![]() ![]() This transition from the world of dependent childhood to independent adulthood (as Andy moves away to college) is achieved through the successful bequest of not only the toys but also, crucially, of make-believe play with toys, to the next generation of loving children. 2 In Toy Story 3, the toys’ desire not to be abandoned by their young owner, Andy, drives the narration of a separation trauma in reverse: here it is the toys who cannot let go of the child. As in the previous two films in the series (released in 19), 1 the toys in this third film enact the enchanting scenario of autonomously coming to life when humans are not looking, while in their presence the toys only move if animated manually by the children in their make-believe games. Dramatizing the medium’s inventive mutability, the toys become agents of their own automatic transitions from animation to de-animation and back again. This computer-generated animation film explores elisions of animation and automation in a fantasy resolution of the traumas of moving from childhood to adulthood. Lee Unkrich, 2010) serves well as an opening prompt for our discussion. If animation refers to the capacity to bring things to life through movement, and automation to the replacement of human bodies with machinic labour, then Toy Story 3 (dir. ![]() Animation is always in the end a relational effect, it seems, while automation implies the continuing presence of hidden labour and care. More specifically, an interest in the moving capacities of animation, and in what gets rendered invisible in discourses of automation, is central to debates regarding the interdependencies of bodies and machines. ![]() In approaching animation and automation through insights developed within these two fields we hope to bring them into closer dialogue with each other and with studies of the body, given the convergence of their shared concerns with affective materializations of life. Whereas film studies has drawn upon work ranging from production history to semiotics and psychoanalysis to conceptualize the ways in which the appearance of life on the cinema screen materializes subjectivities beyond it, STS has developed a corpus of theoretical and empirical scholarship that works to refigure material-semiotic entanglements of subjects and objects. Drawing upon historical and contemporary examples, we trace how movement is taken as a sign of life, while living bodies are translated through the mechanisms of artifice. Written as the introduction to a special issue of Body & Society on the topic of animation and automation, this article considers the interrelation of those two terms through readings of relevant work in film studies and science and technology studies (STS), inflected through recent scholarship on the body. All subjects Allied Health Cardiology & Cardiovascular Medicine Dentistry Emergency Medicine & Critical Care Endocrinology & Metabolism Environmental Science General Medicine Geriatrics Infectious Diseases Medico-legal Neurology Nursing Nutrition Obstetrics & Gynecology Oncology Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine Otolaryngology Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care Pediatrics Pharmacology & Toxicology Psychiatry & Psychology Public Health Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine Radiology Research Methods & Evaluation Rheumatology Surgery Tropical Medicine Veterinary Medicine Cell Biology Clinical Biochemistry Environmental Science Life Sciences Neuroscience Pharmacology & Toxicology Biomedical Engineering Engineering & Computing Environmental Engineering Materials Science Anthropology & Archaeology Communication & Media Studies Criminology & Criminal Justice Cultural Studies Economics & Development Education Environmental Studies Ethnic Studies Family Studies Gender Studies Geography Gerontology & Aging Group Studies History Information Science Interpersonal Violence Language & Linguistics Law Management & Organization Studies Marketing & Hospitality Music Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution Philosophy Politics & International Relations Psychoanalysis Psychology & Counseling Public Administration Regional Studies Religion Research Methods & Evaluation Science & Society Studies Social Work & Social Policy Sociology Special Education Urban Studies & Planning BROWSE JOURNALS ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |