The Digital Space 2004 

Digital animation means different things to different people. As well as describing the tools of an animator can adopt, it can also describe a particular look, rhythm or feel of a piece of moving image artwork. The zone between 'animation' and 'effects' is hazy. Increasing numbers of works are being created on computers by people who sometimes express surprise that they would be considered animators at all, or even filmmakers. The terms of reference are diverse and contradictory: digitally animated characters are simultaneously criticised for being unlifelike and heralded as the templates for contemporary design aesthetics. The new artform may be amorphous, but there's a common feature that characterises nearly every digital work you see. It's the way movement is no longer governed by our conventional understanding of the third dimension. Tradition animation broached this boundary long ago, but digital animation exists almost entirely outside of it. The abstraction of space, the way it is created and filled, the way it is given depth and the way we are drawn through it: this is something we take increasingly for granted in our moving image art and entertainment. If the digital revolution means any single thing in animation, it may be this breathtaking liberation from ordinary notions of three-dimensionality. This rich collection of films and video art pieces explore this notion in a range of different ways – we invite you to step into the Digital Space. — MT