Marc Quinn’s ‘Self’ is a sculpture of his own head made from his own frozen, congealed blood. Quinn donated the 4.5 litres of blood over five months.

The representation of the fragility of life.

Do you like the pink starbursts? The red skittle, how about rouge sherbet? Do you then bite an actual strawberry, in horror of what mother nature has produced. Well we are all fully aware of the additives and chemicals our sweeties our smothered with and even after the first person pointed out how they taste nothing a like, it remains. Pink starbursts are strawberry flavoured. Any 5 year old could tell you that. Does that make the majority of fruits in todays tooth decaying society Icons. By similiarity. No. What about an Index, it is meerly linked to it. Or maybe a symbol. Has candy lost dependence on resumbulance.

Semiotics;

Icon

Index

Symbol

In our lecture the other day our tutor talked about symbols, icons and Index. There is subtle differences between those three things. But what they have in common is that they represent the human ability to perceive. Or rather how we are programmed to. For example, how you, are capable of reading and understanding type. Words do not look like the images and scenes we are describing. They are just squiggle lines used in a various manner to create communication. We use to use pictorial, more literal methods to communicate once upon a time. But we have grown, grown to a point where our ability to write and speak and convey a message is so simplistic and at the same time perpelexing, only the society that developed it can grasp.

Like, for instance, the English language has said to be one of the most difficult languages to learn. I find that hard to believe because I speak it. Is it the homophones and illogical grammar rules? I think Chinese Mandarin looks awful complex but it’s most certainly more pictorial than English.

I think the human ability to communicate is our species biggest inside joke.

You wouldn’t get it. You had to be there type of thing.

On acceptance of my application to my course, we were issued homework right out of the gate. This brief asked of us animation students quite a task. To create a sketchbook on Animation, yes. Animation. In its entirety. On arrival I was told it was more of a trick question, a test to see our interpretation and mine, was anything but unique.

Instantly deciding on the easy way out, I began the very typical journey of choosing an obvious staple ‘hero’ of my profession rather than dig for an obscure one that barely scraped the world of animation, never mind impacted it.

Tell me, who has had a larger dent in Animation than good old Walt Disney.

I learnt a lot about Disney, he is,  of corse a huge inspiration to most Animators. Him and his influence on not only American society but the world is nothing short of a glorious victory for the occupation.

When we came to handing in our assignments, we had a group discussion about our chosen subjects and briefed one another repeatedly of what it involves and who influenced us. It was interesting to see who people picked. It was even more interesting to see how few illustrators, animators and graphic artists I knew. Walt Disney was unsuprisinly admired by many, it was the cause of a lengthy discussion.

From it, I concluded that Walt Disney may not have been the orginal creator of Animation but he was the one who made it profitable. I’m not entirely sure if that’s considerd selling out or not. Animation is an art form. Certainly. But one created for entertainment. The concept of illusion has always been a cashing in type scenario. Does that make Walt Disney less of an artist.

I myself wouldn’t think to consider myself an artist. Not because I hold the status highly. Quite the opposite, actually. More of a craftsmen, craftswoman, or something. An Animator, maybe.

A cartoonist, if anyone asks. Until I can physical animate.

And as Disney as someone can put it.

‘All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.’ – Walt Disney

No ones more Disney than Walt Disney..