Digital stop-frame animation as medium to portray trauma

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Introduction and background to the study

Over the past decades the moving image movement has become a significant medium used by contemporary artists. Catherine Elwes (2005:11) argues that fascination artists HAVE with moving visuals stems from the influence of media and technology in daily life. The interaction between visual art, new technology and movement has changed over time. Personal and collective stories are expressed and dispersed extensively through video (Sherman 2005:3). Some artists use video as an intimate medium to portray their own bodies and thoughts. Many video artists are concerned with memories of historical events, whether personal or collective.

“Loss”: a video-installation

Loss (2014) is a solo video-installation that was exhibited for the first time at the Unisa Art Gallery (Pretoria) as the practical component of the degree DPhil in Fine Arts. The installation was later on also exhibited in Mbombela at the Innibos National Arts Festival. I therefore refer to the video-installation as an “ongoing” artwork which may be exhibited again at any time in the future. The exhibition was also captured on video as an installation artwork.

Digital stop-frame animation as medium to portray trauma

I describe my video artworks as digital stop-frame animations.1 It is a new technique in the field of video art which I developed. Digital stop-frame animation adds to academic discourse by contributing new knowledge to the visual arts field. The technique is unique since the Adobe Photoshop Liquify tool is used as the only tool to create movement from one frame to the next. Distortion is applied in layers to allow for a constant transformation between layers, and from one frame to another. While based on traditional 2D stop-frame methods, digital stop-frame.

Autobiographical element

Two main characters appear throughout the 17 video artworks which form part of Loss.The first character is the young woman and the second is the young girl. The young girl is the young woman as a child. Although I use my own face and body to portray these characters, the narratives are not wholly autobiographical. Through these characters I attempt to portray trauma, its consequences and the importance of healing. As the narratives of loss and trauma unfold in each video-animation, a spontaneous desire to revisit those traumas occurs. Thus it could be argued that my own traumatic experiences and its consequences inspired me to portray trauma. As a video artist I have been shaped by these personal traumatic experiences.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction and background to the study
1.1.1 Loss: a video-installation
1.1.2 Digital stop-frame animation as medium to portray trauma
1.1.3 Autobiographical element
1.1.4 Trauma theory: why Freud?
1.1.5 Criticism of Freud
1.1.6 Freud and Loss: art and dreams
1.1.7 Creation process
1.2 Research question
1.3 Aims and objectives
1.3.1 Video art
1.3.2 Traumatic memories
1.3.3 Loss
1.3.4 CSA
1.4 Research method
1.5 Theoretical framework
1.6 Literature review
1.6.1 Video art
1.6.2 Freudian trauma theory
1.6.2.1 Traumatic memories: anxiety, repression and screen memories
1.6.2.2 Loss: mourning and melancholia
1.6.2.3 CSA: hysteria, Nachträglichkeit and trauma-dreams
1.6.2.4 Contemporary trauma theory
1.7 Overview of chapters
CHAPTER TWO: VIDEO AS ART MEDIUM AND LOSS AS VIDEO-INSTALLATION
2.1 Introduction
2.2 A short historical background of video art
2.2.1 Terminology
2.2.2 A compact history of video
2.2.3 The history of video art
2.3 Video art used by performance artists
2.4 Animation and digital stop-frame animation as forms of video art
2.4.1 The use of animation in video art
2.4.2 Digital stop-frame animation as a new form of video art
2.5 The self in video art
2.6 Time and space in video art
2.7 Narrative in video art
2.8 Video art, memory and trauma
2.9 Art-making as therapy
2.10 Loss as video-installation
2.10.1 Installation art and space
2.10.2 The viewer with relation to space
2.11 Conclusion
CHAPTER THREE: DEPICTIONS OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES IN LOSS
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Memory as a complicated system
3.3 Theories with regards to trauma and memory
3.3.1 Trauma and its impact on memory
3.3.2 Repression of traumatic memories
3.3.3 Screen memories
3.4 Freudian traumatic memories depicted in selected video artworks
3.4.1 Repressed memories of trauma and anxiety in Departure
3.4.2 Screen memories depicted in Earth
3.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR: CRITICAL APPLICATION OF THEORIES OF LOSS AND TRAUMA IN LOSS
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Traumatic loss depicted in selected video artworks
4.2.1 Loss of ego in Dreaming of Home
4.2.2 Silent grief and loss of womanhood in The Moon and the Tree: a
critique of Freud
4.2.3 Loss of emotional and psychological health in If I Did(n’t)
4.2.4 Mourning and melancholia depicted in Dreaming of Peculiar Creatures
4.2.5 Loss of the young woman’s love object in Wither
4.2.6 Loss of a childhood friend in Goodbye Little Miss Perfume
4.3 Conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE: FREUDIAN THEORIES ON CSA DEPICTED IN SELECTED VIDEO ARTWORKS
5.1 Introduction
5.2 CSA: a historical overview
5.3 Freud’s theories on hysteria, Nachträglichkeit and trauma-dreams applied to selected artworks
5.3.1 Hysteria and Janey Flew Away
5.3.2 Nachträglichkeit in Dreaming of Those Things I Fear
5.3.3 Trauma-dreams in Yrotsih & Yromem’s Galaxy of Impossibilities
5.4 Conclusion
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION
6.1 Digital stop-frame animation as medium to portray traumatic memories
6.2 Contribution to art
6.3 Limitations of current work
6.4 Future work
SOURCES CONSULTED