Since its beginning, cinema has incorporated all the technologies of animation available to its makers at the time. Now, with the advent and continuing emergence of Computer Generated Imagery, cinema has become more than ever a product of animation: in its image making, editing and in its contribution to a new phenomenology of visual perception. Animation belongs now not only in cinema and television but also in computer gaming. Although to a necessary extent we are already literate in how animation works as a part of how society represents itself, this course expands such literacy into a critical capacity for understanding how animation technologies have been developed and used over time, how they operate across a vast range of screens, and most importantly, how 'unreal' animations tell stories about the real world.

On the completion of this course

1. You will know how animation developed as a technology and as a narrative form
2. You will have the skill to critically analyse animation in its various forms
3. You will have the skill to give a presentation and encourage group discussion based on your analysis and reading on various kinds of animation
4. You will be able to conduct your own research into how animation is used to tell stories for and about societies

1. 10-15 minute Oral Presentation on Weekly Topic,10% [LOs 1 and 3]
2. Reading Paper on Weekly Reading, 600 words 25% [LOs 1 and 2]
3. Research Proposal, 600 words, 25% [LOs 1, 2 and 4]
4. Research Project, 3000 words, 40% [LOs 1, 2 and 4]

2.5 hour combined screenings and seminar per week

1 hour tutorial per week

Students are also expected to complete 6.5 hours of private reading and assessment preparation each week of the course

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As background to this course's use of film analysis, a recommended text for students without film studies experience is:

Timothy Corrigan (2009). The Film Experience: An Introduction, Boston/Bedford, St Martins.

Maureen Furniss (Editor) Animation: Art and the Industry, , John Libbey, 2009.

and/or

Thomas Lamarre,The Anime Machine. A Media Theory of Animation,  Minneapolis, London:University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Readings will be provided electronically on the wattle site for this course. A list of other relevant readings will also be provided and held on close reserve in the Library when possible.

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