Ruth Hayes (United States of America)1,2
1 – The Evergreen State College; 2 – WA
Ruth Hayes
Ruth Hayes came to animation through drawing and printmaking. She works in film, video and pre-cinema formats including flipbooks, zoetropes and praxinoscopes. Committed to experimental approaches, her works range from pure abstraction to the essayistic and from single channel to projection performance. She currently teaches animation in an intersdisciplinary context at The Evergreen State College.
Abstract
Visualizing Microbial Seascapes: a Case Study of Teaching Animation and Marine Biology
This paper will present a case study of Visualizing Microbial Seascapes, an undergraduate level interdisciplinary course that integrated the teaching of introductory animation and introductory marine biology. Part of on-going work developing approaches to teaching animation in interdisciplinary contexts, the course engaged students in studio arts and microscopy lab practices, field observation, scientific illustration and animation production while they studied animation history and theory, and major concepts of marine biology. Students examined how artists and marine scientists use close observation, analysis and integrative thinking to communicate effectively about natural phenomena and environmental problems, including climate change. Central questions the paper will address include: What do teaching introductory animation and marine biology share in common? What skills, practices and modes of thinking do the two disciplines require? What transferable skills do students gain through this work? How do learning to animate and learning animation theories and histories contribute to undergraduate liberal arts education and to students’ abilities to view scientific educational media critically and analytically? What are potential benefits to animation production and studies of integrating animation into undergraduate general education?
Palavras-chave: interdisciplinary animation, animation pedagogy, animation and marine biology, animation in the liberal arts
