This article is massively eye-opening on the effect animated Disney films have on children's culture and in turn the future of our society. It has ruined my childhood slightly by highlighting the more sexist, racist and classist readings of our beloved childhood films, but altogether an interesting and important read! The article appears to have been written in the mid 90s, given the references to The Lion King and The Little Mermaid as 'recent' Disney films, but given that these classics are still a staple of growing up in the western world (and that certain tropes are blatantly still used in modern animated tales) it's a very relevant article on the underestimated power of animated film on culture.
http://www.riverdell.org/cms/lib05/NJ01001380/Centricity/Domain/125/Animating%20Youth.pdf
Monday, 21 September 2015
RSAanimate, TEDed and COGNI+IVE
So I've been wondering how much change doodles can create in the real world. My other research led me to Sunni Brown's 'Doodle Revolution', which talks about the tangible learning benefits of combining various stimuli, such as words, images and sounds to help maximise our learning capacity. Using this method, COGNI+IVE have realised that they can make dense, challenging topics more accessible and therefore educate more people about important social/economic/political issues. It's almost like tricking people into learning by providing it in an entertaining format. They work alongside TED and RSA to create informative videos and talks by leaders of the fields.
Saturday, 19 September 2015
Art for everyone
JR has been making art for the masses for years. Since starting off as your classic, teenage, inner-city graffiti artist, tagging every available surface with his friends in Paris, JR has since expanded his desire to personalise environments to invoke social change. His work in Paris gave a voice to the ostracised black youths of the city, in Buenos Aires he gave the female residents of the shanty towns a sense of community and ownership by plastering their faces 10 ft high, and in the Kibera Slum, Kenya he not only empowered women, he also waterproofed their roofs using printed lino; vastly improving their quality of life both practically and socially.
This guy and his team are my heroes. They make art accessible and show how, even if art can't change the world, it can change someone's life. Their approach is simply to make people proud of themselves and their community by allowing them to be seen and take claim of their environment.
JR's TEDtalk, where he was granted a 'wish' for the next year, explains his method, views and mentality brilliantly. Give it a watch!
This guy and his team are my heroes. They make art accessible and show how, even if art can't change the world, it can change someone's life. Their approach is simply to make people proud of themselves and their community by allowing them to be seen and take claim of their environment.
JR's TEDtalk, where he was granted a 'wish' for the next year, explains his method, views and mentality brilliantly. Give it a watch!
Friday, 18 September 2015
The Doodle Revolution
Through my initial research into the power of images, I came across Sunni Brown and her book The Doodle Revolution, which has some great insights into the scientific advantages of using doodling and images to retain information.
Her TED talk on the subject is a great source of inspiration for the science behind how children develop a visual language, very useful when I am hoping to produce an animation for a children's charity. She's also a great advocate for embracing various learning/teaching methods, which it can definitely be argued is where school systems in the Western World fall down by valuing academic subjects over the arts and humanities. Well worth a watch!
Her TED talk on the subject is a great source of inspiration for the science behind how children develop a visual language, very useful when I am hoping to produce an animation for a children's charity. She's also a great advocate for embracing various learning/teaching methods, which it can definitely be argued is where school systems in the Western World fall down by valuing academic subjects over the arts and humanities. Well worth a watch!
Can Doodles Change the World? - The Girl Effect
'Can Doodles Change the World?' is currently my working title for my dissertation. I want to focus on the power illustration and animation have in conveying facts, information and ideas in a way that words alone do not.
I intend for my research to touch on the power of the image in marketing trends and how storytelling in adverts and NPO campaigns has led to a rise in animation being used as a marketing/campaign tool. This in turn links into the use of viral video campaigns and how social media has pushed the need for exciting and attractive images over words.
'The Girl Effect' is a great example of this:
I intend for my research to touch on the power of the image in marketing trends and how storytelling in adverts and NPO campaigns has led to a rise in animation being used as a marketing/campaign tool. This in turn links into the use of viral video campaigns and how social media has pushed the need for exciting and attractive images over words.
'The Girl Effect' is a great example of this:
3rd Year is looming!!!
For the final year of uni we have been set the task of 'Authorship'; creating a personal, self-led, self-set project over the course of the year that displays your style and standard of work uniquely. No pressure...
This should also be linked with our final year dissertations, and each should feed into the other. I have decided to invest this year in creating an animation for an NPO (non-profit organisation), to help them raise awareness and hopefully donations for their charity. Non-profit organisations rely on as much pro-bono help as they can get, and this is probably the only time in my career that I could afford to produce an entire animation for free and dedicate so much time to it.
My research began by viewing animations made for other NPOs such as the NSPCC and AA, the key in each of them is the emphasis on telling a story rather than bombarding the viewer with facts.
https://vimeo.com/77401597 - Sarah's story - NSPCC
https://vimeo.com/131107254 - 'Doors' - AA
This should also be linked with our final year dissertations, and each should feed into the other. I have decided to invest this year in creating an animation for an NPO (non-profit organisation), to help them raise awareness and hopefully donations for their charity. Non-profit organisations rely on as much pro-bono help as they can get, and this is probably the only time in my career that I could afford to produce an entire animation for free and dedicate so much time to it.
My research began by viewing animations made for other NPOs such as the NSPCC and AA, the key in each of them is the emphasis on telling a story rather than bombarding the viewer with facts.
https://vimeo.com/77401597 - Sarah's story - NSPCC
https://vimeo.com/131107254 - 'Doors' - AA
Some shameless self-promotion
More stuff and updates about my work to be found on the RaeRae Illustrations facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/raeraeillustrations92?notif_t=page_fan
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