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lorelei pepi

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My essay "The Spatial Narrative: Animation and Art Installation" provides insight to my conceptual / historical influences. This

was published in "Cartoon: The International Journal of Animation" Vol 1, Issue 1 in 2005.

The Spatial Narrative: Animation and Art Installation

All places exist somewhere between inside and outside views of them, the ways in which they compare to
and contrast with, other places. Lucy Lippard: 1997; p33 (1)

… But, if memory makes relative insides and outsides communicate like interiors and exteriors, an absolute

outside and inside must confront each other and be co-present. Gilles Deleuze, The Time-Image 1985 (2)

Historically, the re-working of cinematic practice and theory is a reoccurring act: tearing apart constructs in order to build

them up again, and testing the definitions of time, duration, space, narrative structures and what it means to be a
Spectator. This slippage between definitions is currently one of the most invigorating and exciting events happening in this

century, as artists and theoreticians rise to examine the border- crossing potentials of time-based media. These recent

decades have seen media artists re-defining their practices by taking on an interdisciplinary approach, and technology is the

invigorating Deus ex Machina. Interdisciplinary work that coalesces both time-based media and fine art frequently evolves

into the practice of installation or performance, the practical manifestation of concepts with spatial attitude and awareness.

The theoretical and practical relationship of cinema to fine art has been long contested, but unfortunately, animation is

infrequently considered in these debates. Rose Bond and Gregory Barsamian are two contemporary artists who alter the

cinematic code of animation by moving out of the traditional frame and (re)joining it with fine art by utilizing
installation/performance practices. Their works are fascinating examples of reviewing how space, time, duration and
contextual relationships can challenge the ideologies of narrative structure and the experience of the Spectator as they

navigate the potential options.

There is a long history of animation as being the root of cinema. The early 1800’s had the “user” physically interacting with

openly mechanical optical toys such as the thaumatrope, zoetrope, phenakistoscope, and paraxinoscope. The animated
images were hand drawn and cyclic in their looping gestural movement. The Lightning sketch artist of the early 1900’s, Stuart
Blackton, (3) utilized animation films during live stage performances, interacting with the drawn images as if they were alive,

but the mechanics were being hidden from view in order to preserve the “magical” quality of the animated movement. The
beginning concepts of animation were entwined with user interactivity, but as mechanical invention intervened, animation as

“cinema” was transferred to the performative gestures of drama and spectacle, and the audience began to be physically
separated from the cinema screen. The Spectator’s body was being removed from the equation. The mechanics of cinema

were becoming clouded and hidden as artifice, as art progressed through invention. But because of cinema’s early history, the
cinema artists were thinking of the individual “frame” as crafted art, and cinematic results in relation to time, duration, and

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space were being explored.

Paraxinsocope image © Jack and Beverly Wilgus

Cinema is built upon a physical structure and process that predicates a separation of existence on many different levels. The
gathering of individual frames onto the strip of celluloid or bits of code on a video/digital track, is the use of duration and

space. This captured infinite moment is about dissolving that time-space relationship when projected at 24-30fps, where it
purports to regain the illusion of life through the power of Time, Duration and Space. But Time and Duration do not share the

same identity. Tony Conrad, video artist and musician, comments (Time) corresponds to the linear system of physics, clocks,
and the calendar; duration addresses the subjective sense of extension over temporal intervals of greater or lesser size,

referenced to the present moment.”(4) Time and duration cannot exist without Space within which to play out their
respective qualities. The conflation of time, duration and space can be seen even in the earliest cave paintings, as events and

movement become layered and compiled onto one ceiling or wall. “Spatial simultaneity” is a phrase that has been adopted
amongst artists and theorists as a way to address Time related images existing contiguously in one immediate environment,

one Space. This term is most likely best attributed to the inspiration of Henri Bergson, French social theorist.

Duration (thus) assumes the illusory form of a homogeneous medium, and the connecting link between these

two terms, space and duration, is simultaneity, which might be defined as the intersection of time and space.

(5)

Fine Artists in the early days of cinema were motivated into action by the newly

curated sense of time and space. The infinite moment was introduced, where an

intimate exploration of a subject could be done from various viewpoints over

time. Cubism responded by shattering these multiple points of view into a single
plane (6), while Vorticists and Dynamists layered multiple shards of expanded
time into one flattened image, such as this portrait of Pablo Picasso executed by

the Spanish artist, Juan Gris in 1912.(7)

Animation as a cinematic art form is created in a disjointed manner, time-wise

and spatially. Time is separated and slowed down to an infinite moment,

dissolving movement and meaning to individual statements as images are
garnered on a microcosmic basis by the artist-filmmaker. It is in its own way,

also an example of spatial simultaneity. Space shifts as the work-in-progress “Portrait of Picasso” 1912, Juan
gains materiality and reaches eventual output, regardless of medium. The final Gris; Collection of Mrs. and Mrs.
output regains standard Time, running along in linearly observed cinematic Leigh Block
motion. The pursuit of animation as cinema is, and has been, to give tangible

life to the Imaginary in time. Whether the individual handcrafting of drawings

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upon paper, adjusting puppets, or applying scripted code to mathematically defined points in virtual space, an artist

generates the work as an intimately crafted project coming from their own hands. Animation has an extraordinary ability to
render the representation of abstract imagination as real, and this is precisely where emotional resonance lays in art; the
ability to reach the unconscious response. The cultivation of this kind of cinematic abstraction at a handcrafted level is

defining the relationship between cinema and art.

‘Polyphysiognomical Portrait of Umberto Bocciono’ 1913 (left) and Schiafo (right) by Anton Giulio and Arturo Bragaglia

Traditional Cinematic narrative relies upon causal effect progressions and the thoughtful juxtapositioning of shots and
sequences, and it does so by using linear time, duration and space. Editing strategies survive upon one temporary shot

replacing the next, itself then being replaced, and so on, until the replacement progression creates a temporal and emotional
shift of awareness, as cause-and-effect lead the viewer thru a pre-determined exercise. Experimental media artists might

disrupt narrative flow by placing excessive space and time between successive shots. The viewer’s mind is unable to maintain
a cohesive relationship between shots in this context, and the ideal narrative is challenged. Even though, it is nearly

impossible for a screened film’s individual shot to have a recognizable quality of existing individually and tangibly. Narrative
experience is maintained inside of the covert linear movements of the projected film, and no matter how many times one

may observe this film, it will always run the same sequence of events. Any change of representation or perception of the film
will be achieved only by the individual Spectator themselves.

A perception which can be eliminated by an action is recognized as exterior. Jean Louis Baudry (8)

The general Spectator will say that the ideal cinematic experience is the ability to “disappear” into the film’s world, the
screen melting away as the film becomes combined with the Spectator’s unconscious, opening to what is tantamount to a

waking dream. When a Spectator is required to consciously interact with media in order to have a complete delivery of
information, that Spectator becomes an active User with agency, and the illusionistic space of the waking dream disappears.

The cinematic moment becomes “exterior” to the individual Spectator. History includes artists that saw the ideal experience
in the “disappearing,” as well as those that wished to expose the long ago hidden mechanics of cinematic artifice.

The contemporary urban artist is digital media savvy and ìnter-disciplinary, focusing on the experience of the digital media
User, accessing a digital “database” which stores media data that can be brought together to (re)construct “narrative” in a

variety of ways. The User consciously applies choice, generally using a computer screen interface that doubles for the

traditional movie screen. In this scenario, (the) individual self-navigates toward his or her own reception.9 However, narrative
fragmentation frequently occurs, obscuring meaning and preventing a feeling of structural “flow.” Unconscious immersion
does not occur because of the conscious and overt activity that is limited to the literal “screen interaction.”

We experience not only with our minds, but with our bodies as well. Traversing through space invites sensorial expectation

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and creates an immersive and seductive state of presence and connectedness that we absorb in an unconscious reverie. She
who wanders through a building or a site acts precisely like a film spectator absorbing and connecting visual spaces. The

changing position of a body in space creates architectural and cinematic grounds. The consumer of architectural (viewing)

space is the prototype of the film spectator. Giuliana Bruno, “Site-seeing” (2000)10. Movement through space also invites
discovery and creation of memory as we wend our way along a path in linear time. We are altered with the moments of
finding something new around the corner as we move towards our destination: a stairwell infused with a lingering smell of

perfume, a winter trail that is unmarked, retracing a lonely highway that we use to reach a lover. The capacity to use our

bodies to navigate meaning is woven into our daily lives.

If we ponder upon how narrative might be experienced as spatially simultaneous and contextual, we can look to architecture

as a guiding principle. That is, by using actual space experienced in time. Disassembling and reassembling the building blocks
of a narrative experience, architecture’s vocabulary would introduce ideas such as physical placement and proximity, scale

and proportions, color, texture, temperature, patterns, light and shadow, entrance and exit, rhythm of passage, destination
and arrival, interior and exterior, and auditory response. By incorporating animation as the cinematic media, we reinvigorate

a fine art thread.

Rose Bond is a Canadian born media artist living and teaching in Portland, Oregon. Her pursuit of animation as art has

developed into utilizing the architectural edifice as her locus for media installation. This is particularly well suited to her

goals as she examines the meeting point of public art in her private work. Bond’s most recent installations, Illumination #1

(2003, 2004,) and Gates of Light (2004) were each animated narratives installed in city buildings, intended to be experienced

from the vantage point of the surrounding streets. The practical set-up is the same in each, with up to six video projectors

placed inside the building space, casting illuminated 12 minute animation loops upon the inside surfaces of building windows.

Audio speakers are positioned externally, creating an aural atmosphere of voices, effects and music. Viewers are street

pedestrians and residents in surrounding buildings, and sometimes residents of the streets.

Illuminations #1, street shot © Rose Bond

Illumination #1 is an exploration of Portland’s historical identity, covering 120 years in 12 minutes.11 Bond chose the historic

Portland Seamen’s Bethel corner building for its relationship to a wide history of transitory groups and cultures, people who

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otherwise are forgotten, have no voice in history.12 It is the specific use of animation that brings unique warmth and a sense

of collective memory to this project, with the hand drawn forms vibrating lightly in their silhouettes, and indicating another
individual’s care and action in bringing them back to life. The use of the building invites the evocation of the simulacra, the
building as reawakened arbiter of history. It is also the breaking of the cinematic screen as an invisible mirror, insisting upon

its own existence. This narrative requires close observation, because some imagery will appear monstrously large, passing as if

behind the entire building’s wall, seen only in pieces through the windows. Other imagery is recreated to be window specific,
as human habitations were rendered. Spectators as active participants must position themselves to find their favored view of
the building’s events, and to affect reception of the audio in which street traffic and pedestrian murmurings become

intertwined. The Spectator’s actions evolve a relationship with the physical presence of the narrative and the building as

Narrator. The narrative structure is a montage, in that a linear dispersal of the history is both accumulated and filtered by
the physical building, the presence and path taken by the Spectator, the randomizing element of traffic at large, and the
authorial control of Bond as director.

Gregory Barsamian is a kinetic sculpture artist living and working in

Brooklyn, NY, whose work has been collected internationally by

museums and foundations. Barsamian uses replacement animation

sculpture and persistence of vision techniques, the work enabled by

whirling motor- driven cages which support cascading animated

sculptures lit by synchronized strobing lights. The work is displayed in

darkened, closed rooms in which the Spectator encounters floating

phantasms repeating dream-like looping gestures. Barsamian employs

changing the scale of the whirling cage to determine the length of the from The Scream, © 1997 Gregory Barsamian

animation; the larger the diameter of cage, the longer the animation
can be, the average being 3 seconds. His largest animation to date is

15 feet tall, allowing 6 seconds of animation. Because of the short

loop, the length of narrative is minimalized considerably. The endless

cycling nature of this work is utilized by Barsamian to underscore the

existential quality of these narratives: the Sisyphean-like nature of the

task of living.

Barsamian employs surreal dream imagery that includes disembodied

arms waving, cherubs turning into helicopters, books swallowing hands,

and figures rising from sleeping heads. The narrative experience

requires the Spectator to navigate an extremely sensorially awakened
space, moving amongst the animated works. The images exist in real

time and viewers are able to share the same space with them. The

conflict between sensory information and logic creates the state of

dream reality.13 The Spectator is enveloped not only within the visual
stimuli but also within the aural drone of whirring motors, breezes that

are generated from flying and whirling sculpture, vibrations through

floors and walls, strobing lights, moving shadows thrust against every Die Falle, © 1998 Gregory Barsamian

surface, and the presence of other Spectators. Collection of Howard Tullman

The higher meaning of the architectural site is inconsequential in this

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work, but physical architectural space is essential and irrevocably linked to the physical and spatially simultaneous existence
of the narrative. The use of persistence of vision, animation technique and handcrafted sculpture installation create a

stunning hybrid of fine art and cinema. The interaction finds the Spectator located within the narrative, immersed in

reconstructing a personal relationship and understanding of the looping stories that Barsamian provides as fodder.

The capacity to engage with the cinematic experience as spatial, contextual and immersive can be found in the relationships

created through media installation. History has shown that it has always been possible, and that it has been technology that
has seduced us away, encouraging us to hide the artifice and to assume that abandoning true space and the body was the

only way to bridge the gap to the unconscious. Our bodies consume experience and make it exist wholly within us. They are
our immediate relationships to space and time relationships, allowing an unconscious conduit through which narratives can

communicate through art and cinema.

Essay by Lorelei M. Pepi Lorelei is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Visual and Environmental Studies Program
and a Film Study Center Fellow, both at Harvard University where she teaches animation filmmaking. © Lorelei M. Pepi 2005

1. Lippard. Lucy (1997) The Lure of the Local: senses of place in a multi-centered society, New Press, p. 33
2. Deleuze, Gilles (1985) Cinema 2: The Time-Image, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta, Althone Press

3. Stuart Blackton (d 1941) was most well known for Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, 1906, which used stop-motion,
stick puppetry and drawn animation.

4. Tony Conrad, Oct 2004; http://tonyconrad.net/duration.htm online journal essay

5. Bergson, Henri “Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness” Chapter 2: The

Multiplicity of Conscious States; The Idea of Duration; translated by F.L. Pogson, M.A. London: George Allen and
Unwin (1889, trans. 1910)

6. An example of Cubist painting is provided in Juan Gris’ “Portrait of Picasso” (1912); Collection of Mrs. and Mrs.
Leigh Block, Art Institute of Chicago

7. An example of Dynamism is seen in the photography work of the Italian Bragaglia brothers. The image provided is
by Anton Giulio and Arturo Bragaglia, ‘Polyphysiognomical Portrait of Umberto Bocciono’, 1913

8. Baudry, Jean Loius, The Apparatus, Camera Obscura No. 1 (Fall 1976), p. 115
9. Tafler, David I. (XXXX) When Analog Cinema Becomes Digital memory, p. 187

10. Bruno, Giuliana (2000) Site-seeing: Architecture and the Moving Image, p.
11. Quote provided by Rose Bond in writing about her own work. http://www.rosebond.net

12. Quote from pesonal interview with Rose Bond, 2005, Ottawa, Canada
13. Quote provided by Gregory Barsamian, in writing about his own work. http://www.gregorybarsamian.com

© 2010 lorelei pepi

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