Nichola Dobson | University of Edinburgh (original) (raw)
Papers by Nichola Dobson
Springer eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
Those involved in the production of soap operas frequently make strong claims regarding the parti... more Those involved in the production of soap operas frequently make strong claims regarding the particularly close relationship between their products and ‘real-ity’, simultaneously distancing themselves from any suggestion of ‘construc-tion’. Perhaps the best-known such claim (in the UK at least) was the assertion made by Julia Smith, then producer of the English soap EastEnders, to the effect that ‘we don’t make life, we reflect it ’ (Geraghty, 1991: 32), though as we shall see later in this article, such claims are by no means restricted to England. The question of ‘realism ’ in both its broad (‘realistic’) and its narrow (‘realist’) meanings is a vexed one, and indeed what counts as realism can be highly culture-specific (O’Donnell, 2007). However, serials located within a social-realist paradigm – which is the case with the ones analysed here – must attempt to reproduce a series of elements (urban and rural landscapes, fashion and culinary patterns, linguistic behaviour, moral valu...
Body & Society, 2011
Ghulam Aasef Ross Abbinnett Mary Louise Adams Peter Adey Sara Ahmed Kevin Aho Joseph Alter Lucy A... more Ghulam Aasef Ross Abbinnett Mary Louise Adams Peter Adey Sara Ahmed Kevin Aho Joseph Alter Lucy Aphramour Ando Arike Jay Baglia Gretchen Bakke Ruth Barcan Meg Barker Einat Bar-On Cohen Alison Bartlett Susan Bayly Kirsten Bell Martha Bell Claudia Benthien Suzannah Biernoff Milene Bister Ole Bjerg Daniel Black Alexandra Bogren Ronald Bogue Eileen Boris Nik Brown Linda Bryder Shelley Budgeon Ann Burlein Felicity Callard Kirsten Campbell Amanda Card Maria Carozzi Lisa Cartwright Genaro Castro-Vazquez Monica Cejas AMBROGIA CEREDA Louise Chambers Sebastien Chauvin Constance Classen Patricia Clough Ed Cohen Rebecca Coleman Peter Collins Rachel Colls Verena Conley John Connell Steven Connor Grayson Cooke Timothy Cooley Charlotte Cooper
Examination of the life and key works of pioneering Scottish animator Norman McLaren
Animation Studies, Nov 4, 2015
Nichola Dobson Dancing to the Rhythm of the Music-Norman McLaren, the Body and Performance On Beg... more Nichola Dobson Dancing to the Rhythm of the Music-Norman McLaren, the Body and Performance On Begone Dull Care: "Thus, the knife-point was made to slide and move on the surface of the film; my hand pressed, guided, and, as it were, made to 'dance' to the rhythm of the music." (McLaren 1949, p.6) Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren's work is bound by the notion of performance; he described his own animation process in those terms, while using performance as both subject and animated object. He is well known for his creation of 'animated music' using his cameraless animation techniques, while also combining his love of dance to create innovative abstract films. Building on previous research and forming part of a larger project on McLaren's legacy, this paper will examine in two halves McLaren's interest in the movement of the body. The first will look at his use of the body indirectly by using the physical body as an animation tool for stop motion, with the second examining how the body connects to performance directly by filming dance performances. By considering key texts including Neighbours (1952), A Chairy Tale (1957), Pas de Deux (1968), and Narcisuss (1983), I will consider the extent to which McLaren's work did indeed contribute to "a new genre of filmic ballet and mime" (McLaren 1952, p. 84). Considering performance Performance theory is a vast subject in itself and though I will draw on its various aspects in this paper, it is by no means intended to be exhaustive. The subject extends from theatre and dance, the verbal performance, politics and through latterly to film and animation. For my purposes I engage with some of the most relevant to this topic. The first section of the paper will consider performance itself before moving on to chosen examples of McLaren's work. There are five key areas from performance theory which will be examined initially in terms of performance generally and then more specifically with regards to McLaren's films; agency, actor/character/performer, movement, audience/place/projection. Agency The first of these, agency, is connected to the others, but is largely the determining factor in the performance; that is, who is in control and deciding what the performance is and does. Agency might be situated in the movement of the actor as devised by the director, the dancer by the choreographer, the character by the animator, or looking at issues such as the politics of the performance, in Butler's performative voice (2004). In animation, it would initially seem that agency is in the hands of the director over the inanimate (puppet or drawing) but as Laura Ivins-Hulley (2008) suggests, the audience itself has a kind of agency in that it views and ultimately accepts (or does not) the performance which is being viewed. Animated Actor/character/performer Paul Wells's oft-cited Understanding Animation describes the animator becoming an actor through the creation of the character (1998, p. 107), which Kim Walden (2008) suggests can be combined with the voice acting and argues that the "collaborative nature" (n.p.
The Animation Studies Reader, 2019
Emotion in Animated Films, 2018
Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 2016
Reference Reviews, 2010
A Chronology follows (reproduced and adapted from Animation, Genre and Authorship; Wells 2002). I... more A Chronology follows (reproduced and adapted from Animation, Genre and Authorship; Wells 2002). It is a neat addition that, taken alongside the subsequent author's introduction, adds to the reference value of the volume. However, the impact is lessened by easily avoidable ...
The Animation Studies Reader, 2019
The Animation Studies Reader
Collection of short chapters on key concepts and themes in animation studies. Aimed as a teaching... more Collection of short chapters on key concepts and themes in animation studies. Aimed as a teaching and research resource.
Springer eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
Those involved in the production of soap operas frequently make strong claims regarding the parti... more Those involved in the production of soap operas frequently make strong claims regarding the particularly close relationship between their products and ‘real-ity’, simultaneously distancing themselves from any suggestion of ‘construc-tion’. Perhaps the best-known such claim (in the UK at least) was the assertion made by Julia Smith, then producer of the English soap EastEnders, to the effect that ‘we don’t make life, we reflect it ’ (Geraghty, 1991: 32), though as we shall see later in this article, such claims are by no means restricted to England. The question of ‘realism ’ in both its broad (‘realistic’) and its narrow (‘realist’) meanings is a vexed one, and indeed what counts as realism can be highly culture-specific (O’Donnell, 2007). However, serials located within a social-realist paradigm – which is the case with the ones analysed here – must attempt to reproduce a series of elements (urban and rural landscapes, fashion and culinary patterns, linguistic behaviour, moral valu...
Body & Society, 2011
Ghulam Aasef Ross Abbinnett Mary Louise Adams Peter Adey Sara Ahmed Kevin Aho Joseph Alter Lucy A... more Ghulam Aasef Ross Abbinnett Mary Louise Adams Peter Adey Sara Ahmed Kevin Aho Joseph Alter Lucy Aphramour Ando Arike Jay Baglia Gretchen Bakke Ruth Barcan Meg Barker Einat Bar-On Cohen Alison Bartlett Susan Bayly Kirsten Bell Martha Bell Claudia Benthien Suzannah Biernoff Milene Bister Ole Bjerg Daniel Black Alexandra Bogren Ronald Bogue Eileen Boris Nik Brown Linda Bryder Shelley Budgeon Ann Burlein Felicity Callard Kirsten Campbell Amanda Card Maria Carozzi Lisa Cartwright Genaro Castro-Vazquez Monica Cejas AMBROGIA CEREDA Louise Chambers Sebastien Chauvin Constance Classen Patricia Clough Ed Cohen Rebecca Coleman Peter Collins Rachel Colls Verena Conley John Connell Steven Connor Grayson Cooke Timothy Cooley Charlotte Cooper
Examination of the life and key works of pioneering Scottish animator Norman McLaren
Animation Studies, Nov 4, 2015
Nichola Dobson Dancing to the Rhythm of the Music-Norman McLaren, the Body and Performance On Beg... more Nichola Dobson Dancing to the Rhythm of the Music-Norman McLaren, the Body and Performance On Begone Dull Care: "Thus, the knife-point was made to slide and move on the surface of the film; my hand pressed, guided, and, as it were, made to 'dance' to the rhythm of the music." (McLaren 1949, p.6) Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren's work is bound by the notion of performance; he described his own animation process in those terms, while using performance as both subject and animated object. He is well known for his creation of 'animated music' using his cameraless animation techniques, while also combining his love of dance to create innovative abstract films. Building on previous research and forming part of a larger project on McLaren's legacy, this paper will examine in two halves McLaren's interest in the movement of the body. The first will look at his use of the body indirectly by using the physical body as an animation tool for stop motion, with the second examining how the body connects to performance directly by filming dance performances. By considering key texts including Neighbours (1952), A Chairy Tale (1957), Pas de Deux (1968), and Narcisuss (1983), I will consider the extent to which McLaren's work did indeed contribute to "a new genre of filmic ballet and mime" (McLaren 1952, p. 84). Considering performance Performance theory is a vast subject in itself and though I will draw on its various aspects in this paper, it is by no means intended to be exhaustive. The subject extends from theatre and dance, the verbal performance, politics and through latterly to film and animation. For my purposes I engage with some of the most relevant to this topic. The first section of the paper will consider performance itself before moving on to chosen examples of McLaren's work. There are five key areas from performance theory which will be examined initially in terms of performance generally and then more specifically with regards to McLaren's films; agency, actor/character/performer, movement, audience/place/projection. Agency The first of these, agency, is connected to the others, but is largely the determining factor in the performance; that is, who is in control and deciding what the performance is and does. Agency might be situated in the movement of the actor as devised by the director, the dancer by the choreographer, the character by the animator, or looking at issues such as the politics of the performance, in Butler's performative voice (2004). In animation, it would initially seem that agency is in the hands of the director over the inanimate (puppet or drawing) but as Laura Ivins-Hulley (2008) suggests, the audience itself has a kind of agency in that it views and ultimately accepts (or does not) the performance which is being viewed. Animated Actor/character/performer Paul Wells's oft-cited Understanding Animation describes the animator becoming an actor through the creation of the character (1998, p. 107), which Kim Walden (2008) suggests can be combined with the voice acting and argues that the "collaborative nature" (n.p.
The Animation Studies Reader, 2019
Emotion in Animated Films, 2018
Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 2016
Reference Reviews, 2010
A Chronology follows (reproduced and adapted from Animation, Genre and Authorship; Wells 2002). I... more A Chronology follows (reproduced and adapted from Animation, Genre and Authorship; Wells 2002). It is a neat addition that, taken alongside the subsequent author's introduction, adds to the reference value of the volume. However, the impact is lessened by easily avoidable ...
The Animation Studies Reader, 2019
The Animation Studies Reader
Collection of short chapters on key concepts and themes in animation studies. Aimed as a teaching... more Collection of short chapters on key concepts and themes in animation studies. Aimed as a teaching and research resource.
Chapter in edited collection in Byers, M & Johnson, V (Ed) (2009) The “C.S.I. Effect:” Television... more Chapter in edited collection in Byers, M & Johnson, V (Ed) (2009) The “C.S.I. Effect:” Television, Crime, and Critical Theory, Lexington Books
Chapter from Edited collection: Lacey, S & McElroy, R (Ed) (2012) "Life on Mars to Ashes to Ashe... more Chapter from Edited collection: Lacey, S & McElroy, R (Ed) (2012) "Life on Mars to Ashes to Ashes" University of Wales Press