ANIMAFEST SCANNER X | SYMPOSIUM FOR CONTEMPORARY ANIMATION STUDIES | PANEL 2 – DIGITAL TECHONOLOGIES AND ORIGINALITY

MODULAR, DYNAMIC, MULTICURSAL AND NONLINEAR NARRATIVE STRUCTURES APPLIED IN ANIMATED STORYTELLING Charalambos Margaritis (Special Teaching Staff, Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts - Cyprus University of Technology Paphos, Cyprus)

PANEL 2: DIGITAL TECHONOLOGIES AND ORIGINALITY
TEATAR &TD
06/06 TUE 16:10-16:40

This presentation concerns ongoing practice-based research on the ways in which the model of the open-world modular narrative structure may be applied in animated film, thus proposing films whose structure changes dynamically (while they are presented) without resorting to interaction (without the viewer initiating this change) and resulting in a multicursal iteration among the narrative parts of the film. This aims at proposing an essentially different mode of presentation of animated films which allows for varied, nuanced, open-ended narrations and which constantly manipulates, alters and deconstructs the emergence of narrative meaning. Instead of focusing on the latest digital tools available, we focus on the essential functional differences between the digital file (as a piece of executable code) and the film (as a physical material and medium), and search ways in which the former may propose something structurally different than a mere simulation of the works made possible by the latter. This presentation covers the theoretical background of the research, grounded in narratological concepts, literary theory, film theory, screenplay theory and video game narrative theory. By reading the Aristotelian principles of order and magnitude under the light of the concepts of narrative transportation and suspension of disbelief and making use of the logic of open-world games, the research proposes an approach to film narrative which differs from what Noel Burch calls the institutional mode of representation, and moves towards a filmic experience of a disarticulated yet narratively coherent content. The presentation proposes and explains a set of already implemented and tested techniques that allow animated film narratives to be presented in a fragmentary, aleatory, multicursal and nonlinear way. The techniques are made possible through a series of simple software created to this goal and which put to use the raw filmic narrative material on all its levels (scenes, shots and individual frames) in ways that manipulate, alter or deconstruct the emergence of narrative meaning. This resulted in a set of artworks which will be briefly presented and discussed.

Charalambos Margaritis graduated from the National Superior Fine Arts School of Paris (ENSBA) in 2012. His work focuses on animated films, print-making, drawing, painting and comics. In 2010 he studied the traditional icon painting techniques with the monk Paisios Agrapides in the Cell of Saint Archangels in Karyes of Mount Athos, where he resided for three months. Since 2014 he has been collaborating with the classical music ensemble Trio Dell’Arte producing animated films that accompany live musical performances of classical chamber music. He currently lives and works in Paphos, Cyprus, where, in 2015, he co-founded the Kimonos Art Center. He teaches animation techniques, drawing and printmaking. Since 2017, he has been directing the annual international
animation festival The Animattikon Project, founded in the framework of the European Capital of Culture, PAFOS2017 and produced ever since by the Kimonos Art Center in Paphos. His films have been selected and awarded at several animated film festivals around the world. Since 2018 he has been the ambassador of the European Animation Awards in Cyprus. He is currently conducting his PhD research on experimental narrative techniques in animated film.