Degree Name
Master of Science
Graduate Program
Mass Communication and Media Arts
Advisor
Bursell, Cade
Abstract
This research focuses on the tangibility three-dimensional stop-motion animation allows in its authorial process, and on the tactility and materiality it evokes on the other side of the screen. Based on these assumptions, I seek to demonstrate how the sense of touch is evoked by the tactility of materials used in three-dimensional stop-motion animation, by drawing on the concepts of fabrication (Wells, 1998), haptic visuality (Marks, 2002), tactile image (Barker, 2009), and on the embodied viewer’s experience as defined by Vivian Sobchack (1992; 2004). This work is also directed to the application of theories to an empirical experience on materiality which resulted in the three-dimensional stop-motion animation Would a Heart Die?, an autobiographical piece based on memory and the aesthetics of materiality (Sundholm, 2005). With this animated work, I aim to describe the hands-on experience and aesthetic choices, by aligning it to theoretical approaches on materiality, tactility and the haptics.