Introduction To Visual Culture Why do Conventions and ... - Weebly

Sarah Cant

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Introduction To Visual Culture Why do Conventions and Techniques of ‘Old’ Media survive in Contemporary Practice? Just what exactly is Art? Could it be that Art is merely a tool used by ourselves to bring about change, a rebellion from the predictability of the consumerists perhaps? The History of Art shows this change over and over again, bringing about new eras, known as the movements. Artists are always striving to find the new and the shocking, so why is it for Art to progress, does it refer back to the past for inspiration? Consumerists may now be too used to seeing the shocking that only the extremes can still create this effect. In using the old conventions and techniques, perhaps artists feel they can somewhat ‘revamp’ the shocking scene. Maybe the idea of the predictability also effects the movements, and reverting backwards is purely just a way to constantly surprise the consumerists. The survival of the old ways could be due to the familiarity, a nostalgia trip for the general consumers. The key to media surviving is the success of the application of the media, whether old or new. In the case of Animation History, a fairly recent media, the debate can be backed up. Over the past 70 years Animation Film has clearly seen the changes of media, from the somewhat primitive Hand Drawn to the High Tech CGI era of today. Although Hand Drawn seemed to die out completely, why is it that Hand Drawn seems to be making a come back? In the cases of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008) and the yet to be released Princess and the Frog (2010) there’s evidence of the success of the Old Media, the Hand Drawn has been moved into Contemporary Practice. Although this is a relatively new survival attempt, a view can be made as to whether the old media of this particular Art form can survive, and why it will in this Technology dominant era. During the development of new media, the new and exciting, older media tends to die out. The media is not forgotten by the industry professionals of the time of that media, though they update themselves with the new technology. The success of Animation depends heavily on the industry keeping up to date with the movements caused by the updating of technology. Animators need to follow where the new technology lies, as this generally means this is also where the success of a film is. The next generation of Animators will most likely be solely brought up on the use of the new media, and so the older media may generally be lost. “The centralized, dinosaurian one-to-many media that roared and trampled through the Twentieth Century are poorly adapted to the Post Modern Technological Environment.” Jenkins, H, 2006, page 13

Sarah Cant

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The knowledge is not the only element that can cease the survival of the older media. As technology advances, it’s not necessarily the death of the actual media, but that of the tools for the application. For technology to advance, there’s no point going backwards, this only stops the development of the new. However, in the case of the Princess and the Frog (2010) modern technology has enabled the old Hand Drawn Media to survive. What we see with this example is technology being used with the old media, instead of replacing it. Back in the days of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Fig. 1) where technology was limited, production of the film took up both vast amounts of time and money. Both of these are central to the success of a film. With the successful partnership of new technology and old techniques, the quality and speed of film production can be up to the modern consumerist’s standards.

Fig. 1 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Film), 1937, Hand Drawn Animation The idea of being an artist is to be original, to do what no other artist has done. Breaking away from the predictability of the movements and techniques of the current era. Although through the many movements over the history of Art you can clearly see the change in the styles and processes behind the compositions. However, in the attempt to constantly be original, Artists tend to fall into the predictability trap set by the consumerists need for ‘good’ Art. The journey Art is taking at the moment leads us to the Post Modernism movement. To do something completely different, modern artists have taken a step backwards, getting inspiration from the old conventions. All the ‘isms’ that followed the start of the Modernist movement used the old techniques to create new ones. Basically updating the old movements, playing around with the concepts involved during the historical movements. In terms of Animation, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Fig.2) was the first evidence of returning back to the old ways. Hayao Mayazaki (the Director of

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Ponyo) decided for Ponyo that the Hand Drawn they used to use for all the films had certain qualities the more recent CG films seemed to lack. Rather than joining the current trend of CGI & 3D filmmaking, Mayazaki broke the predictability, going backwards instead of forwards. In terms of the cost and the money involved the idea shouldn't have worked, though due to the popularity of seeing Hand Drawn back on the cinema screens, it did.

Fig.2 Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Film), 2008, Hand Drawn Animation When Toy Story (Fig. 3) appeared in cinemas, a new surge in CGI full-length films started to be produced. In Cinemas there’s almost always a Computer Generated Animation showing, evident that when a new media is approached into the broad market of the consumers, it proves popular. It seems that when a media is new, few consumers can compare and critic the work. Now with the bigger variety of CGI films out on the market, consumers find watching the same style over and over again tedious, and begin to criticise. When this happens, the industry needs to come up with something new. It is then that the 2D can be rereleased into the contemporary. It seems that when the consumers have something as loved as 2D taken away in a sense by the industry, once boredom for the new media sets in, 2D is given a new lease of life. Thus the revival of the old media into the modern.

Fig.3 Toy Story (Film), 1995, CGI Animation

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It seems that finding out exactly why old media survives invites more questions into the debate. Looking deeper into how the return of old media comes about, not just necessarily why it survives. Its purely speculation, but there must be a strong link between why and how the media survives. Technology I believe is a strong contributor, at least in the Animation Industry. Technology would seem a hindrance to the traditional Arts of Animation, as modern software and hardware can do the same job. This however does not seem the case. In the example of Hand Drawn Animation, without the technology working alongside, traditional practices wouldn’t be able to stand up to the needs of the consumer. The return of Hand Drawn Animation is still in the test of time; after all it might not survive in contemporary practice. Ponyo (Fig. 2) made a path ready for Princess and the Frog (2010), a much bigger company (Walt Disney) and so the survival of the old media in this competitive industry can only be speculation, yet to be decided by the success or downfall of the newest attempt.

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Bibliography Beck, J, 2004, Animation Art: From pencil to pixel, the History of Cartoon, Anime & CGI, Flame Tree Graham-Dixon, A, 2008,Art: The Definitive Visual Guide, Dorling Kindersley Ltd, London Jenkins, H, 2006, Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide, New York University Press, Pages 1 – 24 Mayazaki, H, 2009, The Art of Ponyo, Viz Media

Digital Research Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937, David Hand, Disney (Film) Toy Story, 1995, John Lasseter, Pixar (Film) Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, 2008, Hayao Mayazaki, Studio Ghibli (Film) The Princess and the Frog, 2010, John Musker & Ron Clements, Disney (Film) The Return to Hand Drawn Animation, 2009, Jon Musker & Ron Clements (Interview)