Philippe Hamelin, Sci Fi Haïkus, 2012-. Installation view. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Paul Litherland
Thursday, October 12, 5:30 pm
“Animation Incarnate, or, Blossoming in the Flesh”
Lecture by Thomas Lamarre, James McGill Professor in East Asian Studies and Associate Professor in Communication Studies, McGill University.
Philippe Hamelin’s use of animation in Carnations invites three lines of speculative inquiry into animation creation. First, how is it that animation turns so readily into media environments, expanding and augmenting the audiovisual and inviting movement through it? Second, how is it that animated objects not only come to life but also become like persons, with personalities and personal dramas? Finally, his evocation of haiku opens a reconsideration of space-time relations, for the haiku is neither image nor story yet moves between the two, providing a loop that enmeshes with other loops. Pursuing these three lines of inquiry with examples drawn from the works in the Carnations exhibition, I wish to expand on the generative paradox at the heart of Hamelin’s work, captured succinctly in the pivot-word carnation: how do flowers of meat grow, and where?
Thomas Lamarre teaches in East Asian Studies and Communication Studies at McGill University. He is author of numerous publications on the history of media, thought, and material culture, with projects ranging from the communication networks of 9th century Japan (Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription, 2000), to silent cinema and the global imaginary (Shadows on the Screen: Tanizaki Jun’ichirô on Cinema and Oriental Aesthetics, 2005), animation technologies (The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation, 2009) and on television and new media (The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game Media, 2018).
At the Gallery
Free admission
August 30 – October 21, 2017
Curator: Michèle Thériault