Crescendos of technique

The following review focuses on the 21st London International Animation Film Festival (LIAF). My motivation in surveying the festival was to test the waters of technological change through the introduction and evolution of digital technologies. What techniques remain, what has changed, what has emerged? How does animation’s creativity and innovation extend the past and spit out new productive combinations of technique? Lev Manovich’s text on new media, The Language of New Media (2001) predicted and framed these shifts. He identifies five key characteristics prevalent in digital media; Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability and Transcoding. These characteristics also permeate the management structures of contemporary animation studios.