New York's Animation Culture

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Kristian Moen

   Pages 1-22

3. The City

   • Kristian Moen

   Pages 23-65

4. The World’s Fair

   • Kristian Moen

   Pages 67-112

5. The Gallery

   • Kristian Moen

   Pages 113-167

6. The Cinema

   • Kristian Moen

   Pages 169-206

7. Conclusion

   • Kristian Moen

   Pages 207-214

8. Back Matter

   Pages 215-222

   PDF

This book reveals and explores the thriving animation culture in midtown Manhattan, the World’s Fair, art galleries and cinemas during a vibrant period of artistic, commercial and industrial activity in New York City. Alongside a detailed investigation of animated film at the time – ranging from the abstract works of Mary Ellen Bute and Norman McLaren to the exhibition practices of the Disney Studios and the New York World’s Fair – New York’s Animation Culture examines a host of other animated forms, including moving dioramas, illuminated billboards, industrial displays, gallery exhibitions, mobile murals, and shop windows. In this innovative microhistory of animation, Moen combines the study of art, culture, design and film to offer a fine-grained account of an especially lively animation culture that was seen as creating new media, expanding the cinema experience, giving expression to utopian dreams of modernity, and presenting dynamic visions of a kinetic future.

• Animation History
• Animated Film
• Pervasive Animation
• Expanded Animation
• Abstract Animation
• Animated Advertising
• Animation and Culture
• New York’s Visual Culture

“Moen offers a meticulously and inventively researched account of the expanded place of animation in New York in two crucial years and across four intersecting spheres of activity. Animation here still incorporates familiar cel animation techniques, but also expands far beyond them. This book is an exciting and valuable addition to our understanding of animation, historically and theoretically, but it will also have considerable wider appeal to anyone interested in mid-century visual culture.” (Malcolm Cook, Lecturer in Film, University of Southampton. Author of Early British Animation: From Page and Stage to Cinema Screens)

• Department of Film and Television, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

  Kristian Moen

Kristian Moen is Senior Lecturer in Film at the University of Bristol. He is the author of Film and Fairy Tales: The Birth of Modern Fantasy, as well as a number of other works which explore animation, fantasy, film history and modernity.

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