CIRRUS is a Nordic-Baltic network of Art and Design higher education. There are 20 excellent art and design schools from the Nordics and the Baltics in the circle of this cooperation. The central activities of the partner institutions are art and design, including innovative activities, technical development and artistic practices.

CIRRUS express course by VDA

CIRRUS EXPRESS COURSE

Title of course: Animocene. Animation in the times of Anthropocene

Objective of the workshop is to critically reflect on the narrative strategies, design conventions and largely consequentialist-moralist storytelling currently prevalent in a wide array of artistic forms commonly associated with animation. In this 5-day course we will engage in analysis of selected animations and will attempt to articulate the building blocks for the non-anthropocentric (if possible) animation acts. We will explore the routes of departure from the 1st person storytelling (my suffering, happened to me and etc.) strategies and explore the possibilities of narration from different vantage points. As speculative in its nature as it is, this enterprise envisions concrete practical remedies against the wide spread animation conventions that lead viewer to the moments of subliminal “wow” or cognitive “aha”.

The main focus areas of the workshop are:

  1. Consequentiality in storytelling (think of Chekhov’s Gun) what world-model it offers and what phenomena it overlooks.
  2. Aesthetic conventions of Disney and Anime, what inherent values and limitations both posses.   
  3. Shift from aesthetics to ethics. Anatomy of moralist messaging in animation.
  4. Non-personal storytelling. Documentary animation
  5. Aleatoric strategies, from Mozart to Baldessari to code.
  6. Flow of consciousness technique in animation.

Teaching period: September 6-10.2021

Teacher: Prof. Zilvinas Lilas

ECTS: 3

Number of students: 12

Number of available place for CIRRUS/KUNO students: 6

Level: BA/MA

Application deadline: Friday, 30.07.2021 18:00 (CET)

How to apply: Submit a letter of interest including a brief description of problematic you  would like to engage in during the workshop, and a link to the online portfolio.

Location: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius Lithuania

The outcome of the workshop is expected to be development of ideas for a subsequent animated project. This could be a storyboard, an animatic or sketches of the character design.

Contact info for any inquiry and portfolio submission (please send a letter describing your goals during the workshop and a link to an easily accessible online portfolio by 18:00 (CET) Friday, July 30th, 2021) to zilvinas.lilas@vda.lt

Short course description:

a 5-day expanded animation workshop lead by Prof. Lilas

SCHEDULE

Monday, 6 September — 

9.00 -10.00 Introduction to the workshop, short presentation of the staff, key concepts and technical framework of the forthcoming activities.

10.00 to 13.00 watching and discussing examples of animated artworks.

14.00 to 18.00 H – Open ended. Brainstorming of the key concepts for the individual projects.

Tuesday, 7 September —

10.00 to 13.00 Field trip to Vilnius old town. Observing space around you. Notational strategies

14.00 to 18.00 H – Open ended. Discussing individual ideas. Brainstorming of the key concepts for the individual projects.

Wednesday, 8 September —

10.00 to 13.00 watching and discussing examples of animated artworks.

14.00 to 18.00 H – Open ended. Discussing individual ideas. Brainstorming of the key concepts for the individual projects.

Thursday, 9 September—

10.00 to 18.00 H – Open ended. Finalizing idea proposals.

Friday, 10 September—

12:00 to 15:00 presentation of ideas. Final discussion

Grant for selected students: 330 EUR travel /660 Iceland + 70 EUR weekly allowance.