ANIMAFEST PRO | ANIMAFEST SCANNER VI | SYMPOSIUM FOR CONTEMPORARY ANIMATION STUDIES | ANIMAFEST SCANNER VI - PANEL 4: ANIMATION AND EDUCATION
Explanatory Power of Diagrammatic Animation - Hrvoje Turković
In many educational films animation is used to ease an explanation of some abstract concept, or of some complex process in a more ‘user friendly’ manner for children or for uninformed public. Usually it is done by narrativization: constructing a story around a problematic object or an abstract concept, a story in which animated characters are faced with a problematic object or subject that will be solved through specific interaction among them, often accompanied by the running or concluding interpretative comment by an informed character (usually an adult), or through a voice-over comment. An example of such use of animation will be presented from the Croatian production of animated ‘element films’ (single concept films) from Filmoteka 16. But, there is an alternative mode and use of animation – diagrammatic animation – which can serve as an essential explanatory tool, as explanation itself. Using another animated sample from the production of Filmoteka 16’s element films the concept of ‘diagrammatic animation’ will be explained and some modes of its explanatory use will be demonstrated. An essential ‘collateral’ aspect of the presentation will be the demonstration that animation has high abstraction faculties which are almost completely left out of theorizing about animation, which is theoretically, historically and interpretatively almost exclusively dealt with in its narrative manifestation.
Hrvoje Turković (Zagreb, 1943) graduated in philosophy and sociology from Zagreb University, Croatia; MA in film studies at New York University in 1976; PhD in philology (film theoretical theses)in 1991. He was retired as a full professor at the Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb University in 2009, where he still teaches as an associate. Since 1965 he has extensively published film reviews, film essays, theoretical papers and encyclopaedic entries. Since 1985 he has published 14 books on film, TV, and visual art, as well as one on animation (Život izmišljotina / The Life of Fabrications, Zagreb, 2012).