Output details
36 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
Edge Hill University
Primitive 1
This project considers space as material and posits process as method for revealing material. The research represents a study of ‘space’ within the production and presentation of 3-D CGI animation. It aims to build upon and expand its implied associated visual language, and to investigate our perception of 3-D CGI, our understanding of it as a medium and our expectation of its application. Research questions include: Can the conceptualization and presentation of space be deemed as fundamental to the language of three-dimensional computer-generated animation, and defined as material? Within the boundaries of 3-D CGI animation is it possible to establish a set of properties that defines space as a material and its ability to provide a unique form of communication? This project is informed by dialogues concerning the digital in texts such as ‘Digital Materialism’ by van den Boomen, Lammes, Lehmann, Raessens and Schäfer. It also draws upon artists/filmmakers/animators working within this medium who explore the nature of 3-D CGI space, e.g. O’Reilly, Payne, and Fleisch. The principal mechanism for addressing these concerns has been a combination of practical and theoretical research. The project’s theoretical framework arises from structural/materialist filmmaking, reworking three imperatives: an anti-narrative, anti-illusionist approach to filmmaking; the documenting/recording of process to instigate a definition of material; the presentation of process in an attempt to suppress meaning and to deny the viewer a sense of illusionistic space within the frame of the work. The work generates interesting dialogues on the function and form of 3-D CGI, its position as a process for animation and medium for communication. Feedback from the exhibitions/artist talks acknowledges that the approach and application of this research has engendered a greater understanding of the processes and potentialities of 3-D CGI as a medium, as well as generally supporting the hypothesis, space as material.