ANIMAFEST PRO | ANIMAFEST SCANNER XII | PANEL 1: EXPLORING ANIMATION IN EPHEMERAL FILMS

KEYNOTE: Animation and Ecology. From Phidias to Norman McLaren - GEORGES SIFIANOS

KEYNOTE
03/06 TUE 10:00-10:45 KIC

When discussing ecology and animation, the first thought that comes to mind is the thematic aspect, the subjects of the films. A second reflection focuses on the cost of production: the consumption of paper (and thus trees), the energy used by computers and data centers, air travel for co-productions, etc. Would questioning the industrial fabrication of serialized narratives not also be a legitimate approach? The promotion of endless waiting, suspending the resolution of an episode's action until the next, and the deliberate addiction provoked by video games or the scrolling of social media, do they not teach us to constantly escape forward? And isn’t this attitude at the root of ecological disruption? If the ideology of “always more” might have been acceptable in a world of infinite resources, today we consume more than this Earth can regenerate. The model of endless growth is therefore no longer sustainable. In McLaren’s famous statement, "What happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame," a different, a relational approach emerges, one reminiscent of Eisenstein’s "conflict of attractions." Meaning, here, results from the dialectical confrontation of images, as illustrated by the changing expressions on the impassive face of Mosjoukine. McLaren highlights the implicit connections between images that create animation. Antiquity, which believed in the harmony of the cosmos and rejected excess, proposed a similar model of dialectical interaction, where a thesis opposed an antithesis before resolving in a synthesis. This model of interdependence in the production of meaning can be found in the analysis of actions (animations!) observable in the Parthenon frieze and elsewhere. Don’t these relational attitudes align with the dialectics advocated by ecology?

Georges Sifianos, born in Greece, holds a doctorate in philosophy and is an emeritus professor of animation at EnsAD. He is interested in the aesthetics of animation cinema, cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence and has taught at universities in Europe, India, Korea, Japan, and China. His recent research focuses on forms of animation found on the Parthenon frieze. His book Aesthetics of Animated Cinema received the "McLaren - Lambart" award in 2014 and the "Hemingway" grand in 2015.
Filmography: Animated Shorts: "SMILE" (1974), "SCENT OF THE CITY" (1994), "TUTU" (2001), "IT'S ME" (2007), "THE BLIND WRITER" (2021). Documentary Feature Film: "PETROCHEMICALS, THE DESERT CATHEDRALS" (1981)