The Scottish born, Canadian filmmaker and animator Norman McLaren (1914-1987) discovered cinema at the Glasgow School of Art. Initially he was influenced by Eisenstein. At some point he was introduced to the work of Osker Fishinger who produced abstract animations and the work of Claire Parker and Alexander Alexeieff and Émile Cohl. Parker, Alexeieff and Cohl used an animation technique called metamorphosis. I am not quite describing the technique correctly. I will have to consult Paul Well’s book Understanding Animation. This technique was developed further and employed by McLaren in a number of his experimental animations.
I particularly interested in its application within the mode of representation of surrealism. A great deal of McLaren’s work was informed by surrealist techniques.
Above are two stills from A phantasy on a nineteenth century painting (1946) which was inspired by the painting series Isle of the Dead (1880- 86)by Arnold Böcklin
John is a lecturer in Media at Lincoln University and an artist. He began his real love for education at West Park College, Smethwick 1988-90, before going on to do his National Diploma in Art and Design at Stourbridge College in 1990. He went to Humberside Polytechnic and graduated in 94 after it had changed to Humberside University. From 1994-99 exhibited his work in a number of group shows. He also worked with a number of art groups and organisations before in 2000 becoming a university lecturer (thank you Jenny Wolmark!). John worked in art and design for about eight years before moving into the School of Media. He makes digital images.
This particular blog is a response to work started during the MA in Digital Imaging and Photography at the School of Media, Lincoln University 2009-11. This blog deals with a wide range of topics to do with visual culture: photography, art, theory, technologies and media practice.
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