ABSTRACT

In order to fully appreciate the unique properties of animation, first we must understand the concept of “the moving picture.” A moving picture does not simply require light projection. It may be the viewer who is moving instead. Let us imagine the viewer walking across a room. As a result, painted images on the wall become “animated.” They jump to life, twitch like a horse. If the room were inside the palace of Ti (152?), while the viewer walks toward a fixed position, a wall of Titans seems to be struck by lightning. This moving picture was achieved through accelerated and distorted perspective. In yet another kind of moving picture, this room could be at an amusement park in 1900, filled with trick mirrors. Or it may contain sculpture that appears to move, to shape shift as you approach, due to parallax (typical of the Baroque). Or the statue may turn from flesh to stone as you approach (as in the work of Bernini). (See animation as moving picture.)

In the western “moving-picture” tradition that leads to cinema, animation emerged first out of late medieval carnival, essentially in the sixteenth century. From carnival, we get clowns, harlequins, many slapstick gags, and death defying illusions. Carnival has also turned into a collective term, standing in for many events shared in public-ludic (playful) celebrations. Along with dozens of other holidays (e.g. Feast of Fools, All Saints Day), the four days of carnival were filled with short plays performed by the locals, like “street” theater. They were usually comic allegories, often modeled on the World Upside Down (reversals of gravity, of class and gender roles, death coming to life).