| Summary: | © 2024 Declan Thomas Langley East This research explores the ways experimental animation can enact posthumanist methodologies and situated speculative fictions in an attempt to find more-than-human knowledges and regenerative multinatural ways of being in the face of escalating ecological catastrophes. The project comprises a large-scale video installation, documenting two years of research and experimentation, and an accompanying dissertation. The film aims to reshape dominant narratives that promote the myth of a dualistic separation between nature and culture, and seeks new languages, ways of seeing and intelligence beyond what is defined as human. The outcome of this research project has been the development of a diffractive animation practice — a process and methodology where technology, imagination, and the body collaborate in the production and reinterpretation of sound and images. The dissertation begins with an overview of posthumanism, becoming-with and situated knoweldges. From there, it elaborates on the importance of speculative fictions for redefining the world in ways that are beneficial to all life. These are the stories of ecofeminist science fiction authors, First Nations peoples and more-than-humans. The research focuses particular attention on stories of dogs, coyotes, and dingos for the ways they challenge separations between natural and social-political realms. Chapter Two offers an argument for experimental animation’s ability to enact the posthumanist methodologies and situated speculative fiction practice. I propose that experimental animation reveals processes of thought, material agency (affects and effects), and implicit biases. Through the lens of animacy, it is seen to actively challenge the notion of an inert unconscious world. Chapter Three details the methods and animation practices that have contributed to the final outcome. These are a speculative writing practice, collaboration with nonhuman technology, techniques of re-imaging, and a layering of perspectives within virtual ...
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