This thesis interrogates the ways in which the body-centred practices of women film artists embrace the materiality of direct animation in order to foreground gendered, subjective positions. Through the researcher's own creative practice, it investigates how this mode of film-making, in which the artist works through physical engagement with the film materials and the material processes of film-making, might be understood as feminine and/or feminist. Direct animation foregrounds touch as the primary sense. Its practices are process-based and highly experimental, because images are made through the agency of the body operating within restrictive parameters, making results difficult to predict or control with precision. For these reasons, direct animation has not been embraced by mainstream, narrative-focused, studio-based models of production, unlike other forms of two and three dimensional animation. It has remained a specialist area for the individual artist and auteur, and, to date, there is a paucity of commentary about direct animation practices, and what exists has been dominated by male voices. In order to develop ideas about the ways in which women represent themselves in an expanded film-making praxis that is focused on the body and materiality of process, this PhD inquiry, encompassing a body of films with written contextualisation, is situated in the context of the direct animation practices of three artists (Caroline Leaf, Annabel Nicolson, and Margaret Tait); and informed by conceptual frameworks provided by Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva and Hélène Cixous. This thesis proposes, via interaction between these three axes of research, that women film artists, operating independently, are able to create a female imaginary that represents women and is recognised by them, by constructing positions of practice outside the dominant symbolic modes of patriarchy, which evolve through the maternal body and the materialities of the feminine.

The goal of this thesis is to describe the influence of technological development on the ways in which the moving image is created and to introduce forms that this medium attains in the area of live audio-visual performances. The theoretical study approaches this topic as a historical overview of technical image, focusing on its connections with music. It thus observes specific creative processes of the avant-garde film and music video and subsequently puts them into the context of current types of moving picture created as a result of software codes. Based on the definitions of digital media's key principles, a theoretical basis is set up and then applied to the description of contemporary forms of audio-visual performances. These principles are also used for the definition of the features of software tools, numeric representations of which make it possible to work with any type of an image as with a set of mathematical functions. The main result of this thesis is thus a presentation of creative possibilities of today's image, which has - thanks to digital devices - disengaged itself from its previous technical limitation and become a fully dynamic element that can be created and modified in real time.

Two years after Dutch émigré Andries Deinum was fired from the University of Southern California in 1955 for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee, he moved to Portland, Oregon to teach film courses through the Portland Extension Center. By 1969 he had become integral to the local film community and had formed Portland State University's Center for the Moving Image (CMI), where he and Tom Taylor taught film history, criticism, and production for the next thirteen years. Although CMI was eliminated in 1981 as part of PSU's financial exigency, CMI's teachers and students have been a vital part of the thriving film community in Portland since its foundation. A key former student and figure in Portland's film community, Dr. Brooke Jacobson credits Deinum, Taylor, and CMI for laying the foundation for the Northwest Film Center (co-founded by Jacobson in 1971 as the Northwest Film Study Center). Through archival research and oral history methodology, this thesis pieces together Andries Deinum's role in the development of film education in the United States and the mark he left on Portland's cultural landscape, specifically the city's vital and thriving cinematic community.

Cette thèse de doctorat examine comment la mobilité peut devenir la base d’un processus de création dans le champ de l’image en mouvement. Je propose un cadre de travail dans lequel l’ouverture d’esprit caractéristique de la mobilité volontaire est associée à une ouverture du langage artistique. En tant qu’ensemble de déplacements physiques et mentaux entre différentes géographies et entre différentes cultures, langues et traditions, la mobilité peut déterminer à la fois une expérience personnelle et une production artistique directement liées à l’improvisation et au hasard. Cette forme de pensée nomade, ouverte à l’improvisation, à l’imprévisibilité et au risque affecte aussi les formes des œuvres, également ouvertes à divers modes d’exposition et différentes interprétations. L’étude nous révèle comment les frontières géopolitiques et artistiques se stimulent et s’affectent mutuellement et dialectiquement. Elle nous incite à réfléchir sur la question de la mobilité en même temps qu’elle participe à l’élargissement des frontières de l’image en mouvement. Autour des notions de mobilité et de création en contexte, j’examine dans cette recherche basée sur ma pratique et celle d’autres artistes quels sont les enjeux des différentes étapes du travail, depuis la conception jusqu’à la présentation finale des œuvres, qu’il s’agisse de films, de vidéos et d’installations. En articulant les dispositifs de création et de diffusion dans le but de combiner simultanément le processus de réalisation de l’œuvre et l’expérience du déplacement, une esthétique particulière émerge, basée sur la mobilité et l’expérience directe du monde. / This doctoral dissertation examines how mobility can become the basis for creative process in the field of moving image. I propose a framework where the open-mindedness characteristic of voluntary mobility is associated with an openness of artistic language. As a set of physical and psychic displacements among different geographies as well as among different cultures, languages and traditions, mobility can shape both personal experience and artistic production directly related to improvisation and chance. This nomadic form of thinking, open to improvisation, unpredictability and risk, also affects the forms of artworks that are in turn open to several ways of display as well as different interpretations. This study reveals how geopolitical and artistic borders stimulate and affect each other reciprocally and dialectically. It encourages us to reflect on the issue of mobility while simultaneously participating in the expansion of the moving image’s boundaries. Through a practice-based research around notions of mobility and creation in context, I examine embedded elements of different stages of film, video and installation production, using personal artworks and a body of references. By articulating certain devices for creation and display in order to simultaneously combine the process of the artwork’s production with the experience of the displacement, a particular aesthetic emerges, based on mobility and a direct experience of the world. / Esta tese de doutorado examina como a mobilidade pode se tornar a base para um processo criativo no campo da imagem em movimento. Eu proponho um contexto de trabalho em que a abertura de espírito característica da mobilidade voluntária é associada a uma abertura da linguagem artística. Como um conjunto de deslocamentos físicos e mentais entre diferentes geografias, bem como entre diferentes culturas, línguas e tradições, a mobilidade pode determinar tanto uma experiência pessoal quanto uma produção artística diretamente relacionadas à improvisação e ao acaso. Esta forma de pensar nômade, aberta à improvisação, à imprevisibilidade e ao risco também afeta as formas das obras, igualmente abertas a vários modos de exposição e diferentes interpretações. O estudo revela como as fronteiras geopolíticas e artísticas se estimulam e se afetam reciprocamente e dialeticamente. Ele nos encoraja a refletir sobre a questão da mobilidade, ao mesmo tempo em que colabora para expandir os limites da imagem em movimento. Em torno das noções de mobilidade et de criação em contexto, nessa pesquisa prático-teórica, eu examino quais são os elementos incorporados nas diferentes fases de produção de filmes, vídeos e instalações a partir de obras pessoais e de um conjunto de referências. Ao articular os dispositivos criação e de difusão com o objetivo de combinar simultaneamente o processo de realização da obra e a experiência do deslocamento, uma estética particular emerge, baseada na mobilidade e na experiência direta do mundo.

I takt med coronaviruspandemin arbetade myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB) med att utveckla information om coronaviruset. En del av den nya informationen publicerades på krisinformation.se. Informationen som fanns på krisinformation.se var överlag textbaserad. I det här arbetet har jag utifrån ett kvalitativt förhållningssätt arbetat med att göra delar av den textbaserade informationen multimodal, men med särskild hänsyn till de med dyslexi. Syftet är att med en informationsvideo visualisera textbaserad information på ett multimodalt sätt. Målet med arbetet var att utforma ett gestaltningsförslag som informerar och engagerar betraktaren till att vilja bromsa takten som smittspridningen sprider sig på. I ett försök att uppnå syftet och målet utformades följande frågeställning: Hur tillgängliggörs information med illustrationer och animationer i en informationsvideo? Frågeställningen besvarades genom att samla empiri utifrån en ikonologisk analys av en befintlig informationsvideo. Vidare utformades ett gestaltningsförslag som testades vid två tillfällen via intervjuer. Vid det första tillfället testades en storyboard och vid det andra tillfället testades en informationsvideo. Vid utformandet av gestaltningsförslaget var kognitions- och retorik-teori av särskild stor betydelse.  Det främsta fyndet är att de med dyslexi inte verkar ha några större problem med att ta till sig information som kommuniceras med illustrationer, animationer och ljud i en informationsvideo. / In line with the coronavirus pandemic, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) worked to develop information about the coronavirus. Some of the new information was published on krisinformation.se. The information found on krisinformation.se was generally text-based. In this essay I have worked on making parts of the text-based information multimodal with a qualitative approach, but with a special attention to those with dyslexia. The purpose is to visualize text-based information in a multimodal way with an information video. The goal was to create a design proposal that can inform and engages the viewer to slow down the spread of infection. In order to achieve the purpose, the following question was designed: How is information made available with illustrations and animations in an information video? The question was answered by collecting empirical data based on an iconological analysis of an existing explainer video. Furthermore, I created a design proposal that was tested on two occasions via interviews. On the first occasion, a storyboard was tested and on the second occasion an information video was tested. When designing the design proposal, cognition- and rhetoric-theory was of particular importance.  The main finding is that those with dyslexia do not seem to have any major problems in acquiring information that is communicated with illustrations, animations and sounds in an information video.

Through creative and theoretical research, this practice-led PhD project investigates the conditions that facilitate embodied sensory awareness within digital inter-media installation. Central to this exploration are questions concerning ‘immersion.’ The research uses this term to describe a transformation in perception that allows us to shake off representational and symbolic meaning in favour of embodied, sensory and intuitive awareness within an installation space. Drawing from embodied memories of immersion in natural and spiritual environments, I consider the elements that contributed to these experiences and ask whether it is possible to create this sense of immersion in art. I then consider the elements that produce immersive, inter-media environments including space, sound, light, and projected moving images. Drawing on theoretical and artistic precedents, I propose a set of principles for producing a sense of embodied sensory immersion. The practical outcomes of the research - three digital inter-media installations included in the exhibition, in an other light - incorporate different combinations and treatments of these material elements to investigate and test the proposed principles.

7 Abstract This master's thesis engages moving images of contemporary art in order to sketch out certain ontological qualities of the digital image and imaginary, as they increasingly spill out of all fixed frames and fill the spaces between screens, contexts, and human and non-human agents. Following Steven Shaviro's observation that digital media brought about a completely "new regime" of mutable technical imaging often independent of any preceding "real" space, but instead able to produce its own space-time, this text treats moving images as performative world-shaping fictions with tangible traction on reality. Instead of understanding their growing proliferation in terms of the often-mourned disappeared correspondence to some previous reality, depth or truth, it suggests taking their fluidity as an opportunity to rethink the very divide placed between reality and fiction, as it continues to blur throughout our interactions with digital media, and to treat images not as mere representations but as material forces intensively active in the physical matter of the world, as well as in our own cognition. To articulate this irreducible materiality of digital image-fictions, the thesis weaves together on one hand respective philosophical concepts of François Laruelle and Gillese Deleuze and Félix Guattari -...