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Semester 1

What's Up Doc? Introducing Animation Studies (DESI08088)

Subject

Design

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

2

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

**Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course introduces students to the pervasive nature of animation by examining key texts in both historic and contemporary culture and to interrogate the significance of the form. Drawing on current discourse in animation studies, the course will enable students to think about the connection between animation and other moving image and visual cultural artefacts in a critically engaged way.

Course Description

Animation remains a comparatively neglected area within Film and Visual Cultural Studies. Despite animation's important links to a range of other disciplines (including cinema, illustration and painting) many exclude 'cartoons' from the traditional pantheon of 'Art', or from the more recent one of 'Visual Culture'. This course aims to challenge such patronising assumptions. It will help participants to grasp some of the key historical, technological, aesthetic and ideological debates and developments that pertain to animation. What's Up Doc? emphasises both animation's specificity - the medium's distinctiveness as a visual cultural form and tradition - and its permeability - the marked extent to which animation has been and is influenced by, but also itself influences, other visual media and traditions. The course is delivered through weekly lectures and seminars. Each week students will be required to undertake research activities as part of their directed learning hours, for presentation or discussion in seminar and in preparation for the final submission.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Design exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one Art or Design course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course