Let England Riot

Gascoigne, D

Let England Riot

Gascoigne, D

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Publisher:: Channel 4
Publication Type:: Exhibition
Citation:: Random Acts

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	Gascoigne_2013003567_LetEnglandRiot.pdf	Published version	3.39 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Gascoigne, D	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Gun, BST	en_US
dc.date	2012-09-21	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Random Acts	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/32722
dc.description.abstract	In August 2011 I was commissioned by Bang Said the Gun poetry collective and Channel Four Television to create an animation based on the poem Parable by Kate Tempest. The resulting short film was broadcast as part of the Channel 4 Random Acts arts strand on August 22nd 2011. Parable was subsequently added to the Random Acts website, where it went on to become the second most viewed film of the 260 originally commissioned pieces. The hand drawn animation for Parable explored conventions in aesthetics for animation, deliberately referencing cute cartoon characters, and then subverting audience expectations by imbuing these archetypes with sinister purpose. The final animation was intercut with footage of Kate Tempest performing Parable live at a popular poetry event, as she railed against the nihilistic consumerism of modern life in England. This work was designed to echo the anarchic spirit and stylised movement of the early black and white animations produced by the Fleischer Studios in New York between 1921-1942. In cartoons such as Betty Boop and Popeye Fleischer explored adult themes with adult characters before the Hays Code in 1934 stripped them of much of their power. This piece sits within a wider research question for me, which relates to ways in which hand drawn and digital animation work together. My current practice is involved in finding ways to challenge the geometric, perfection-oriented digital environment. The production process for the animation comprised of sequences of action made without using traditional methods of registration. This meant that characters did not stay in one place, or remain the same size and shape. The resulting shift of positions and volumes was employed intentionally to add a raw and unpredictable quality to the work. By abandoning a level of control in my animation and then feeding this material into the computer I am actively disputing the way in which digital software dictates forms of movement.	en_US
dc.format	Animation Sequence	en_US
dc.publisher	Channel 4	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Random Acts	en_US
dc.title	Let England Riot	en_US
dc.type	Exhibition
utslib.location	Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Website	en_US
utslib.for	1203 Design Practice and Management	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.place-of-publication	Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Website	en_US
pubs.start-date	2012-09-21	en_US
pubs.rights-statement	Let England Riot is a site-specific work created for the first Beams Festival (2012). This short animation was devised as a response to the London riots of August 2011 reflecting on the looting and the burning of local businesses that came to define this event. The original animation was made for Random Acts, Channel 4 (UK) in collaboration with the poetry collective Bang Said The Gun (first broadcast 22 August 2011). I was commissioned to create an animation based on the poem Parable by Kate Tempest. The hand drawn animation was intercut with footage of Tempest performing live, as she railed against the nihilistic consumerism of modern life in England. Let England Riot explores conventions in animation aesthetics, deliberately referencing cute cartoon characters, and then subverting audience expectations by imbuing these archetypes with sinister purpose. It was designed to echo the anarchic spirit and stylised movement of the early black and white animations produced by the Fleischer Studios in New York between 1921-1942 in cartoons such as Betty Boop and Popeye Fleischer. The animation was projected directly onto an industrial façade for the Beams Festival, connecting the harsh exterior with the riotous action. The film is deliberately anarchic; absurd cartoon characters are locked into meaningless and repetitive actions. Images of 18th century medical engravings are collaged and cropped into new graphic spaces suggesting a rotting set of internal organs and triggering associations with the debauchery depicted in the London of Hogarth and Cruickshank. The Beams Festival involved more than forty exhibiting artists, attracting over eight thousand visitors over the course of the single evening event.	en_US

Abstract:

In August 2011 I was commissioned by Bang Said the Gun poetry collective and Channel Four Television to create an animation based on the poem Parable by Kate Tempest. The resulting short film was broadcast as part of the Channel 4 Random Acts arts strand on August 22nd 2011. Parable was subsequently added to the Random Acts website, where it went on to become the second most viewed film of the 260 originally commissioned pieces. The hand drawn animation for Parable explored conventions in aesthetics for animation, deliberately referencing cute cartoon characters, and then subverting audience expectations by imbuing these archetypes with sinister purpose. The final animation was intercut with footage of Kate Tempest performing Parable live at a popular poetry event, as she railed against the nihilistic consumerism of modern life in England. This work was designed to echo the anarchic spirit and stylised movement of the early black and white animations produced by the Fleischer Studios in New York between 1921-1942. In cartoons such as Betty Boop and Popeye Fleischer explored adult themes with adult characters before the Hays Code in 1934 stripped them of much of their power. This piece sits within a wider research question for me, which relates to ways in which hand drawn and digital animation work together. My current practice is involved in finding ways to challenge the geometric, perfection-oriented digital environment. The production process for the animation comprised of sequences of action made without using traditional methods of registration. This meant that characters did not stay in one place, or remain the same size and shape. The resulting shift of positions and volumes was employed intentionally to add a raw and unpredictable quality to the work. By abandoning a level of control in my animation and then feeding this material into the computer I am actively disputing the way in which digital software dictates forms of movement.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/32722