Exploring ‘vibrant matter’ in animation making

ABSTRACT

The text examines how human, objects and digital technology interacted in the creation of a short animated story, and how human identity became entangled in this process. We explore animation making as an assemblage in which all parts, human and non-human, play an agentive role, in shaping the story, the story making, and the story makers, mutually transforming each other. We posit that this engagement, by putting a strong emphasis on exploring the materiality of objects, produces a de- and reterritorializing effect. It favors exploring new relationships and identity positions, by breaking away, temporarily, from human-made, hierarchical systems of relationships, built on comparison, copying and competition, and by inviting experimentation and discovery of the ‘not yet known’ in a hierarchy flat, immersive, horizontally flowing process. ‘Animating objects’ decenters from the conventional meaning of objects, by broadening the ‘linguistic sign’ and the purpose and functionality of objects in daily life. It engages humans in forming empathetic relationships with objects, by humanizing and inter-acting with them, as if experimenting with an alter ego, or a new self. ‘Animating objects’ therefore has the potential to sensitize for and build empathetic capacity, not only in relation to the self-animated object, but also in relation to humans sharing a similar experience, wherein we see interesting potential for education in contexts of diversity, intercultural communication and beyond. We investigate the personal experience of the co-author, Gohar, as an identity journey and as a transformative process that emerged from the encounter between her and the carrots, her selected objects for story making. We draw on ethnographic, observational data, video-recordings, retrospective recorded and transcribed interviews, and reflective writing, which we analyse by making connections to theories of new materialism.

Der Text betrachtet exemplarisch wie Menschen, materielle Objekte und Technologie zusammen wirken bei der Kreation einer digitalen Geschichte, und wie menschliche Identität in diesen Prozess verwickelt ist. Wir untersuchen ‘Animation’ als Assemblage, in der alle Bestandteile, menschliche und nicht-menschliche, eine handelnde Rolle einnehmen, welche die Geschichte, ihren Entstehungsprozess, und die Geschichtenerzählenden wechselseitig formen und verändern. Wir gehen davon aus, dass dieser Prozess die Ergründung neuer Beziehungen und Identitätspositionen anstiftet. Dies geschieht durch ein temporäres Abstandnehmen von menschengemachten, hierarchischen Beziehungssystemen, beruhend auf Vergleich, Nachahmung und Wettbewerb, die ersetzt werden durch das experimentelle Entdecken von Neuem in einem Hierarchie flachen, horizontalen und immersiven Prozess. Durch die Interaktion mit Objekten werden Menschen zur Auseinandersetzung mit neuen Sichtweisen und zur Formung empathischer Beziehungen angeregt. Das Animieren von Objekten bietet daher ein interessantes Potential für den Einsatz in Kontexten interkultureller Kommunikation, Ausbildung und darüber hinaus. Wir untersuchen die persönliche Erfahrung der Ko-Autorin, Gohar, in Form eines Identitätspfades und transformativen Prozesses, der sich zwischen ihr und gewählten Objekten – einem Bündel Karotten – entfaltet und entwickelt. In unserer Untersuchung beziehen wir uns auf Befunde aus ethnographischer Beobachtung, Audio- und Videoaufnahmen, transkribierte Interviews und reflektives Schreiben, die wir mit Blick auf Theorien des new materialism analysieren.

KEYWORDS:

• Human-object-interaction
• socio-material assemblages
• collaborative ethnography
• identity
• intercultural communication
• decentering language
• new materialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gohar Sharoyan is a Master student at the University of Luxembourg currently pursuing her degree in ‘Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts’. She holds a BA in Linguistics, Translation and Intercultural Communication from the Yerevan Brusov State University in Armenia. Her particular interest lies in radio. She has been hosting her personal show on Radio ARA, a Luxembourgish multilingual radio station, and produces podcasts and radio features for the University Campus Radio program since 2017.

Gabriele Budach is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Language, Literature, Education and Arts at the University of Luxembourg. Her research interests include multilingualism, multiliteracies and learning in contexts of diversity. She has conducted sociolinguistic, ethnographic work in schools and community settings in Germany, Canada, the UK and Luxembourg. In her recent research, she investigates the creative use of objects and digital technology and their impact on learning and learner identities from new materialist perspectives.

Notes

1 Master in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts

2 We would like to thank the editors and the reviewers for their thoughtful comments and precious feedback which helped us to see our work in a broader context.