Lecture Three: Identity

In this lecture we looked at the historical and modern conceptions of identity, particularly in the digital domain. We started off by looking at the three phases of identity; pre-modern identity; modern identity; post-modern identity. Pre-modern identity was stable and defined by a persons long standing role, e.g. marriage, the government, work, etc. Modern identity began to offer a wider range of social roles and presented the possibility of choosing your own identity. Post-modern identity accepts a 'fragmented self' and the idea that identity is constructed rather than inherited.

We also looked into essentialism, which is the theory that it is our biological make-up that makes us who we are. Physiognomy fits into this theory, as it is the assessment of a person's personality or character based on their appearance, predominantly the face. This practice was revived by Lavater in 1755, who proposed that physiognomy was related to specific characters and it was later theorised by Cesar Lambroso in 1835 until 1909. Lambroso proposed the idea of positivist or anthropological criminology, which proposes the notion that criminal tendencies can be inherited, and that these 'born criminals' can be identified by physical characteristics.

The post-modern identity relates significantly to stereotyping and a good example of this is Tracey Emin's piece Everyone I have Ever Slept With (1963-1995), in which she created a tent in which she had all the names of everyone she had ever slept with. However, these people weren't just lovers, a lot of them were family members and friends and not sexual partners at all. Despite this, people naturally assumed that Emin had very loose sexual morals without having any information of who she was.

This can also be seen in animation, particularly in character designs. Characters are often created to fit stereotypes to help portray their personality and identity, for example Ed, Edd and Eddy. The character's identities are very easily distinguishable, for instance, Eddy is portrayed as a 'dumb' character, which is portrayed through his over-sized body and slightly 'dopey' looking facial characteristics. Whereas, Ed appears a lot less 'dumb' then Eddy, which is easy to establish through his larger head and less 'dopey' looking features.

Ed, Edd and Eddy

Seminar Two: Establishing a Research Question

In this session we looked at establishing a research question to explore for our essay. I really struggled at first with this task because I'm unsure of what area of animation I want to specialise in, so it made it difficult to pin-point what area of animation I wanted to explore and research. In the end I decided to focus on why I got into animation in the first place, which was storytelling. This led me to start thinking about why animation is such an effective form of storytelling and why it was better at storytelling than other techniques.

So for my essay I have decided to research "in what ways is animation a better form of storytelling than other medium?", however, I will refine this title at a later date. In terms of research I've found the following to get me started;

McClean, S,T. (2007) Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects in Film, The MIT Press, USA.

Cholodenko, A (ed.) (1991) The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation, Power Publications, Sydney

Cholodenko, A (ed.) (2007) The Illusion of Life Volume 2: More Essays on Animation, Power Publications, Sydney

Wells, P (2007) Basics Animation: Scriptwriting, AVA Publishing, SA

After finding my initial research points I gave my sheet to Ollie who gave me feedback regarding finding a little more research to help me gather a more rounded conclusion to my essay. Overall, I feel that my question is something that I can explore and adapt to a visual outcome, as I would be able to create an animation that portrays how animation is better at storytelling than other storytelling forms.