Comments and replies from Alex Drummer regarding tinga tinga

Whilst the focus of this blog is merely to report my findings on the web, and point to them. I wish to point out that the comments and replies to the blog are not published immediately, as they need to be filtered to avoid spam. With this in mind, although I have published Alex Drummer's replies to the posting on "Tinga Tinga gets bad press", it seems Mr Drummer has not seen these published, as well as the further posting dated 12th April. Therefore to avoid this I am AGAIN publishing Alex Drummer's comments and replies to this posting as a seperate post, hoping that it is now absolutely clear to Alex Drummer and the reader that the posting "Tinga Tinga gets Bad Press" includes the following information as part of the larger debate on this issue:

Dear Paula, the story of Tania Bale was not her own but an untested press release from Daniel Augusta. Mr Augusta is the Manager of the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society (TACS) in Dar-es-Salaam/Tanzania. This organization spreads knowingly wrong information about the term "Tinga Tinga". Finally, the TACS claimed that "Tinga Tinga is part of national identity, a national asset, a symbol for Tanzania as a national flag". This is complete garbage. More infomation you can find in my article „Tinga Tinga“ – the Great Error. The article shows that the aim of this artist group is the wrong way and will not help to support the Tingatinga Art in the future. The full text is:

It is not very often that a new trend in art gets the name of only one person. So this is a special tribute to Eduardo Saidi Tingatinga who was the founder of the East African Tingatinga style in the early 1970s in Dar es Salaam. In the next decades till today paintings in the typical colourful style called „Tingatinga Art“ became well known through exhibitions and books world-wide. In contrast to this the term "Tinga Tinga" was not an East African brand at any time. The contrary assertion is wrong. The name "Tinga Tinga" never has played a role also in the international art-scene. No serious art expert use this. The only correct name is the term Tingatinga (for art, paintings etc.).
Currently only the word combination "Tinga Tinga Tales" is a registered trademark in some countries and belongs to the company Tiger Aspect Production from UK. The background of this is of interest. Some just stupid and greedy people of the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society (TACS) in Dar es Salaam/Tanzania sold to this company the usufruct of the words "Tinga Tinga". That therefore is remarkable because the TACS neither was and is the owner of the right of this term and also only a few Tingatinga artists are represented by the TACS. But exactly this organization, that arranged a bad contract without consultation of experts, now spreads the fairytale of the "sale of Tanzanian cultural heritage". What is the truth? No East African artist will get any problems to use the correct and long time introduced term "Tingatinga" for his art style, for paintings, for books etc. No artist should use "Tinga Tinga". It harms himself and creates confusion. The TACS finally should stop to require and to use the term "Tinga Tinga" for itself. No artist should hope that the running TV series "Tinga Tinga Tales" causes positive for the Tingatinga art. This TV production and the entire merchandising around happens on a market, on which African art-styles and artists don't have anything to win. It is nonsense to suggest African artists can find "honey and money" in the childish "Disney World" which is made believe us by unscrupulous businessmen. But it would not be surprising, if in one or two years the whole hype about "Tinga Tinga Tales" is over (end of article text).

PS: The very last information is that the TACS now will feed expensive lawyers with the money of their members among other things to register the "Tinga Tinga" trademark (!). They didn't understand, that it is too late for it and they will lose. But the damage for the Tingatinga Art will be big.

Alex Drummer

18/04/10

Dear Paula, now to truth is coming step by step. And the truth is bad and shocking. It is a swamp of crime.

Mr. Augusta (Manager TACS) now had to publish the following correction because of my article: "There were three versions of the contract: English, Swahili and Swahili-English which were signed by Mbwana Sudi (The Chairman), Agnes Mpata (Wittness) and Saidi Omary (The Vice Chairman) on TACS side and Claudia Lloyd from Tiger Aspect Production. Claudia Lloyed gave to the painters enough time to read properly the contract, she has recommended the painters to get help from a lawyer to fully understand the implications of the contract. She had always a translator to help her in communication with the painters. But the painters did not seek any legal help. Despite that the contract was in their native language, it was distributed to all in the leadership and they had more 1.5 day to finally reconsider the agreement they later claimed that they did not understand the implication of the contract. They had gone so far as to claim that there was only the English version. A payment of ca $24.000 divided in 4 installments was part of the contract. The first payment of ca $6000 was paid on table in the presence of the few painters who have been at the leadership of TACS. Paying cash on the table was explicit wish of the painters. After the payment the leadeship pocketed the money, hide the contract, did not tell anything to the members of the Coperative. As a result, there was almost zero Tinga Tinga community participation on the Tiger Aspect´s animations. At the time of launching the films, not more than 10 painters out of 100 (at TACS) were aware of any contract."

I ask myself: What is coming next? Even more bad news and lies or reason and insight? How will ever repair the TACS the damage for the Tingatinga Art and the artists?

Alex Drummer

4/18/2010 12:19 AM

I hope that this posting satisfies Mr Drummer concerns. 

A difference of opinions... tinga tinga

The debate on the Tinga Tinga Tales series, has continued with differing opinions see Educating Alice's entry with the comments below/ Learning about Africa; Tinga Tinga Tales
With regards to africananimation recent posting on Tinga Tinga gets bad press , a reply by Alex Drummer has been published in the comments section. Included here find a link to Alex Drummer's own article on this matter
„Tinga Tinga" – The Great Error

more Makmende... the world just can't get enough!

Makmende musings in the blogosphere.....

I'm thrilled by all the recent hype that the Makmende phenomenon has generated.... but what is more interesting is the blog postings that are appearing all over the place discussing whether this is the first african meme that has caused such as stir. In particular I loved Ethan Zuckerman's observations and article,
Makmende's so HUGE he can't fit on Wikipedia

This article is definitely worth a read...

tinga tinga gets bad press....

The online magazine African Colours has just ran a story on the recent animation Tinga Tinga Tales that was being produced by British company Tiger Aspect in collaboration with HomeBoyz Studios in Kenya. Whilst the BBC has covered the story of the release of this animated series as a success story to be had - both in terms of the contribution of East African content to a global audience (in the vein of the Tinga Tinga art that it derives its aesthetic from, the narrative content) and in terms of the expertise of  East African animators in making the film - recent events have taken an unforseen turn for the worst!

Tania Bale's Blog posting on AfricanArt Online gives a different story about the unfolding events surrounding the development of this project. You can read her account at this link: AFRICANART

JAB goes RETRO with a viral video : Who is Makmende?

 Just a Band hit the web again with their brilliant retro "Shaft"-like video. You can watch and listen to their brilliance on their YOUTUBE station, JustaBandwidth




You can support their endevours on the AfricaUnsigned initiative click here to listen to their music

Read all about it on the Wall Street Journal 

Animation, Zimbabwe and creative muses

An interview with animator Carl Ncube of the "Nyami-Nyami" fame - the short animated film which was a local hit with young children in 2007. Here he talks of his experiences and inspirations as a Zimbabwean animator.

Click here:
We don't understand what an inventive spirit is: Interview with Carl Joshua Ncube Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa, Kubatana.net February 24, 2010


Dear Mama from iaminawe on Vimeo.

a vimeo find on Sembene

a lovely animation/ film by jason silverman: to read about Sembene: A documentary Film

for more information read the article on silverman and the grant he was awarded by Sundance at GregoryP's blog click here

for more information about the film see the Sundance Documentary entry click here



SEMBENE trailer 4-2010 from jason silverman on Vimeo.

south africa's own spitting image....ZANEWS

South African cartoonist Zapiro embarks on the South African version of Spitting Image (in the vien of Kenya's XYZ Show).


View more clips from ZANEWS here: ZANEWS
 
You can read all abou this venture on the DesignIndaba article here. ZANEWS_DesignIndaba 

The Illusion of Life - responses and correspondances

Some time back I posted my intial musings on The Illusion of Life II, and in particular Alan Cholodenko's introduction. To my surprise, these musings did not go amiss - and a couple of days ago I receive an email from Alan Cholodenko with his response to my musings! This has since sparked a correspondace about how to negotiate the difficult terrain of defining animation - something I have avoided to do (as Alan Cholodenko rightly points out). I thoroughly enjoyed this banter, and decided to share it with Alan Cholodenko's permission. There is nothing better to stimulate one's thinking! So here goes:

Email No1: Sender: Alan Cholodenko / Recipient: Me
Title: Limiting Cholodenko

Dear Paula Callus,
I just spotted your blog musing on my Introduction to The Illusion of Life 2.
First, let me thank you for giving my work such considering. It is still a rare moment to see that happening and I appreciate it. Needless to say, I have some thoughts on and responses to your musings which I would like to offer you before such musings firm to a position.

Indeed, I hope they might be of help in your musings. It is in that spirit that I offer them to you.
I hope you do not have a problem with my offering you this feedback.

Obviously, I am happy to see your caveat at the beginning of your text, indicating that these are musings and that they are limited to my Introduction, and your referring the reader ‘for more information’ to my ‘article on the Animation Studies On-line Journal’, although I must indicate that in fact I have four articles there, so it is unclear as to which of my articles you are directing the reader. (And I do not see myself, by the way, as having a simple what you call twice on page 4 ‘position’. It sounds to my ear as too inert, arrested, inanimate, if you would allow.)

There is no question but I do wish you had considered my many articles on animation before posting this blog, for they do, as far as I am concerned, demonstrate approaches to animation that offer modalities of limitation, precisely what you pose as missing from my work.

And I feel confident that from reading my articles you will find that, just as Derrida takes up the ways deconstruction operates in individual texts, forms and media, I do the same with animation, seeking how it operates in individual texts, forms and media. Ditto Baudrillard and seduction.

So if I read your criticism of my ‘position’ correctly on page 2, I must rebut, for I do seek the specific ways in which animation and what I call the animatic so operate and there are modes of limitation operating in my work, even as at the same time I theorise all media as forms of animation.

And note: I do define the animatic. (See pp. 43-44 of that Introduction.)

Put otherwise, I do work at not only the macro- but the micro- level, even though it may appear I do so, or even do do so, more at the former than the latter level.

Of course, such limitations and specificities as I pose would seem to differ radically from what you seek as the limitations and specificities of animation. I get the sense from your words that you seek a uniqueness to animation, the kind of essence my work is at loggerheads to deconstruct and seduce, notably with my notion of animation as the animatic.

As a result, I think you define/understand animation in a way that limits understanding of me.

What all this means is that I think in regard to these issues of specificity and limitation your blog is premature and in error in its limiting of me, that is, limiting me to limitlessness, its posing my approaches as without limits, as simply limitless, and that includes my Introduction.

If you wish to undertake a substantial search in this regard, you could track out my treatments by taking off from my Introduction’s note 60, where I reference many of my articles. But you could start by checking out my essay ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or The Framing of Animation’ in The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation, ed. Alan Cholodenko (Power Publications in association with the Australian Film Commission, Sydney, 1991), which brings Derrida and animation into co-relation, as well as my ‘“OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR”: The Virtual Reality of Jurassic Park and Jean Baudrillard’, originally published in 1997 and republished in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, January 2005 (ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies), which brings Baudrillard and animation into co-relation. These articles were meant by me, and I believe so operate, as heuristic examples of textual analysis and explication in terms of the processes of Derridean deconstruction and of Baudrillardian seduction operating in the two films, respectively.

Another point: while you assert I do not provide examples of my uses of Derrida, Freud, Baudrillard ‘and other postmodernist thinking’ (are you nominating Freud a postmodernist?) in my Introduction, in fact I do. See page 34, where I take up Freud’s uncanny (and note 66, referring to the Introduction to The Illusion of Life (1991), pp. 28-29), Eisenstein’s protean plasmaticness, and pages 37-38, where I explicitly quote my 1991 Introduction’s inscription of the abject [Kristeva], the uncanny [Freud], the sublime [Lyotard], seduction [Baudrillard], différance [Derrida], etc., which I then pick up on on pp. 39-40.

And again, my articles that bring Derrida and Baudrillard to the thinking of animation, and vice versa, are readily available as examples.
I would mention further the ones published in Animation Studies.
And I especially direct your attention to my article ‘The Nutty Universe of Animation, the “Discipline” of All “Disciplines”, and That’s Not All, Folks!’, published in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, January 2006.

And given your specialisation in African animation, my article ‘Jean Rouch’s Les Maîtres Fous: Documentary of Seduction, Seduction of Documentary’, in Three Documentary Filmmakers, edited by William Rothman, SUNY Press, Albany, NY.

And of course my ‘Speculations on the Animatic Automaton’, in The Illusion of Life 2.

I am glad you agree with me in my, as you put it, ‘identifying the limitations of animation theory and…mission to promote animation as a [sic] the medium that superceeds [sic] and consequentially informs all others (here I would put a clause and state MOVING image)’.

Note: in my Introduction I describe the animatic, hence animation so understood, as idea, concept, process, performance, medium and milieu.

(Here I would suggest, in terms of the matter of moving versus stillness, seeing my ‘Still Photography?’, first published in Afterimage, vol. 32, no. 5, March/April, 2005, reprinted in International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, January 2008.)

At the same time and as another key point of disagreement with me, you seem on page 2 to subscribe to the idea that animation is but a form of film, even though later in the piece you seem to contradict that impression, appearing to concur in my claim that all film is a form of animation in your words ‘animation as…the medium that superceeds [sic] and consequentially informs all others’.

Also, I suspect in your calls on page 2 ‘to define what it is we are looking at…’, ‘if we know WHAT animation is,…’, ‘to identifying what we are looking at’, in other words, to find a specificity or set of specificities to animation, you may be falling into the trap traditionally associated with genre theory, that is, you need to define what animation is (to specify its principles, features, what have you) before you can delimit the body of films that are animations, but you need to delimit that body before you can define what animation is.

To paraphrase Andrew Tudor’s article ‘Genre’ in Barry Grant’s book Film Genre: Theory and Criticism, p. 18, you define animation on the basis of analyzing a body of films which cannot possibly be said to be animations until after the analysis. Tudor calls this variously a ‘case of arbitrary definition’, a circle we are caught in (a vicious circle for me), an ‘empiricist dilemma’.

I call this an aporia itself of the order of the animatic. Edward Buscombe, in his article ‘The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema’, in the same book, p. 26, calls this problem only another aspect of the wider philosophical problem of universals. With regard to the cinema, we may state it thus: if we want to know what a Western [animation] is we must look at certain kinds of films. But how do we know which films to look at until we know what a Western [animation] is? (p. 26)


Speaking of which, while you claim my work does not articulate the specificities of animation, neither does your blog. You talk about your method, drawing from postmodernist thinking…, but go no further.


So my question is: how do you define animation?

I do it in the Introduction to the first anthology on p. 15.
And I am glad we have a third mode of agreement insofar as you assert that you too draw from postmodernist thinking. But in that regard, I need to clarify this. I do not assert that ‘it can only be through post-modernist discourses that any true attempt at theorising on animation can take place’. Rather, on page 44, I state:

The animatic is precisely for me best described, exemplified and performed by the ‘poststructuralist’ and ‘postmodernist’ approaches privileged in our two volumes for the theorizing of animation—by their logics, processes, performances and performativity, likewise impossible of solution or resolution. These approaches not only offer the richest ways to theorize the animatic, they are the most isomorphic with it, the most, as it were, informed by and performing it.84
I write that for me these approaches offer the best, richest way to theorise animation, which is decidedly different from what you say.

And, without rereading my entire Introduction, I feel confident in saying that nowhere do I say my way is the only way.
Next, to me it is not ‘apparent that other art forms...are NOT animation ALL of the time..’. This use of ‘apparent’ is assertion on your part, not argument. A final, most important point: quite the opposite of what you assert, I do not simply refute ‘Richard Leskosky’s heralding of animation studies as a new discipline...’.

Here is what I write on pp. 69-70:
In his review in Film Quarterly, Summer 1993, Richard Leskosky, then President of the Society for Animation Studies, declared that THE ILLUSION OF LIFE: Essays on Animation ‘heralds (and argues) the arrival of animation studies as a valid discipline equal to and separate from cinema studies but with a wealth of critical practice relevant to cinema scholars as well as animation scholars’.143


For me this lovely comment must be qualified in two regards. First, animation (therefore animation studies) is relevant to all disciplines and all scholars, operating in, integral to and performed by all of them. Second, if by ‘discipline’ one means something coherent and entire unto itself, something at peace and in a state of ‘oneness’ with itself, an irresolvable, indeed aporetic, problem is harboured here. It is a problem denegating any and all efforts to animate and institute a discipline—any discipline—so conceived, including the discipline of animation studies. For animation itself, animation as the protean plasmatic as we reread it, as the animatic—that very singularity of animation, the very animation of animation—renders that discipline at once possible and impossible.
Therefore, a discipline must be thought otherwise, through animation as the animatic, thought, after Derrida, for example, not as a form of presence, essence, the ontological, but as what is at once enabled and disenabled by dissemination, the hauntological—as by definition indisciplined, or rather, at once disciplined and indisciplined. A discipline so thought would be at once the discipline of indiscipline and indiscipline of discipline. In any case, for us such a form of ‘discipline’ would always already inhabit and spectre a discipline figured purely as ontological.

If THE ILLUSION OF LIFE and this new volume offer singular exemplification of and compelling theoretical insights into such a lively ‘discipline’ as ‘animation studies’—one not only animated but animatic—then it will have made a contribution, not to the creation of the discipline of Animation Studies—whose departure arrives with, if not before, its ‘arrival’—but to animation studies, a term Leskosky insightfully puts, like cinema studies, in lower case, a term for me always to be thought as in quotation marks, always, after Derrida, sous rature (under erasure). Animation studies so conceived not only studies animation, which for us all ‘disciplines’ do—making animation studies the ‘discipline’ of all ‘disciplines’—but is obedient to the very processes of animation as the animatic, as all ‘disciplines’ are.

In other words, I propose that the thinking of animation necessitates the deconstruction of capital D Discipline wherever it is so postulated, assumed and/or found. Put otherwise, I deconstruct the ontology of Discipline with the hauntology of discipline as Derridean trace, supplement, etc.—as the animatic. (See my ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or the Framing of Animation’, The Illusion of Life, pp. 211-212.) For me, capital D Discipline is the special case, the reduced, conditional form, of lower case d discipline.

As a result, your characterisation here gets me completely backwards. I am not, as you assert, being contradictory but rather consistent, for I do not subscribe to the orthodox notion of a discipline but rather describe it and then deconstruct it. So in fact I do precisely what you say I do not do and criticise me for not doing.
The key line here is ‘Therefore, a discipline must be thought otherwise, through animation as the animatic…’ (p. 69).
Finally, re your phrase ‘biggest bone of contention with Cholodenko’s 100 page introduction to his book, [sic] is his repeated claim…’, I ask, first, given that your phrasing implies criticism of the length of my Introduction, what is your problem given the Introduction states at its beginning that its remit was to characterise what has happened to animation and animation studies since the first anthology was published in 1991 and the size of the Introduction obviously reflects what has happened? Why are you not rather happy that so much space, time and effort has produced such a length of/and such a text? And second, how repeated is the claim? Is it too much? And finally, if your phrase is meant to inscribe the title of Andrew Darley’s attack on my 1991 Introduction, ‘Bones of Contention: Thoughts on the Study of Animation’, in Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, 2007), and somehow even join in and with that attack, I think you should be quite explicit about that.

I hope all these thoughts of mine are of help, Paula.
Thanks again for considering my Introduction.
Best regards,

Alan

Email No2: Sender: Me / Recipient: Alan Cholodenko 
Dear Alan,
Many thanks for your detailed reply to my musings and as you correctly identified by no means a fixed position.

I appreciate the detail with which you set out to address some of my remarks regarding your introduction and I will be updating my post/ or adding a new one with changes/ and should you wish your own response.

My thoughts on the discipline and theory of animation is in constant flux and changing all the time, and some of the observations you make I have come to see in a new light/ and agree with. I am becoming more enamoured by the term moving image and the possibilities it offers to the theorist in search of trying to make sense of a medium (if it can still be seen as such) that permuates and pervades into so many spaces.

As you can appreciate when I attempt to frame and contextualise (Sub-Saharan) African animation I frequently run into the problems of what defines a piece as animation, and I try to avoid resorting to fixed notions that can limit my attention and findings. Anthropological thought also comes with its own sets of theories, I must remind myself about the culturally subjective issue of taste or to avoid the exoticisation of the image (E.Said). Of course at times I catch myself out falling into the very same trappings I set out to avoid, and I hope that through correspondance like yours I can navigate through this difficult terrain.

You were right in your observation that I have at no point committed (as you have) to a working definition of animation, this is simply because I have not yet arrived to a crystallised definition - I know only that it pervades and that it moves, a starting point of sorts. This is work in progress, and might require much more thought. I fear it is easy to find oneself dealing with Buscombe's paradox (as you mention in your reply).

Therefore Alan, please accept my apologies, if my musings were inaccurate. They were very quick impressions, a repository for initial thoughts, but as mentioned before by no means a position or fixed. And thank you for taking the time to reply to my post, with suggestions too - this is much appreciated.

I look forward to hearing back from you, and hope that is could be the start of a meeting of minds ;)
Many thanks again,
Paula


To read more about Alan Cholodenko see "Why Animation, Alan?" by Alan Cholodenko

more on the XYZ Part 2

Keeping up with all the buzz
read about it on CNN African Voices: Gado Drawing Political Fire
hear about it on the BBC world service
and causing a stir locally and covered on Citizen TV



you can read more at Nalaka Gunawardene's blog postings

Kibushi at Cannes

Cannes 2008 : le cinéaste congolais Jean-Michel Kibushi
Uploaded by rfi. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Coconut Island.... more from Lagos, Nigeria

Coconut Island is a 2D animation currently being produced by a team of animators/artists from Lagos. It has been reported by SPACEBOY_NIGERIA, that one of the artists on the team has also worked on the Nigerian Comic Book, Canary Seven by Elfworks. The animation is being developed into potentially an animated series of 5 minute shorts. Their work looks promising!

Ezra Wube, Ethiopian artist and animator

On searching for more animation from the continent, I stumbled across the animation
"I came from the Sky" by Ezra Wube, Ethiopia.
Ezra Wube is a fine artist currently based in Brooklyn (US), although originally from Addis Ababa. He left Ethiopia at the age of 18 and has travelled since - travelling being a recurring theme that emerges in Wube's work, as he explains in the article at ABESHA.COM

Wube has posted his animations on Vimeo (I came from the Sky; When we all met; Hutlet/Caution) and you can view all of his animated work here:
WUBE_ON_VIMEO

For a detailed article about his work and background, and his influences and themes this can be found on ABESHA.COM . His own personal website, including a portfolio of work and animations can be found at: EZRAART.NET

Mbulu's Bride (2006)

Justine Puren's animation Mbulu's Bride (2006) is a brilliantly executed sand animation from South Africa's AFDA.
I stumbled across the animation in an article about Post-Apartheid film in the journal Kinema, "Short Filmaking in South Africa after apartheid" by Martin Botha.

The only version I found online - the quality is not very good, but one gets an impression of the animation.

Nigerian Multimedia Company sets up shop in Abuja

EVCL is a new company based in Northern Nigeria - specifically Abuja, that has just been setup and is already creating a stir on the facebook circuit. Including a portfolio of work that includes 3D Computer Animation, video, and multimedia - the website also includes a blog that aims to provide a platform to discuss and disseminate Nigerian multi-media related topics, with the added bonus of online tutorials such as the one below.





The blog includes sections on "thoughts and opinions" and "works and experiments".
To access the blog for more information click
EVCL

State of Emergency? Documentary in progress - South Africa

A link I received courtesy of South African animator Sabelo Dludla. The video investigates filmmaking in South Africa contextualised in its historical political climate.





Also for more information on the South African Film Scene, with entries on animation too! Click here: The CallSheet

The African Film Library

The MNet initiative, is launching an online film library showcasing the best African films. A fantastic resource that I hope will grow to include the animations emerging from the continent...
click here: African Film Library

more on the XYZ....

Digital Planet and Kenya

The BBC podcasts on Digital Planet have recently (see 15th September: Kenya Special) included a focus on Kenya. One of the highlights of the podcast is the interview with the team from Mediae including animator Daniel Muli * from Just a Band. The interview dicusses the current situation of the landscape of animation in Kenya, and the impact of broadband to the industry and the home user. Makes for an interesting listen!

more from Nigeria..... The O Twins

Another contribution to the ever growing and dynamic world of animation on the continent. With a recent launch on facebook/ and their own website, Fusion Media are about to release their very own take on a Nigerian family's view of the world around them... The O Twins is a 3D animated comedy by Micheal Tokunbo Akindelem with charming character designs, and a palette that is vibrant, it looks promising.
The reviews on their own Youtube channel are largely positive and encouraging, with everyone looking forward to the next installment!

Nigeria's LIFESPAN

Nigeria's first feature length Computer Animated Film - LIFESPAN - has hit the radar. With a youtube channel of their own, promoting the film, and collaborative events hosted on Facebook, the team have mobilised creatives in the field with their "Create a LIFESPAN character" competition, with open submissions from online facebook members.
Stanlee Ohikhuare and Mighty Jot Animation Studios - have put together a visually exciting film of high production value. In production since 2006, due to be released in 2009, this film is another piece of evidence that animation on the African continent is rapidly gaining popularity, with the artistic and technical skills to match.

You can view to promo, and concept development work on the LifeSpan2009 youtube channel.

who is Tunis 2050 ?

One recent find on the animation front, is this exciting animated series TUNIS 2050. Information on the website is limited and can be accessed here
TUNIS2050. Although the series can also be viewed in Facebook / search for TUNIS 2050.
Currently with 2050 Fans on Facebook, this online animated series seems to be rapidly gaining popularity... and one can see why!
BUT who are the people behind this North African Animated Series???

Kenyan Animation: A3 Genesis, the dawn of a new era?

The recent event at the British Council, organised by the Association of Animation Artistes Kenya (A3) was a resounding success with a full house attendance. The speakers including Dumi, from Anamazing Workshop, South Africa, Claudia Lloyd from Tiger Aspect Studios, UK/Kenya and the Know Zone Team, all provided a great flavour of current commercial and non-profit productions that are running in Kenya, and South Africa. The event was even attended by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo, a key player in mobilising and creating an environment conducive to helping the industry emerge.

The morning program of talks provided a space for Q&As with the attendees, which was at times "animated" - each speaker spoke of the commercial/ financial difficulties of launching animated series for an African audience, or as in the case of Tinga Tinga Tales, an international one. Amongst the topics of discussion were the role of a producer in securing funds. How funding/ investment is divided up amongst different contenders, distributors, merchandising, screening rights etc. The South African guest, spoke about the current incentives that exist in SA that provide a space to begin to look at an emergent industry. This proved to be an ideal spring board to look at the role of government bodies in facilitating and encouraging this sector to grow. Other speakers included the software company, ToonBoom representative, who presented in interesting overview of the possibilities of tapping into the global market. He also spoke of economic incentives in licensing of this software, to encourage use of legal copies, rather than pirated software - these included an encouraging 50 to 60% discount on the retail price, with room to negotiate.

The public were largely very receptive to all speakers. Some of the issues raised included: the importance of the dissemination of information from official bodies to the general public in a transparent and effective manner, the importance for educational institutions to recognise the merits of this field and to provide suitable in depth training, the artistic and technical skills that are required, what are the benefits of joining the association, the need for critical mass and collaboration.

The afternoon session included different workshops in Adobe After Effects, a master class by a Digital Matte Painter from Animal Logic/ Weta Digital, and a collection of screenings from local and other African animators, in the main foyer.

The event was bubbling with excitement and seemed largely positive, with current news of broadband reaching the general public, in the next couple of months, the possibilities seem endless... of course this enthusiasm could not help but be eclipsed but the fact that today, in Nairobi, like most days in the week, there is no power.
The power rationing is naturally having a detrimental effect on peoples ability to work and is debilitating....

For more info: you can go to Kenyan Animation
or the Official webpage for the association at www.animationkenya.com- this link has since gone dead and will redirect to a page that is archived on the Webarchive Association of Animation Artistes

south africa tasters

"Masizakhe: Building Each Other" from Scott Macklin on Vimeo.

INKFLY animation reel '09 from inkfly on Vimeo.

Animation SA Showreel 2007 from Animation SA on Vimeo.

The XYZ Show hits the BBC

The Kenyan production "The XYZ Show", which includes both puppets and animation, has been airing their political satirical program on local television from early this year. The good news is the program has been looked at by the BBC, giving it exposure on an international scale. Well Done All!!
To read more about this click on
BBC

alternatively you can read all about it on the XYZ BLOG

ANIWA Ghana

ghana animation

An animation made with found objects from Ghana -
Information about the animators is limited, although it would seem that the animators were NOT ghanian. More information will follow once I verify.

Notwithstanding the found objects present interesting features such as the use of an image which is also to be found in Congolese in popular painting, as well as Northern Nigeria.

The image of the man climbing the tree with a snake, lion and crocodile surrounding him at the bottom. The very same painting that Congolese filmmaker JM Kibushi refers to in his animated film "Muana Mboka".



See video at 1:05 - 1:14 mins for the referred painting.

African Animation Festival - ANIMAFRIK

ANIMAFRIK is African Animation Festival that will be running in October in Ghana. There is a current call out for submissions to the festival, one can send
DVD submissions to:

Address: Courier: Animafrik Festival, No.5. Anowa Link, Tesano, Accra, Ghana

or mail P.O.Box KN 150, Kaneshie, Accra, Ghana

The festival will close submission on July 31 2009.

For more information on the festival read the Africancolours post

or alternatively

AWN's article on the festival.

On Kuwaiti Comic Strip "THE 99"

An enlightening article by the BBC World News on the creation of Islamic Superheros in the Kuwaiti comic strip called "THE 99"

African Animation Scholarship Programme

News update from my contacts:

SAE presents the African Animation Scholarship Programme

Calling all aspiring African animators! From pixels to puppets, cutouts to claymation, the world of animation is becoming an increasingly popular area of study.
For those looking to join SAE to expand their animated horizons, SAE is proud to announce the availability of 15 coveted part-scholarships.

SAE Cape Town will be offering 10 scholarships for Sub-Saharan African students and 5 South African students, allowing prospective students the opportunity to pursue their dream career in animation.

To secure your head-start in this exciting field, simply log www.saescholarships.com

a great link on contemporary african culture : African Digital Art

The African Digital Art website is a real find for anyone interested in contemporary african digital art culture. I highly recommend this link for some great finds related to not only African animation but digital art at large.
see:
African Digital Art

some new animated finds....

here are some links/ videos that have been sent to me from various African animators... enjoy!
Kenneth Coker - Originally from Lagos, Nigeria, he studied at Memphis college of art and completed the film below as his graduate showreel.

Iwa from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

Oni Ise Owo from Kenneth Coker on Vimeo.

Micheal Rix - Based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The film was originally produced as a music video for South African rock band The Parlotones, but was rejected.

Strings from Reel 13 on Vimeo.

Binyavanga, "How to write about Africa"

Just by accident I stumbled across Binyavanga's article "How to write about Africa" published in the Africa in the Picture 2008 program (Amsterdam).It can also be found on-line on the GRANTA magazine. Binyavanga's sense of humour is acutely perceptive, for anyone in the field of African studies or writing about Africa... to give you a taster here is Binyavanga's opening paragraph...

Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'....

Highly recommended!

SCOLMA Annual Conference: Africa and the Moving Image: the Role of Libraries and Archives

The recent conference held at Newnham College, Cambridge, was a veritable attempt to begin to address the difficulties facing the future of African film, or rather specifically more so film made by African's for an African audience and its urgent need of suitable archives.

The lineup of guest speakers included:

Dr Guido Convents: Current Issues in African Moving Image and its Preservation

Mr Keith Shiri: African Film and Documentary: The Contemporary Scene

Prf. Vivian Bickford Smith : Film as Evidence, Film as istory and Film in History

Dr Emma Hunter: African History on Screen and in the Classroom: Moving Images in the teaching of African History

Dr Emma Sandon: Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire. A 3-year AHRC funded project

Susanne Hammacher: Looking back - Looking Forward: Tasks ad Challenges of an Archival Ethnographic Film Collection and the Digital Future.


------------------

The opening paper by Guido Convents presented an overview of some of the problems facing the archival of African film within the local context, with a focus on the DRC. This was supplemented by a screening of documentary made by a young Congolese filmmaker about the current state of an archival unit in Kinshasa.

The presentation and documentary highlighted Convents; key arguement, that whilst there are archives of colonial film (for a European audience and also propagandist or educational film for local African audiences), there is hardly any interest in archiving film that was produced after colonialism.

He develops this further by later proposing that the archive within an African context could also include key films that have influenced early African filmakers, such as European Neorealistic films screened in the 50's, the Western film, etc.

Convents asks whether these films should be considered when thinking of the purpose of the archive within a local context, alongside the local post-colonial productions? That is to say, an understanding of the images that early African filmakers were exposed to, in some way provides an understanding of their own approach to filmmaking, and in turn their cultural influences that pervade all aspects of life. When talking of the diverse cultural influences, Convents gives as an example Papa Wemba's musical influences from the rumba, and his early exposure to the music of Luis Mariano.



Convents provided an exhaustive list of key organisations that have been involved in the archival of African film, FIAF, FIAT, URTNA, UNESCO to mention a few. However the successes of these organisations in prioritising archiving, would seem is dependant on finance and access to technologies that allow for the digital storage of these films, as well as sourcing the films themselves.

Convents' examples from the DRC point at two key problems with the current state of play in archiving African film: firstly the need of local archives for the local, and secondly the lack of interest by Western archives in post-colonial film, both as historical evidence and as a cultural narrative.


------------------

Keith Shiri, director of London's African film festival, "Africa at the Pictures", proceeded Convents with a brief personal account of his experience of African film, and a sample screening of the variety of work emerging on the continent ranging from Nollywood to higher production value "Relentless" see below:

RELENTLESS from Fortproject on Vimeo.

You can read more about this film by Andy Amadi Okoroafor at this blog:
Dodge and Burn

or go directly to the films official website:
clamfilms


Keith Shiri's presented his current project; the setting up of a UK based distribution company for African film which will be officially launching towards the end of the year. He believes that this will act as a platform to ensure that African filmmakers interests are best served and to promote African film in the UK.

Although the title of the scheduled talk was "African Film and Documentary : The Contemporary Scene", Mr Shiri's talked veered away from the topic, and focused more on the workings of the distribution company. It did not deliver the expected overview or flavour of contemporary African film or documentary, and was dissapointing to a degree.

The setting up of an official distribution company was met with support as it is clear that African filmmakers face an increasingly difficult task in disseminating their films to larger audiences. However there was little further discussion on what the greater implications of distribution:
such as creating audiences,
where they intend to screen the films,
what selection criteria they use for programming,
what are the problems African filmmakers face,
what are the current emergent technologies and how they are impacting on distribution, such as DVD or DV?

Although Mr Shiri evidently carries a knowledge of the contemporary landscape of African film, he was not clear in identifying some of these key issues.

------------------

Prof. Vivien Birkette-Smith's paper on film as historical evidence, and film as history raised some interesting salient observations about the uses of the moving image by the historian. Here he identifies three key ways that historians engage with film; film as evidence, film in history, film as history.

The questions that were raised here presented the difficulties that historians face when turning to the moving image as history, such as the possibility of error, oversimplification, a lack of context. He also provides the counter position in defense of film stating that it can draw attention to 'uncomfortable truths' and reveal a sense of history.

Birkette-Smith provides ample sources of literature in this field, and developed his arguement thoroughly, presenting a strong case for the possibility of seeing the uses of different types of film as history in history.

animation theory... the limits of Cholodenko / or limiting the limitless

the observations below are still work in progress and do not reflect the extent of my arguement, nor that of Cholodenko's writings... it is if you like intial musings on this book - with probably more to follow....


The Illusion of Life II, Alan Cholodenko's second publication, is an attempt to address or re-address the perceived lack of critical theoretical literature in this field. The premise of Cholodenko's argument posits that it can only be through post-modernist discourses that any true attempt at theorising on animation can take place.

Although Cholodenko correctly identifies that problems associated with animations peripheral position in relation to "traditional" film theory, and other media - his focus on the pervasive-ness of animation in contemporary visual culture lends itself to becoming all encompassing of any media/ or art. He argues that as animated technology predated and informed film, theoretical positions should see all film (and other forms) as animations. Therefore rather than animation being subservient to film, and lesser than, in actual fact the reverse is true.

This position is not a new idea, and echoes the preoccupations of Cholodenko's contemporaries, whom he proceeds to critique for their limited view of the form. However although the premise is correct Cholodenko's limitless paradigm, applying the term animation to refer to any visual media, makes it impossible to begin to address the specific details of this medium.

He frames most of his argument by claiming that he draws from Derrida, Freud, Baudrillard, and other postmodernist thinking, but fails to specifically identify which aspects of these writings are used to inform how he theorises animation.

I suppose my personal biggest bone of contention with Cholodenko's 100 page introduction to his book, is his repeated claim

"The theorizing of the first (theorizing film as a form of animation) at once calls for the re-thinking of all aspects o film through animation and opens the door to thinking animation beyond film, including theorising all other art and media as forms of animation - drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, TV, video, computer, new media etc."

Herein lies the paradoxical position of Cholodenko, it is apparent that other art forms (as he lists) are NOT animation ALL of the time, and therefore it would be fair to say that animation draws from the artistic practices such as those listed above, and employs aspects of each medium, within the realm of the animated form.
The animation retains qualities to it that are particular and specific to the medium, of course it pervades into various forms and vice-versa, however I feel that Cholodenko's argument is too ambitious in its grand claims.

The risk Cholodenko's discourse faces, is the inability to realise and identify the aesthetic formal qualities that do make the experience of watching an animation still to date, different to watching a film, or looking at a painting, etc. His examples of cases whereby animation appears (or as he argues IS) evident in contemporary visual media whether in Kill Bill, The Matrix, Computer Gaming, etc is true, but inorder to identify this as such one needs to be able to define what it is we are looking at. Consequentially if we know WHAT animation is, then we can begin to see HOW it appears in our visual culture. The reverse arguement, that Cholodenko puts forward, that all visual media are animation, does not move as any closer to identifying what we are looking at, and how it bears similarities and differences to other forms.

When Cholodenko refutes Richard Leskosky's heralding of animation studies as a new discipline, he defines the notion of the discipline as something that requires coherence, stability, a state of oneness. Here Cholodenko is self-contradictory: positioning the notion of discipline as if it were a singular undifferentiated body of knowledge. Considering Cholodenko's advocation of the postmodern, this definition hardly resembles a postmodernist stance; that acknowledging the possibility of a variety of discourses, positionings, forces and tensions, within one discipline.

How and why is this relevant to the study of African animation?
If contemporary writing on animation theory has been limited or limiting (as Cholodenko states), then writings on African animation within theoretical paradigms of the moving image and visual culture are practically non-existant.
My own approach to discussing African animation within a theoretical framing, has had to be one that draws from analogous modes of opperandum when discussing the image, moving or otherwise, and visual cultures.

In short, although I agree with Cholodenko in his identifying the limitations of animation theory and in his mission to promote animation as a the medium that superceeds and consequentially informs all others (here I would put a clause and state MOVING image) - I cannot negate that the versatility of its aesthetic form draws from other practices that inturn inform HOW we understand and read the image. Its context of production and distribution, the implications of the technology, and the speciic cultural underpinnings that make African animation what it is today, are all relevant to my understanding of it.

In a sense, I too draw from postmodernist thinking, drawing webs of links, forces and tensions, that make the artefact reside in this visual culture space. My method has been one that looks at anthropological literature, post-colonial theory, media theory (to an extent), film theory, genre, the relationship between form, practice and aesthetic, art theory, iconography or otherwise, etc - all this in an attempt to understand what makes animation unique, and what makes African animation (used loosely here, but meaning different examples of animation from various African countries) unique and unlike its Western counterpart....

The task at hand... a hard one that makes deciphering the subtleties all the more difficult, more so if I was to approach the task utilising Cholodenko's position.

For more information on Cholodenko's position you can read his article on the Animation Studies On-line Journal

track... Yancouba Dieme

Track is a 3 week project produced all over France by 4 visiting student directors in 2007.The directors are Tanvi Bhatia (India), Anatoily Lavrenishin ( Ukraine), Yancouba Dieme ( Senegal) and Paola Guigou ( France)

dak'art

animation in Senegal...

Little is known about the emergence of animation in Dakar, Senegal. Most hits for a search on animation in Senegal will point you to the company Pictoon that ran the animated series Kabongo Le Griot, but that has now folded. The local artists that were trained in-house by the company acquired the skills of traditional animators, and some of them have gone on to direct their own work. Recently on the radar is the young, Yancouba Dieme - who also has a blog and it would seem is currently undertaking his studies at Supinfocom. His appearance on the festival circuit is evidenced at FCAT African Film Festival, Tarifa , with his stop-motion film Champion 2005.
An other contemporary,Piniang - as he is known (Ibrahima Niang)- shares a similar work background at Pictoon, with evidence of commissioned animated work, as well as collaboration and participation on UNESCO's Africa Animated Project. His work includes referencing his own paintings and the use of found objects. He also featured in the 8th Biennale of Contemporary African Art at IFA (Berlin)
For more information on Piniang's work see the article on Africultures

One early Pictoon Animation

on politics and animation in Kenya

Kenyan animation has recently been on the increase with evidence of animated shorts popping on the web through distribution mechanisms like youtube. Of interest is perhaps the emergence of political satire as a format, perhaps with links to political cartooning as the in the case of cartoonist GADO's recent puppet and 2D animation - The XYZ Show. Other examples can be seen on the Kenyanimation blog with Ihira's 2D animation "The Stated Opinionn Show" that follows a similar format and also uses political satire as its content. However trailing through U-tube one also comes across various other little animated skits that are akin to political cartooning using the same visual devices here are a couple of examples from Politoons






These animations may be inspired by the news/political spoofs on local stations like KTN's News Shot and CTV's News Aside, that are satirising local politics.





and finally Kenyan's interest in politics takes on any form as this article by the BBC on a inventive young political cartoonist shows...
Kenya's Busstop Cartoonist

nigerian artist and animator...

Kenneth Shofela Coker's work is inspiring, retaining a strong sense of an illustrative aesthetic that is derivative of African landscapes and imagery... check out his blog! Really exciting stuff.

african animation online articles...

With the recent attention that African animation is receiving globally, more and more online journals and animation websites are directly there attention towards the continent. With this in mind one can read up on the recent news from the continent at the following links...

Animation World Network
AnimationSA

Africa in Motion
AnimationSA2

also worth noting is the presence of animation in recent African film Festivals...

Africa in Motion / Cambridge African Film Festival / Africa at the Pictures, London

animation in Nigeria

although there has been little evidence of the developments of animation in Nigeria, I have been kindly contacted by Lanre Oluwafemi, a 29 year old 2D Animator who currently has a registered company called Lafem Animation. His work can be viewed on you tube, here is a sample...



Another animation in development that is using 3D Computer generated technology, Nigerian Legend - by prominentcease.com




Pick Ya Phone



on Nigerian politics...



check out musician/ animator who makes his own music videos Mak-Jay



The animation reel of The Frame Factory, an animation company based in Lagos Nigeria...

world animation blog...

One of the animations featured on the animationblog, from South Africa
"Sea Orchestra" by Shy the Sun



Sea Orchestra from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

more from Shy the Sun

Bakers: The Making of from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

Africa in Motion Film Festival

This year the Africa in Motion Festival, Edinburgh, will be screening a collection of animated shorts from the Continent. These include amongst others, some shorts from the Africa Animated UNESCO project, JM Kibushi's films, and J. Trowell's Beyond Freedom. The lineup was intended to provide a diverse overview of techniques, aesthetics and narrative content, that stems from different African countries. With this in mind, one can see anything from 3D Computer Generated animations, to hand-drawn or stop-motion animations. A more detailed article about the work can be found on the site: http://www.africa-in-motion.org.uk/