-admit-that-2-d-animation-does-not-need-saving-123975/)

Has mine achieved purpose, place and audience? 

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DRAWING AS RESEARCH

REPORTAGE - documentary drawing

Royal college of Art - Drawing at the End of the world

Write up notes 

Drawing at events

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Animadoc/Anidoc/Adoption Anidoc /Anidopt

Animadoc/anidoc. Another awesome notion about Anidoc (personal but not academic) is that anima can stand for soul, and doc for doctor. The process of creating animation can be as a doctor or therapy for healing the soul. I think that this applies to both the artists here and their audiences. Otto Alder

I would suggest therapeutic for the audiences, artists and interviewees. 

I thought about titling the project ‘Adoption animadoc’. 

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WHY ANIMATION IS GOOD

for storytelling 

Animation allows you to talk about sensitive and difficult subjects 

For anonymity 

Can rate to easier because it’s not a fixed face 

Helps the viewer to relate more to it, because it’s not a fixed/filmed/real face. 

Concise and direct and instant 

Visual 

Allows you to talk about sensitive and difficult subjects/complex emotional feelings  

Goes well with story telling

Animation. Shareable. This will make it measurable.

Why am I making these animations?

Is it therapeutic for the person?

Does it help them? 

Does it expose more of a real insight?

Am I a ‘documentary maker’?

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Other main areas of research

INTERVIEWING and ETHICS RESEARCH

what questions to ask?

I’m an editor of the interview - ethics of editing. If I’m chopping up audio, does it still represent them? Do I present the audio back to them to see what they think? Lots of people don’t, they don’t have to. How do I have a presence in the audio? I am not impartial. 

structured/unstructured interviewing? 

Nature of outcome is only a few minutes. In Dev Prac the two interviews were long. Perhaps only ask one question? What question?

Ethical perspective of role as editor. If I chop up audio does it still represent them? How do I have a presence in the film and audio? 

Am I a documentary maker?

REPORTAGE - documentary drawing

Royal college of Art - Drawing at the End of the world

Write up notes 

STORIES AND LITERATURE

“When I watched the first cut of Little Women,” says Baumbach, “I felt like you know exactly why this movie’s being made, because it’s so personal. It both serves the story and honors the book, and then is really something that only she could do.” 

Jo wears her “scribble suit” when she retreats to the attic to write; Gerwig wore her father’s Hawaiian shirts and wrote everywhere—on buses, in chemistry class, at the dentist’s office. She still does: “I enjoy feeling as if I’m stealing it from the world,” she says, “like I’m getting away with something. If it becomes too formal, I’m sunk. I need to be a bit clandestine.”

‘Hearing someone else’s story is how we make sense of our own. Telling our own story is what alchemizes our pain into someone else’s medicine.’ (Greta Gerwig?)

The human contact bit of actually interviewing and recording their voice is part of honouring them. And then the giving it form. And then the sharing with an audience. 

The time-capsule/elevating bit doesn’t necessarily need an audience.

‘We write to taste life twice’ ― Anaïs Nin

“We write to heighten our own awareness of life. We write to lure and enchant and console others. We write to serenade our lovers. We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection. We write, like Proust, to render all of it eternal, and to persuade ourselves that it is eternal. We write to be able to transcend our life, to reach beyond it. We write to teach ourselves to speak with others, to record the journey into the labyrinth. We write to expand our world when we feel strangled, or constricted, or lonely...When I don’t write, I feel my world shrinking. I feel I am in prison. I feel I lose my fire and my color. It should be a necessity, as the sea needs to heave, and I call it breathing.”

Jo, Amy, and Meg are walking together, and Jo says "writing doesn't confer importance, it reflects it," lamenting her book being rejected. And steely Amy says no, you make things important BY writing them.

Little women is so important and relaxed because she wrote her ‘little domestics’ rather than fantasy stuff. 

Little women is a film about writing, sharing and honouring ‘small’ stories 

No one cared about the "little domestic stories" of Civil War era women's home lives until Louisa May pushed through and scribbled them down, defying all market conventions and expectations; she conferred importance rather than waiting for someone to reflect it for her. @rachsyme (New Yorker writer) twitter 

In 2020 we can think about the things we care about that aren’t considered particularly important or often elevated or seem to have a market, and we can work out how to convey their importance. 

Greta Gerwig New York Times interview thing: 

SHAPE, COLOUR and VISUAL LANGUAGE

How Pictures Work book

Wanted striped back colour and visual information in some parts. Use visual metaphors and poetic imagery, to build on and interpret along with the audio voices. ‘There’s an art to being precise, by giving less information it can invite the audience to inhabit a shared imagined landscape.’ Harriet Lee Merrion Blog

Eve Coy

- ‘Producing high-quality work as ever, students have also questioned the means of production and finish as part of their narrative. Rough-edged or unpolished work brings a rawness of experience and directness of message. Sometimes the work decays and destructs to reveal new thoughts and possibilities; sometimes technology helps to elevate and connect us with new experiences that expose the world we inhabit in a different way.’ The Volatility of Definition, Professor Neville Brody

CONNECTIONS WITH EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS

Moth 

Jim and Son of Graham (he helped me and gave practical insight) 

poetry one that Alice showed me 

Box of Delights, Akbar’s cheetah 

Little Women credits 

Father and Daughter animation - sadness, shows passage of time, stillness, space and pacing. Lots of dark and light makes it emotional. I don’t want to make it too dark and emotional. Also mine will be shorter, so can’t develop and journey with these things to the same extent. I want mine to be honest, but positive and helpful and inviting.  

Home For Good animations 

Chloe Hamon

Connecting with the ADOPTION COMMUNITY:

talking with Krish - he gave me advice on what he thought the animation should look like

Went to panel talks

Talked to prospective adopters 

Online talks from industry professionals AOI webinar

AOI spotlight on Sam Taylor 

Artists in isolation: Animation, arrivants and activism. The role of Drawing in visual story telling. Stories in transit. Displaced individuals.  

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

My research has been particularly driven towards designers and artists who are ‘designing for social change’. I want my work to serve its beneficiaries. My 1st year research essay was about illustrators having a voice, now I am inspired to give others a voice and for their needs to be at the forefront. 

it’s a large part about giving that autonomy away and the voice your are trying to make known is that of the beneficiary of the project. 

Can you do both? 

Perhaps need to learn to relinquish control. Don’t have to completely control and manage what the audience are thinking. Don’t want to just construct and present a narrative.

Social impact design is distinguished by its human-centered approach, a practice ripe for storytelling and evaluation, with the unique potential to change hearts and minds. (designing for social change youtube)

DRAWING AS RESEARCH

quote the reportage talk 

Drawing at events 

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DOCUMENTARY ANIMATION

An infomercial is a longer-form video or television advertisement that acts as a stand-alone program to pitch a good or service with a call to action. Infomercials are different than regular commercials because they last longer and have no breaks in the program. (This is what TED stuff is)

Hugh - ‘if you can’t do something, turn it to your advantage’. Like Greta Gerwig said ‘you only haven’t sone something before once’. Doesn’t actually ‘animate’ much - but they use this as their style. Don’t do mouth talking animation - don’t open this can of worms. We looked together at the work of Emily Downe - like how her hand drawn frame by frame work work (like Uncle Ginger’s). Stiller and quiter. Pacing is important. You need stillness so you can listen to the words. Could be a loose, stylised rotoscope. I showed Hugh my first Adoption Stories animation from my developing practice module and he said that it had good pacing. 

Uncle Ginger - TED - documentary animation 

Emily Downe - Documentary animation. I created a short films explore research-based topics in science, philosophy and the human story expressed through 2D, hand drawn animation.

Analysed Uncle Ginger transitions. 

ForMED Films - Perinatal positivity

Also inspired to see a whole series of New York Times ‘Conception’ animation, each by different artists, bringing evocative and complex stories to life visually.

Narrative and documentary animation can ‘questions the world, and one that questions our place within it.’ (The Volatility of Definition) ‘This shift in core practice is to one in which our roles as communicators is interrogated within a society that demands both unceasing response and vigil. These responses in many cases utilise new and renewed platforms to find expression – many students have become modern-day publishers, using public and printed spaces as politicised and participatory communication environments, while others have explored performance and place as their primary territories.’

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Challenges and learning opportunities

WORKFLOWS

I initially identified that I wanted to gather knowledge of practitioners workflows, so I could apply them and test them. (Talk about this later…)

AINMATION

One of the significant challenges I identified at the start of this project was gaining the skills needed in the animation, editing and sound production software that I would use to make this short film. 

Wanted to test myself in the way that industry professionals are tested - quick method, so learnt to make illustration fully drawn into Photoshop. 

Why animation?

Motion Graphics is a fairly new subject, not loads talked about.

As Hugh said - ‘if you can’t do something, turn it to your advantage’. Like Greta Gerwig said ‘you only haven’t sone something before once’. Challenge can be a learning opportunity. 

ANALOUGE vs DIGITAL TECHNIQUES

Telling a story sensitively is a problem to solve. It will be strengthening my communication skills. 

I am an editor and interviewer. I am the director, animator, sound designer.

INTERVIEWING

- The nature of my outcome is short. How do I get the right amount of audio for this? Only ask one question and just let them speak? 

I started getting the audio without knowing the form, as I thought it might be a visual podcast or something. 

Why interviewing?

getting equipment out 

- Is it therapeutic for them? Does it help them? Does it expose more of a real insight? 

ETHICAL and HEALTH AND SAFTEY CONSIDERATIONS

- A lot of the material in this project is sensitive, personal or confidential. Adoption is also a contentious subject for some, or people may already feel that they have a fixed understanding of it. There is some bad press and ‘horror stories’ about adoption. 

- i am concerned that I’ll represent people well 

not naive and uninformed 

won’t edit people’s audio badly 

can’t go to adoption toddler groups 

ethics reviews if working with children 

Sensitivity around the identity of the children. Photos of my friends’ adopted kids shouldn’t be shared online

Adoption agencies and Social Workers might have rules or opinions.

- I said I’m nervous about being naive or misinformed. Krish said ‘it’s a posture and skill to be able to humble yourself to do the learning.’ I’m starting from a position of not really knowing. To do or say nothing is worse. 

Learn the dynamics of development. Don’t disempower people(!) or have a white saviour complex. In the media it often looks as if the birth family never wanted to let them go. Do romanticise this, but also don’t demonise the birth family.

I aim to be involved in the adoption community beyond just the time I spend trying to glean information. I want to build trust and relationships. I also want to explore how my illustration and design work for this project can not be so hidden away from the community whilst I make it. I would like them to be more involved in the decisions that effect the making, and even the making. - problem because of corona virus. Still connected via twitter a bit. 

As I carry on this I’d like my process and to be less removed from it’s audience. I’d like their opinions and help in creating. There’s are barriers in the way, as any random person can’t just turn up to an adoption play group of something. Also I will need ethics approval to work with vulnerable people. 

As an illustrator I am used to responding to a given text. Here I have a part in controlling what is said, but also they will speak and provide the material. I am then the editor, so I form the final ‘text’ for myself to respond to in animation. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has also added extra challenge to each of these areas. Particularly physical removal from the communities. But challenge brings opportunity. More things are online, which is good for animation to be shared online. I wanted to try more 2D techniques, involving print and dragon frame software at the university, but this shows that animating in a way that can be done with the most limited resources has its advantages. 

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Advice Hugh gave me

Hugh - ‘if you can’t do something, turn it to your advantage’. Like Greta Gerwig said ‘you only haven’t sone something before once’. Doesn’t actually ‘animate’ much - but they use this as their style. Don’t do mouth talking animation - don’t open this can of worms. We looked together at the work of Emily Downe - like how her hand drawn frame by frame work work (like Uncle Ginger’s). Stiller and quiter. Pacing is important. You need stillness so you can listen to the words. Could be a loose, stylised rotoscope. I showed Hugh my first Adoption Stories animation from my developing practice module and he said that it had good pacing. 

Uncle Ginger - TED - documentary animation 

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Greta Gerwig speaking to New York Times about the importance of stories and writing them

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Planning for writing critical evaluation

CONTENT:

Why have you done what you’ve done? What was your intention? (Several points, consider research and practice) 

2. What is your work about?

3. Whose work are you influenced by - how? 

4. HOw have these changed: your knowledge, your understanding, you working methods?

5. Where does your work sit in context? (A. Graphic Arts Practice i) contemporary ii) historical? B. Wider context: i) creative ii) cultural (influences, values, practices) iii) social (pressures, structures, institutions))

6. How effective is your work? To what extent have you met your brief? (have you met what you stated in point 1. - i.e. what works, what doesn’t, why, how do you know, how might it be improved?)

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2d animation

Wanted it to appear human

wanted to build on drawn animation from last semester