HUM 203: The World in Motion, Animation in Theory and Practice

Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Final project

Construction/Reconstruction
By Alleson Goldfinger

Construction/Reconstruction is not a traditional animation. Instead, it uses the medium of animation to explore issues of time, movement, representation, and creation. It does this through the creation, deconstruction, and then assemblage of four different scenes from everyday life-leaves blowing in the wind, students studying, clouds moving across the sky, and cars traveling down a road. Each one of these scenes was chosen for its individual sense of time and movement, elements that were examined and heightened by the medium and technique employed to make the film.

Each scene of Construction/Reconstruction is made up of two frames, one within the other. The smaller frame, contained within the larger scene, was made using traditional animation techniques that give life to inanimate objects and lines. These traditional animations were then broken down, printed frame by frame, and photographed in sequence at the location shown in the full frame. When played in succession, these photographs reassemble the interior animation while showing the distorted movement of the outer frame due to the lapse in time between each frame.

Using these techniques, each of the four subjects had three incarnations before being assembled into the final product. These different incarnations allowed Construction/Reconstruction to assemble action, time, and life at the same time that it breaks down these naturally occurring elements of our live-action world. By doing this, the work heightens the viewers' awareness of the connection between time and movement, order and chaos, and representation and creation.