ABSTRACT

This article explores the relation between the rise of animation in digital culture to shifting notions of realism in animated documentaries. Realism is addressed as a representational choice as well as a political goal and is defined as the believable articulation of reality. By placing issues of credibility and the viewer’s role as arbiter of the work’s truth value in relation to contemporary notions of ‘truthiness’ (that are based on the viewer’s belief system rather than on fact) the article analyzes animated documentaries in the wider atmosphere of post-truth. I focus on two conflicting theorizations of realism: realism as the familiar and easily read vs. realism as de-familiarization. Whereas only a decade ago animated documentaries were deemed oxymoronic by many, as the sub-genre of animated documentaries proliferates it risks losing its critical potential and becoming an easy way to promote misinformation for viewers who cease to question the representation that becomes ‘invisible’ due to common use. That said, animated documentaries that creatively combine varied visual styles and intentionally disrupt viewing have the potential to de-familiarize by accentuating the representational choices made, which is crucial for engaging, critically evaluating information and creating counter narratives in a post-truth era.

摘要

本文探讨了数字文化中动画的兴起与动画纪录片中现实主义观念的转变之间的关系。现实主义被视为一种代表性的选择以及一个政治目标，并被定义为对现实的可信表达。通过将可信度和观看者作为作品真实价值的仲裁者的角色与当代“真实性”（基于观看者的信仰体系而不是事实）相关的问题进行放置，文章在更广阔的发布氛围中分析了动画纪录片。 -真相。我关注于现实主义的两个相互矛盾的理论：现实主义是熟悉的和易于阅读的，而现实主义则是不熟悉的。尽管只有十年前，动画纪录片被许多人认为是矛盾的，随着动画纪录片子流派的泛滥，它有失去其关键潜力的风险，并成为一种容易引起误解的方式，使观看者不再质疑由于普遍使用而变得“无形”的表现形式。也就是说，动画纪录片将各种视觉风格创造性地结合在一起，并有意破坏观看效果，有可能通过强调做出的代表选择而使其不熟悉，这对于在后真实时代参与，批判性地评估信息并创建反叙事至关重要。