Animated wonderworlds / Animierte Wunderwelten

Animated Wonderworlds (AWW) developed from Buchan’s major research programme of ‘Pervasive Animation’ as a cultural phenomenon in visual culture, occupying, informing and politicising many public, professional and private spaces. AWW interrogated how animation infiltrates everyday life via new media platforms and screens in the home, the studio and the workplace that use animation in a wide range of interfaces to design, instruct, entertain, datamine and influence. AWW built on the Museum for Design Zurich’s Trickraum: Spacetricks (2005), also proposed and conceptualised by Buchan and co-curated with Janser. Thirty-six ‘primi inter pares’ works expressed pioneering lineages, game changers, paradigm shifts, and refinements in development of genres, styles, and design. The rigorous methodology was grounded in how the invisible and intangible can be technologically and visually mediated, exploring the historical and cinematic impact of analogue and digital animation and its relationship to imagination and the phenomenal tangible world. Buchan’s curatorial concept and research innovation centred on enlightening visitors about the significance of animation they encounter: from vernacular and didactic to narrative, abstraction or documentary. It created and promoted interdisciplinary knowledge about animation production, distribution and consumption through a museal architectural design and information strategy. A continuum transitioning from fictional narrative features, performance, science, commerce, popular culture, to data visualizations and non-narrative interactive works generated understanding of social, cultural and ethical enrichment and consequences of an increasingly technologically mediated society. Exhibition concept developed and led by Buchan and jointly curated with Janser included exemplar research, selection, installation and publication design and execution. They shared intellectual ownership of the project, including a 208-page book parenthesised by a photo essay with humans interacting with and affected by technologies using animation. Buchan authored ‘Animating the Human’ that examined animation through technology, virtuosity, and enchantment, aesthetics and empathy, digital abstraction, engagement, and serious play.

A multi-component output that includes:
(1) Buchan, Suzanne and Janser, Andres (2015) Animated Wonderworlds / Animierte Wunderwelten Exhibition. [Show/Exhibition]
(2) Buchan, Suzanne, Janser, Andres and Emmerling, Anna (2015) Animierte Wunderwelten / Animated Wonderworlds. Buchan, Suzanne and Janser, Andres, eds. Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. ISBN 9783907265062. [Book]