EACVA in Berlin: Tomoko Tamari on Digital Aesthetics and Human Perception

Abstract

Tomoko Tamari explores the differences between digital aesthetics created by computer animation and analogue aesthetics in hand-drawn animation. While computer-generated imagery (CGI) refers to the process that involves mathematical calculations within computers to create naturalistic looking images, the traditional hand-drawn animation method involves symbolic expressive forms created by the animator’s spatio-temporal sensitivities. Drawing on Hayles’s discussion of the ‘cognitive non-conscious’, Simondon’s notion of ‘technical mentality’, and bio-semiotics, Tamari argues that there might be an inevitable incompatibility in the image-formation process between human perception and algorithm-based CGI. To explore this assumption, Tamari focuses on the questions of ‘selectivity’ and ‘abstraction’ in both the neuronal and the technical, and emphasises the significance of ‘noise’ (incompleteness and ambiguity) and ‘time’ (speed, duration, and delay) for human perception by exploring the nature of cognitive systems.

Publication relevant to this talk: 'Human Perception and Digital Information Technologies, Animation, the Body, and Affect', https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/human-perception-and-digital-information-technologies

Chapter 3: "Moving Images and Human Perception: Affect in Hand-Drawn Animation and Computer-Generated Imagery"