ANIMAFEST PRO | ANIMAFEST SCANNER VIII | SIMPOZIJ O SUVREMENOJ ANIMACIJI | Panel 2 - ANIMATION IN PUBLIC SPACES

Pandemic Video Mapping: Fighting Misinformation in Brazil - João Paulo Schlittler (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

Panel 2 - ANIMATION IN PUBLIC SPACES
08/06, UTO 14:35 – 15:05, Kino Tuškanac

As a consequence of a significant number of urban inhabitants of Brazilian cities staying at home in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, public spaces of artistic expression such as galleries, theatre and streets became out of bounds. Therefore, artists began seeking alternative channels of cultural expression independent from media conglomerates, reaching beyond the walls of individual apartments. In 2020, political activism previously taking place on the streets, was replaced by "panelaços" - collective rallies where people literally bang on pans by the windows of their apartments. This form of protest became popular in 2015 as a reaction to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. Their comeback during the pandemic provided a public space where anti-Bolsonaro protests could be staged, increasingly graphic messages could be seen projected as animated loops on blank apartment building facades. Urban street projection such as Guerrilla videos gained attention during the Occupy Wall Street movement, however the history of public video projection in Brazil is quite diverse, from live VJ projections in to video mapping, studios such as Super Uber, Visual Farm, Bijari, Embolex, have established their presence in music venues, sporting and cultural events, with the impossibility of re-establishing nightlife, music concerts have taken the form of projection performances like SP Rock Mapping. Animators André Catoto, Gabriel Bitar, and more recently VJ Suave, have found a channel of authorial expression by projecting images from moving vehicles. In all instances, these audiovisual creators create animations ahead of time and then remix and process original and appropriated moving images, re-signifying public spaces through cinematic projection. Coletivo Coletores is an artistic collective that acts in the periferia (vulnerable areas in the outskirts of the cities), promoting workshops and events for less privileged local artists. VJ Boca and VJ Mozart have been exponents of this movement during the pandemic leading the Projetemos initiative, catalysing and providing knowledge and logistical support to a network of urban projection artists interested in reaching out and fighting scientific misinformation. This research intends to survey public animation projection performances in Brazil in the past decade as a democratic art form that allows for a collective expression of contemporary issues.

João Paulo Schlittler is a designer and researcher working in film, television and digital media. He holds a PhD in Design and Architecture from Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Film, Radio and Television at USP’s School of Communication and Arts, where he is the leader of Zootropo an animation and motion graphics research group. Since 2018 he is an organizer of Seanima, a symposium on Brazilian Animation Studies. João Paulo headed the design department at TV Cultura in Brazil, was Director of Broadcast and Interactive Design at Discovery Networks and Director of Graphics and Visual Effects at HBO in the USA.