In the fourth edition of Ecstatic Truth: Truth of Matter: process and perception in expanded animation practice we want to examine the potential of the animation medium, in its most expanded form, to make sense of our reality: in its encounter with matter, through all our senses. We want to raise questions of provisionality and uncertainty: of facts, philosophies, moving images, implicit in the subjectivity of perception and the unpredictability of matter. We are particularly keen to explore the creative process of expanded animation, in order to understand how animation itself might embody reality as a process of becoming, transformation, in a way that is unique to this art form. What can animation and its process reveal to us about our own way of making sense through our senses? How is animation relevant to other artistic as well as scientific disciplines? What happens in an encounter between the hand and the material that might bypass the intellect and is revealed through the process of making? What does the hand that draws teach us about looking and what is the role of the whole body in making sense of the world? What is the impact of technology on this intimate process? While existing in an academic context, we are keen to ground this symposium in tacit knowledge of artists and filmmakers, because we trust the body houses wisdom that can only be accessed on its own terms, through making, which is also a way of thinking.

We are pleased to say that we have Dryden Goodwin and Ruth Jarman of Semiconductor as our keynote speakers confirmed. (The image above from his film Unseen: The Lives of Looking)!

Ecstatic Truth is co-organised by CREAM, University of Westminster; Animation Research Centre, University for the Creative Arts; Universidade Lusófona de Lisboa.

(Please note that if you are a staff or student from Westminster University, you can have a free ticket. Please email your contact to Tereza Stehlikova

TRUTH OF MATTER programme

9.30 – 10.00 arrival

10.00 – brief intro

10.05-11.05

MATERIAL MEMORIES

Dr Michael Schofield: “Re-animating Ghosts: Materiality and memory in hauntological appropriation”

Terry Wragg: “Faithfully Animating the Truth”

James Walker: “Materiality of remembering and forgetting: The functionality of the archival form, artefact within documentary practice.”

11.05 – 11.35

Keynote: Dryden Goodwin

11.35 – 11.50

Break

11.50 – 12.50

SENSING SELF/SENSING SPACE
Dr Natalie Woolf/Caroline Martins: Can animation take our breath away? Expanded animation for a shared physical understanding.”

Dr Alex Jukes: “Eye and Mind - Chair and Camel”

Dr Anna Ciaunica and Jane Charlton: “(Un)Real Selves – Contrasting the Experience of Self-Detachment in Real, Fictional and Virtual Worlds”

12.50 -1.20

Panel discussion

LUNCH

1.20 – 2.20

Afternoon

2.20 – 2.50

Keynote: Ruth Jarman (Semiconductor)

2.50 – 4.10

MATTER of PROCESS

Jennifer Nightingale: “The Cornish Knitting Pattern Series”

Vicky Smith: “Compost Cinema”

Dr Spencer Roberts: “Animation and the Contested Politics of Sense”

Professor Suzie Hannah: “Poetry Animation: Whose Line is it Anyway?”

4.10 – 4.25

BREAK

4.25 – 5.00

Final panel discussion

Please email all enquiries to:

ecstatic.truth.symposium@gmail.com

Supported by CREAM, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media