Here are three animations that you will encounter during this course unit:
Dimensions of a dialogue, Jan Svankmeyer (1982) https://vimeo.com/17034946
Der Lauf Der Dinge, Fischli & Weiss (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7tpMk44otU
Swimmer, Jane Cheadle 2004,
https://vimeo.com/32681531

Jan Svankmajer

surrealist humour.

Peter Fischli David Weiss

1. Research one of these practitioners online and write a brief professional biography of them. Try to avoid using a list of dated achievements, instead try to think about the kind of work that they make in general and where it might fit within the broad range of contemporary animated practice.
2. Pick one of the animations and briefly describe it.
   Consider its appearance by looking at it and trying to describe what you see. What are the different elements within the work and how do these elements work together? What do you think the work is trying to communicate? Imagine you’re describing the work to somebody over the telephone. Try to do this in no more than 50 words.
   Technically, what you’re doing here is analysing the formal visual language of an image. This is known as visual research or, sometimes visual analysis. Writing can be a useful tool in visual analysis, but you can also annotate images with notes.
3. Using the same film, briefly write about how you relate to this work.
   Do you like it or hate it, find it intriguing, influential or outdated, and if so, why? Does the work connect to wider ideas or other creative practitioners? In other words, what’s your opinion on this work. Again, try to do this in no more than 50 words.
   What you’re doing here is being reflective by considering your own relationship to the work, as well as contextualising artist’s work by thinking about how it might connect to wider ideas or practices in some way. Don’t worry about ‘getting it wrong’ or ‘missing the point’. Perhaps your reflection raises more questions than answers. Remember that in the arts there are no definitively right or wrong answers, just different opinions – some more authoritative than others.