Topics in Media Theory & History: Animation of and Through Technology

Animation is a central concept to understand the interaction between culture, technology and cultural techniques. Film is a major case for a technologically based cultural practice. We will follow the anthropological concepts of animation from animism in Freud and Lévi-Strauss through the technical use from dolls to robots and animation/animated films. Aim is to better understand the relation between animation of the inanimate and the technical enhanced animation of the spectator and user of technology.