Aline Helmcke
on motion-drawing
Lines Fiction: Aline, you have been part of the Lines Fiction project for a long time now, in an interview you presented your working method on this website, and you also were part of the Lines Fiction presentation in the Zeichenräume II exhibition at Kunsthalle Hamburg. Now, to the great delight of all of us, you are running a blog called motion-drawing. Your project names the medium drawing in the title, so is it that you focus on artistic approaches that translate the hand drawing into the moving image?
Aline Helmcke Yes that’s right Bettina, I’ve been interested for a long time in how artists approach the moving image, that is, translate their drawings into film – be it hand-drawn analog or digital drawings, drawings on, with or without paper, programmed lines – it all depends on the respective artistic approach. This is what interests me, because for many auteur filmmakers the image-making process is the starting point from which they develop their film ideas and their own strategies for animation. Another aspect I am investigating is the relationship of the animated drawing to the dramaturgy of the film. For in the films I am interested in, the drawing is not a purely aesthetic matter. It actively shapes the course of the film. So I presume that there is a relationship between the drawing process and the narrative core of a film, and I look at that more closely. An important means are the interviews with the artists* that I present on my blog. Their way of filmmaking seems to differ in many ways from processes characteristic for bigger film productions (such as animated feature films or series). But it is worth taking a closer look, because both drawn auteur films and commercial animated film productions are not always set up in the same way.
Lines Fiction: You studied animation at the Royal College of Art in London and then taught experimental animation for a many years at the Bauhaus University in Weimar in the media art/media design program. Do you miss the academic discourse around contemporary time-based drawing and drawn animation in the art world?
Aline Helmcke Yes, in my view this is a blind spot, especially in Germany. The term “drawn animation” still evokes a very specific drawing style and a very specific way of storytelling, even in the academic field. On the other hand, some animation professionals would not describe drawn films with an artistic approach as animations because they do not necessarily aim to create a realistic illusion of movement. It is amazing how little the art world and academia considers the artist drawn animation. This is especially true for experimental moving imagery, but also for contemporary drawn animations as a research subject.
Lines Fiction: True! As a research subject and in public collections. Although moving imagery has become the standard in everyday media in the 21st century, animation as an extension of drawing is hardly represented in the graphic collections of the museums. Drawing is still almost exclusively about paper, even though artistic animation has a history of more than a hundred years. That’s truly a blank spot.
In addition to interviews, your blog also features essays on artist positions –
Aline Helmcke The interviews are an important part of the blog, and in this respect they add to other platforms like linesfiction or Edwin Rostron’s Edge of Frame, another superb blog about experimental animation. In addition, the essays tackle the films’ particular qualities. Moreover, there is the artist directory and event listings for exhibitions, film screenings and conferences that are of interest in this context. They have recently been supplemented by curated film screenings and events in which I was involved – such as most recently the conference of the AG Animation “Dimensions in Animation” in Lucerne or the film event “Drawing in Motion” at /tmp in Minden, where linesfiction and motion-drawing appeared together for the first time.
Lines Fiction: Regarding the network around the artistic animations themselves, do you have wishes and visions?
Aline Helmcke It is very enriching to present the artists and their work as well as my discoveries in this field – although I still see myself more as an artist than as a curator or an academic. The most beautiful thing is to realise that there is a real interest for these films and that the filmmakers are open-minded towards my ideas. So, besides continuing the blog, my motivation is to go offline and show the films on the big screen, because this is where they belong! In cinemas and art spaces. I would like to develop other events together with colleagues, which might not be so easy to carry out alone. …let’s see, I’m very curious and looking forward to what’s gonna happen next!
Lines Fiction: and for everybody, who wants to learn more about your ever new project, here’s the link: