Papers by Eric Herhuth
4. The Exceptional Dialectic of the Fantastic and the Mundane (The Incredibles)
Coraline
When Neil Gaiman completed his manuscript for Coraline , he asked his agent to send it to Henry S... more When Neil Gaiman completed his manuscript for Coraline , he asked his agent to send it to Henry Selick. Gaiman appreciated Selick's stop-motion work and believed he was the most suitable director for animating the story. Its dark imagery suited Selick's style, as did the narrative's investment in a child's bravery and independence. 1 Released in 2009, the movie occupies a signifi cant position within the transitional era of digital cinema or what some scholars call post-cinema. 2 It also established LAIKA animation studio as a popular brand known for stop-motion feature fi lms. Th e movie off ers a fantasy pleasing to parents and children in its emphasis on a child's heroism and the restoration of family, which also makes it conducive to psychoanalytic readings. And, as Gaiman's choice of director indicates, the focus on uncanny aesthetics, animation and puppets invites reading the movie as a commentary on developments in technology, especially those that aff ect creativity and ideas about what is alive, intelligent and autonomous. In an attempt to think about how these events, themes and aesthetics interweave, this essay examines the movie through one of its overarching technological themes: namely, the fearinducing possibility that losing one's identity is comparable to becoming a puppet. Th is idea is central to the story of Coraline , which follows a girl who has recently moved with her family across the United States to a new home. Coping with isolation, the young Coraline meets a series of strange neighbours and fi nds a small door in her house that leads to another world created and controlled by her 'Other Mother' . Th e Other Mother looks like Coraline's real mother except for a pair of button eyes. In this Other World Coraline meets alternative versions of her father and neighbours, all of whom have button eyes and, to Coraline, seem preferable to their normal-world counterparts. Aft er Coraline ventures to the Other World multiple times, the Other Mother invites her to stay but
Pixar and the Aesthetic Imagination
Life, Love, and Programming: The Culture and Politics of WALL-E and Pixar Computer Animation
Cinema Journal, 2014
Given Pixar's initial standardization of computer-animated feature fi lms, this ar- ticle exa... more Given Pixar's initial standardization of computer-animated feature fi lms, this ar- ticle examines the studio's relation to digital modernization and to animation's legacy of subversion through an analysis of WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). The fi lm exemplifi es themes of modernization and subversion, and it demonstrates how a playful alienation of naturalized norms can distract from the narrative's perpetuation of specifi c cultural values and practices. The narrative of WALL-E gives essentialist status to liberal desire and heterosexuality through robot characters presented in juxtaposition to consumer- ist, infantile, human characters. The portrayal of these sociocultural norms within the fi ctional space of the fi lm (both on Earth and in outer space) is compounded by the playful space of animation itself. Pixar's computer animation, if represented by WALL-E, presents itself as free for the essence of technology and the human to emerge but simul- taneously functions as a space for precise control that is a corollary to the proliferation of programmed, algorithmic media.
Cooking like a Rat: Sensation and Politics in Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille
Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 2014
The film Ratatouille appeared in 2007 to win acclaim from popular and critical audiences alike. T... more The film Ratatouille appeared in 2007 to win acclaim from popular and critical audiences alike. This computer animated film made by the global cultural machine Disney-Pixar explores how sensorial events, such as fine dining and physical comedy, contribute to radical changes to communities and individuals. It is a film that presents representations of sensation and explores how sensation disrupts representation.1 Importantly, the film, like many Pixar productions, comments on the classical Disney animation tradition, but also participates in contemporary modernization, or the cultural transition to new media and rapidly advancing intelligent technologies. Additionally, Ratatouille intersects with political theory that considers the role of sensation and representation in everyday life. The film makes explicit three themes: “anyone can cook,” “the new needs friends,” and “change is nature.” Through these themes the film overtly presents a democratic system based on sensation, vulnerability, and creativity. The film’s explicit concern with introducing and defending “the new”2 can be read as a political allegory for how to preserve heterological elements within democracy. The category of “the new” also pertains to Pixar’s position at the forefront of an expanding animation industry. By examining the film’s three explicit themes, I will argue here that Ratatouille contributes to Pixar’s commentary on and participation in contemporary modernization by showing how sensation, vulnerability, and creative apparatuses contribute to new modes of existence within a democracy. The definition of democracy most appropriate to the world of Ratatouille belongs to Jacques Rancière. Democracy, for Rancière, is not simply a state ruled by the many or by a sovereign collective of representatives, but more precisely involves the activity of disrupting what he calls the police order and altering a given distribution of the sensible through instances of dissensus. The police order refers to the forces sustaining the hierarchical organization of society. The partitioning or distribution of the sensible is defined as “the implicit law governing the sensible order that parcels out places and forms of participation in a common world by first establishing the modes of perception within which these are inscribed;” it determines who or what is perceptible.3 Dissensus refers to events that interrupt a given distribution of the sensible and enable a reconfiguration of perception, what is perceptible, and thereby the coordinates of any political debate. In democracy, dissensus neutralizes the logic of the arkhè, i.e. when “the exercise of power is anticipated in the capacity to exercise it, and this capacity in turn is verified by its exercise” (9); in other words, because you can, you will, and because you did, you can. This logic legitimates hierarchy
The Politics of Animation and the Animation of Politics
Animation, 2016
This article demonstrates how political inquiry can guide the study of animation. It proceeds by ... more This article demonstrates how political inquiry can guide the study of animation. It proceeds by investigating animation’s minor status within film and media studies and then the expansion of its definition and conceptual associations. This expansion has philosophical implications, which are explored in this article through the work of Jeff Malpas and Bruno Latour. By examining how these philosophers discuss animation and animated examples – puppets, in particular – this article demonstrates a shift from thinking of animation as expressing mastery and illusion to thinking of animation as expressing transformation, heterogeneous action, and distributed agency. This shift challenges philosophy’s opposition to rhetoric, poetics, and technology, and in turn challenges modern binaries between nature and culture, science and politics, reality and artifice, facts and fetishes, and it presents the world as animated. The author argues that this idea need not obfuscate the many different movi...
Overloading, Incongruity, Animation: A Theory of Caricature and Caricatural Logic in Contemporary Media
Theory & Event, 2018
Abstract:This essay considers how caricature aesthetics, which feature overloading, incongruity, ... more Abstract:This essay considers how caricature aesthetics, which feature overloading, incongruity, and animation, undermine caricature functionality, which includes economical representation, the perpetuation of stereotypes, and the affirmation of pre-held beliefs and opinions. Analyzing this contradictory logic assists in theorizing contemporary media environments that suffer from “hypernormalization,” that rely on the condensation and acceleration of information, and that explicitly use caricatural logics in political satire, news media, and social media more broadly. This essay’s analysis of caricature theories and practices builds on what Wittgenstein referred to as “seeing as” and demonstrates the critical value of reflecting on perceptual and conceptual entanglement.
Society for Animation Studies, 2021
2020 Award: Vincenzo Maselli, University of Rome
2019 Award: Eric Herhuth, Tulane University
This essay considers how caricature aesthetics, which feature overloading, incongruity, and anima... more This essay considers how caricature aesthetics, which feature overloading, incongruity, and animation, undermine caricature functionality, which includes economical representation, the perpetuation of stereotypes, and the affirmation of pre-held beliefs and opinions. Analyzing this contradictory logic assists in theorizing contemporary media environments that suffer from “hypernormalization,” that rely on the condensation and acceleration of information, and that explicitly use caricatural logics in political satire, news media, and social media more broadly. This essay’s analysis of caricature theories and practices builds on what Wittgenstein referred to as “seeing as” and demonstrates the critical value of reflecting on perceptual and conceptual entanglement.
This article demonstrates how political inquiry can guide the study of animation. It proceeds by ... more This article demonstrates how political inquiry can guide the study of animation. It proceeds by investigating animation's minor status within film and media studies and then the expansion of its definition and conceptual associations. This expansion has philosophical implications, which are explored in this article through the work of Jeff Malpas and Bruno Latour. By examining how these philosophers discuss animation and animated examples – puppets, in particular – this article demonstrates a shift from thinking of animation as expressing mastery and illusion to thinking of animation as expressing transformation, heterogeneous action, and distributed agency. This shift challenges philosophy's opposition to rhetoric, poetics, and technology, and in turn challenges modern binaries between nature and culture, science and politics, reality and artifice, facts and fetishes, and it presents the world as animated. The author argues that this idea need not obfuscate the many different moving-image technologies that have been designated animation or cinema, and contends that some of these, such as animated cartoons, directly engage the confusion about animation caused by modern binaries. This argument proposes studying animation through multiple modes or lenses in order to prevent dominant realist modes of inquiry from stifling the uncertainty and pluralism that are central to animation's capacity for political expression.
Cinema Journal, 2014
Given Pixar's initial standardization of computer-animated feature fi lms, this article examines ... more Given Pixar's initial standardization of computer-animated feature fi lms, this article examines the studio's relation to digital modernization and to animation's legacy of subversion through an analysis of WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). The fi lm exemplifi es themes of modernization and subversion, and it demonstrates how a playful alienation of naturalized norms can distract from the narrative's perpetuation of specifi c cultural values and practices. The narrative of WALL-E gives essentialist status to liberal desire and heterosexuality through robot characters presented in juxtaposition to consumerist, infantile, human characters. The portrayal of these sociocultural norms within the fi ctional space of the fi lm (both on Earth and in outer space) is compounded by the playful space of animation itself. Pixar's computer animation, if represented by WALL-E, presents itself as free for the essence of technology and the human to emerge but simultaneously functions as a space for precise control that is a corollary to the proliferation of programmed, algorithmic media.
Quarterly Review of Film and Video, May 2014
The film Ratatouille appeared in 2007 to win acclaim from popular and critical audiences alike. T... more The film Ratatouille appeared in 2007 to win acclaim from popular and critical audiences alike. This computer animated film made by the global cultural machine Disney-Pixar explores how sensorial events, such as fine dining and physical comedy, contribute to radical changes to communities and individuals. It is a film that presents representations of sensation and explores how sensation disrupts representation. 1 Importantly, the film, like many Pixar productions, comments on the classical Disney animation tradition, but also participates in contemporary modernization, or the cultural transition to new media and rapidly advancing intelligent technologies. Additionally, Ratatouille intersects with political theory that considers the role of sensation and representation in everyday life. The film makes explicit three themes: "anyone can cook," "the new needs friends," and "change is nature." Through these themes the film overtly presents a democratic system based on sensation, vulnerability, and creativity. The film's explicit concern with introducing and defending "the new" 2 can be read as a political allegory for how to preserve heterological elements within democracy. The category of "the new" also pertains to Pixar's position at the forefront of an expanding animation industry. By examining the film's three explicit themes, I will argue here that Ratatouille contributes to Pixar's commentary on and participation in contemporary modernization by showing how sensation, vulnerability, and creative apparatuses contribute to new modes of existence within a democracy.
Book Reviews by Eric Herhuth
Animation: an interdisciplinary journal
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Papers by Eric Herhuth
Book Reviews by Eric Herhuth