'De-Generations': Aging animated characters exhibited in a digital cage.
Animated characters are timeless. Only in rare occasions we watch them grow older (for example, Simba in The Lion King movie), but overall their great advantage is the timeless aspect of their presence.
Based on an idea first seen by
The Golden Age series of animations by Augenblick Studios, I intend to display four animated characters sitting still on a timeless outdoor setting. We will witness them evolve in a period of their lives (child to teenager, or young man to middle-aged man, middle-aged woman to old woman).
Time aspect:
- Remove and add atributes to drawings... avoid massive animation, add the aging feature. The animated characters will not move much, almost as if they were posing for a drawing class. They will look at the camera, blink, eventually change pose, but they will feel almost like a static object. The animation will focus, slowly and gradually, on their aging process. The idea is to show the viewers the features we deem impossible to attribute to animated characters, hence bringing them to a more realistic realm.
The lack of 'action' or plot, other than sitting down and aging, once again defeats the alleged purpose of having a character animated. The video seeks to be universal, easy to convey its message in any language, and more of a reflection piece than a story. The human body's evolution in life is the story itself.
Characters:
1. Young man, on the beach. Age from ages 21 to 55
2. Middle-aged woman, in a forest. From ages 40 to 67
3. Boy, on the snow, from 7 to 18
4. Teenage girl, desert, ages 14 to 29
Soundtrack
Ambient sound (a beach, the forest)
Exhibit Set-up
Three screens, playing simultaneously, their individual soundtracks
Online set-up
The option to play them individually or all together.
Questions to consider:
- Should the animated characters also become young? Should video replay or play backwards once the character has aged?
- Would it be interesting to show one character from being born to dying a long life, including the decay process?
- Nude or clothed?
