Sketching Out the ”Proxy Space”

• Animation is usually defined as the moving image that
 is not recorded from a real-time movement but the
 movement created artificially. My concern here is the 
visualisation of the space inaccessible for either pho
tographic film image or our sensory apparatus. I see it
 as the crucial attribute of animated image that is equally 
important for understanding of the animation medium
as the movement making. What the philosopher Paul 
Crowther labelled as "proxy space in animated film"
(quoted by Donald Crafton 2013: 147) could in my own
interpretation be distinguished as the creation of the diegetic space that only exists in the viewers' imagination, and only in the moment while they are watching the film. Mise-en-scène in animation is always a symbol for a space, no matter how convincing an illusion of three dimensions is created in some particular film. Actually, many animators who are active in our time exploit the fact that digital animation made a possible perception of space totally inaccessible to the photographic film technique. For instance the penetrating camera (fly-through) dissolves the restrictions associated with the pictorial space so that we can reach what we cannot see beyond the picture's surface. However, in this short presentation I aim to examine that aspect of animation in the realm of traditionally made animated films in order to verify the view on the "proxy space" being always an essential part of the animated image regardless technical or production conditions.In order to explore varied approaches toward the creation of "proxy space" I will look at some canonical films produced during the golden age of Zagreb School of Animation. Those films made by Vladimir Kristl, Dušan Vukotić, Borivoj Dovniković, Vatroslav Mimica and Nedeljko Dragić, provide lot of evidences that prove that animation space stands for an inherent liberation from the limitations of the laws of physics and entering into the world of the fantastic, symbolical and metaphorical. Employing various minimalistic methods the Zagreb animators created a complex multi-dimensional representation of space. By using several film examples I am going to emphasise five different methods in this paper.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Filmvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Studies on Film (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Animation

space

Filmvetenskap

Cinematography

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)