Course Syllabus
Course: ART 2420
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Visual Art
Title: Experimental Animation
Semester Approved: Spring 2024
Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2028
End Semester: Fall 2029
Catalog Description: In this course, students will learn the potential of animation as a fine art medium and a mode of cultural production. While utilizing a wide range of animation techniques, concepts, and software, students are encouraged to experiment, creating individual and collaborative animation shorts. Students will analyze historically and contemporarily relevant approaches to experimentation in the field of animation and relate them to their own animated art works. Students will acquire technical skills and critical vocabulary for discussing creative work, while exercising their artistic intuition and expressive instincts. Students need to complete ART 1140 before taking this course. A program fee is required.
Semesters Offered: Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 3
Prerequisites: ART 1140
Justification: The moving image and its associated language is pervasive in both popular culture and the arts. Museums and galleries throughout the country routinely include experimental animation in their exhibitions and collections and it is a growing genre in popular media. In addition, experimental animation encourages interdisciplinary approaches and collaboration, redefining what this dynamic art form can ultimately be. The attitude of play, discovery, and pushing the boundaries, inherent to experimentation, creates curiosity and enthusiasm essential to a student’s self-expression, while supporting multimodal learning. The student-centered approach in this class provides students with a sense of agency while preparing them for entry into the practicing art world.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Material Proficiency: Students will be exposed to a variety of analog and digital mediums used within the realm of experimental animation. They will navigate different approaches used in capturing, creating, and presenting animated shorts. This proficiency and innovation in using material and media will be used to understand practical applications of visual language and storytelling in non-mainstream settings. Each student will be required to maintain a digital portfolio on an online platform, documenting their progress throughout the semester.
Principles of Concept: Students will learn to apply conceptual principles to a variety of experimental animation techniques and styles through the study of principles of animation, notions of time and space, along with the laws of physics and how they impact our visual perception of movement. Students will reference their own creative concerns, artistic influences, and art education in creation of original and meaningful animated shorts. They will conduct in-depth research to develop original ideas for animation. Evidence of proficiency will culminate with a digital portfolio of animated shorts investigating the analog and digital animation techniques and principles, while creating meaningful and original content. This outcome will be assessed through student participation, portfolio, and a final project.
Historical Context: In addition to viewing works by animation contemporaries, students will study historically relevant animation works in relationship to socio-political situation and captured zeitgeist of the time. They will analyze elements of animation history and their relationship to contemporary experimental animation. This knowledge and historical understanding will assist them in informing creative communication through visual language of animation. This outcome will be assessed through student participation, portfolio, and a final project.
Critical Theory: Students will develop an ability to critically analyze works of art through verbal critiques of the work of their peers and professional artists as it applies to creative, process-intensive, conceptual animation work. This skill will foster a greater ability of students to be critical of their own work within the creative process. Utilizing skills gained from presentations, lectures, class projects, in-progress and final critiques will give the student confidence and critical knowledge to evaluate aesthetics, visual communication, and conceptual merit. Individually and collaboratively students will create meaningful time-based works that engage audiences.
Creative Process: This course teaches strategies for cultivating creative practice, expressing ideas, solving problems creatively, engaging with challenging concepts, and experimenting with different mediums in working with animation. Students will explore the importance of animation processes and interdisciplinary approaches in creating animated works. They will utilize alternative visual storytelling elements, design fundamentals, and sound design, along with anatomy and a basic understanding of physics. Students will practice all phases of production including idea generation and storyboarding, image and audio capture, and editing, and critique as they create hands-on animated projects. Utilizing a sketchbook to record and develop this process will be highly encouraged as part of the process. This course will culminate with the final animation project where, in addition to the final product, students will critically write and speak about their unique creative process as well as the other four outcomes. Integrating written and verbal critical analysis into the studio practice promotes a conscious awareness, enhancing the quality of current and future creative ventures.
Content:
This course will include lecture, discussion, critique, and studio time in exploring a variety of animation materials, methods, and techniques; creating several experimental animated shorts; practicing compositing, rendering, and editing techniques; understanding historical perspectives of cinematic process as well as contemporary critical issues in experimental animation; engaging in critique of historic, contemporary, and student work; and participating in public screenings of student animations.The artistic genres, major figures, and movements covered in this course will be representative of a ranging variety in gender, nationality, language, identity, perspective, and background. Where disparities may exist in these genres, major figures, and movements, questions or issues of representation will be addressed in class discussions and/or assignments. Discussion of representation and diversity are highlighted as significant aspects animation as they relate to access, voice, and audience.
Key Performance Indicators:
Comprehensive Portfolio 40 to 55%
Critique and analysis 15 to 20%
Attendance and participation 10 to 15%
Final Project 20 to 30%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Each student will be required to have a USB 3.0 flash or external hard drive and headphones/earphones. Additional materials and supplies to be determined at the discretion of the instructor in addition to what is provided through the course program fee.
Pedagogy Statement:
This course will include applied, hands-on studio projects, class discussions, oral and written critiques, demonstrations, and slide lectures, as they apply to the principles of experimental animation. These teaching methods are tailored to accommodate unique learning styles that will integrate with a variety of rigorous experiential, creative projects. This course fosters a collaborative, co-intentional learning experience that encourages students to consider themselves partners in creating and maintaining a respectful and supportive learning community through their work, critique, and conduct. The exchange of ideas and feedback is emphasized through discussion, critique, and collaborative projects. This exchange is also encouraged outside of class as students are invited to work together informally. This interactive and participatory endeavor cultivates artists who value each other as well as the creative process and helps them discover that collaborative learning experiences are rich with potential, as student colleagues inspire, stretch, trust, and support each other. It also prepares students for the highly collaborative and creative industry where diverse ideas and areas of experience are combined to problem solve. Prompts for discussions and projects are designed to promote a wide range of visual interpretation and the inclusion of various conceptual insights, including but not limited to, age, ethnicity, culture, gender, and religion. Visual art, in its essence, promotes inclusivity as students explore unique personal concepts.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture/Lab
Maximum Class Size: 15
Optimum Class Size: 12
