In this edition of the Vasari Digital Animation Series we invite curator Herb Shellenberger to deliver an illustrated lecture on the subject of curating experimental animation, discussing past projects and approaches to working with animated moving images across media. He will focus on the series "Independent Frames", a five-program survey of American experimental animation in the 1970s and 1980s which premiered at Tate Modern in 2017 and has toured internationally to venues like the Irish Film Institute (Dublin), Lightbox Film Center (Philadelphia) and Quad Cinema (New York). Discussing the research, selection, film print sourcing, communication with artists and aspects of the series that have changed between exhibitions, the lecture will provide a detailed practical and theoretical discussion of mounting a major series of rarely-shown experimental films, acknowledging the many steps taken from conception of the project to its exhibition.

Programme

The Pop Show, dir. Fred Mogubgub, 1966, US, 7', digital
Seed Reel, dir. Mary Beams, 1975, US, 5', 16mm
Doll House, dir. Barbara Hammer, 1984, US, 3', 16mm
Milk of Amnesia, dir. Jeff Scher, 1992, US, 6', 16mm
Hand Held Day, dir. Gary Beydler, 1974, US, 6', 16mm

Herb Shellenberger

Herb Shellenberger is an independent curator and writer whose interest spans a wide range of cinema, moving image and contemporary art. In 2016, he delivered a dissertation ("Morphing bodies and sexual agency in 1970s independent animation by Mary Beams, Lisa Crafts and Suzan Pitt") as a final project for the LUX/Central Saint MRes Art: Moving Image course. He has curated many different screenings of experimental animation including: "Graphic Hallucinations", a two screening series and workshop on the history of experimental animation (Molodist Film Festival, Kyiv and Izolyatsia, Donetsk, Ukraine, 2013); "Independent Frames: American Experimental Animation in the 1970s + 1980s" (Tate Modern, London; Lightbox Film Center, Philadelphia; Quad Cinema, NYC, 2017–18); and "Bend Me, Shape Me: The Animated Body" (Edge of Frame Weekend, London, 2018). An evening course at LUX, "The Animated Body" (9–23 May) will be a mixture of screenings, readings and discussions examining the ways that artists have interacted with the subject of the body through experimental animation and moving image art, looking across work made internationally from the 1960s to the present.

Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology

Sited in the heart of London’s media district, the Vasari Research Centre has a range of unique connections to other media research institutions, to large and small museums and galleries, and to the creative industries that flourish in this area.

It is also an international centre with strong links to researchers and centres in the USA, the Far East and Europe, and hosts a lively cycle of symposia and conferences to strengthen these ties.

Digital technologies and devices relevant to the research and study, as well as production and exhibiting, of the arts continue to evolve. The centre plays an increasingly pivotal role in integrating digital research and providing specialist support. It maintains and digitizes important analogue material, assists and initiates funding applications and is currently examining the emerging area of 3D scanning and reconstruction in Museums, Galleries and Higher Education as well as the development of Open Educational Resources in the Arts. The equipment and systems in the Vasari provides useful experience and training to many students and interns.