Agora Speaker Series: “Animated States: The Aesthetics, Politics, and Technology of Soviet and German Cel Animation, 1930-1940”

The project compares industrial drawn non-commercial or art animation produced in Germany and the Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s. It considers the historical context of the industrial technological turn that took place at that time in German and Soviet animation production, and the animated films, that were produced as a result of this turn, within two discourses: those of politics and aesthetics. Through the analysis of how the industrial cel animation of the period negotiated the political and aesthetic discourses, how it adapted to them, and interpreted them, the project also considers broader questions about relationships among media, technology, politics and aesthetics, and advances an understanding of animation as a specific medium. 

The presentation focuses on the aesthetics of Soviet animation. In particular, Olga will talk about the transformation of the methods of production of 2-D animation that Soviet animation went through in the 1930s, about industrialization of animation production, and how and why foundation of the animation studio Soiuzmul’tfil’m dramatically changed animation production in the Soviet Union; Olga will also discuss the cultural and artistic context of the Soviet Union in the 1930s that was determined by the establishment of the artistic method of socialist realism, and, through a case study of the animated film The Humpbacked Horse(dir. Ivan Ivanov-Vano, 1947), Olga will analyze the specificity of aesthetics of Soviet animation of the period.