Paper short abstract:

Short Abstract: This Paper and my participation in the 3 sessions will interrogate the continued importance for animation students of direct first hand observation when undertaking drawing research in museums.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will examine examples of drawings made on location in museums by students and lecturers on the BA Animation Production course at the Arts University Bournemouth. I will present the use of sketchbooks and other forms of drawing, such as digital drawing, that demonstrate how we observe and record the expected and unexpected within the museums' curated collections.

The paper will show how the students then create their own collection of drawings, which is then in turn used to directly inform and influence the decisions made in developing animation concept backgrounds for a specific unit within the second year of the BA curriculum.

The activity of being at the museum and not searching a website can in the taught environment bring layers of new information that the student will not expect or anticipate; this adds a level of originality to their research and the final outcomes. In the longer term, this trains the student and artist to better use all methods of research, whether primary or secondary.

The student and artist approach to this form of sketchbook enquiry also provokes interrogation of the use of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methods of research (see Kuschnir, 2016).

In conclusion I will establish by example the continued need for direct research practice for both the student and the professional animator.

Reference

Kuschnir, Karina (2016) 'Ethnographic drawing: Eleven benefits of using a sketchbook for fieldwork', Visual Ethnography, vol 5, no 1, pp. 103-134.