Documentary Animation

The Documentary Animation pathway engages with fast-growing documentary practices involving animation and other forms of image fabrication. The pathway aims to fuse animation and non-fiction storytelling with documentary approaches, forms and questions about representing, engaging with and expanding the limitations of the real, often by visually documenting unseen experiences through various animation techniques. Explorations in Documentary Animation may consider long-form animation, non-linear engagement, informational narratives, interactive media and learning and informational approaches. All these can work across multiple platforms and technologies. Students' practice is built on a ground of interrogation and making, through contextual and critical thinking. They are critically aware of issues of documentary representation, and expand their often collaborative practice within and beyond the School of Communication.

This year’s Graduates push the genre of documentary in distinct ways. Some work with the genre’s methods, such as real-world live-action footage, which is sometimes rotoscoped; other’s designs originate from scrutiny of the world and people who populate it. Stop motion sets, characters and and environments perform as material-based vessels for the truths they pursue. Some elevate the observed everyday to poetry, others move between fact and fiction to re-invent a historical event or to question real-world stereotypes.