Aesthetics of Animamix (animation + comics) is the aesthetics considering and showing animamix’s essential elements as art. Images, stories, fun, and virtual reality are central to comic and animation, which has turned into an important pop art form for the past centennial. It grew fast during the first half of the 20th century in Europe and Unites States, and then evolved into a full-fledged phenomenon in Japan for the second half of the century. Not only has animamix become a trend, but the aesthetic in life of today, influencing designs, fashions and taste in our everyday life. In particular, for the past two decades human life has experienced a digital revolution, which merits the development of animamix aesthetics further and takes it into the virtual world. In the internet world and among image expressions, animamix aesthetics can be seen everywhere, even to the point of dominance in game frames.
The best known Japanese comic creator, Tezuka Osamu (1928-89) took his country into the epoch which is of comic and animation. After the World War II, comics gradually took up the biggest proportion of Japanese publishing industry, and comic and animation becomes one of the most important creativity-based industries. Today its dominance remains and goes on to influence the development of comic and animation in areas like Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan and other Asia countries. It is also very well-accepted and popular in Europe and the United States.
In 1990, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo held “Tezuka Exhibition” to commemorate Mr. Tezuka’s death in year 1989. This is the first time ever that National Museum of Fine Art has had an comics-themed exhibition. It brings a new significance that “comics manuscripts are also artworks”. Since then other local museums in Japan followed suit to propose for comics-themed exhibitions. Activities as such all convey the concepts and trends that “comics are of cultural values” or “comics are one branch of art”. Accordingly, the aesthetics of comics and animation evolve from the popularity and positive commentaries on these two art forms.
Kids of the 1950s and 60s who enjoyed reading comics reached adulthood in the 1990s and settled down in marriage; however, what has remained the same is their love for comics. As a result, the age groups of comic readers are varied, and since 1990s comic and animation have become extremely popular among the public in Japan. A parallel development occurs in Taiwan. A great number of people born during the 1960s and 70s love to read comic books, while those born during the 1980s and 90s even have a stronger identification with comic and animation as they had access to computers and games since little. As the numbers of fans grow with time, there are more parents with their kids visiting comic and animation exhibitions each year. So again, the importance of animamix aesthetics increases, because the numbers of fans have been growing.
Art workers always lead the aesthetic trend, whereas artworks reflect the spirit of time, embodying the prospective aesthetic model. For instance, the Impressionism of the 19th century led the aesthetic trend in a time when agricultural-industrial-based society was transforming into a more open-minded one. And abstract art of the 20th century played the same role in a time when technological development coincided with liberal social development. Then what about the 21st century when interactions have become central to the social development due to the Internet? The aesthetics of animamix is the most likely candidate.
According to professor Lu Rong-Zhi, there are four features of animamix aesthetics: worship to the eternal youth, visual language with images, colored light abounds in space, and combination of heterogeneous elements. For the past two decades, there have been more artworks which have virtual characters as their subjects exhibiting these features. Takashi Murakami, Nara Yoshitomo, Kusama Yayoi from Japan; Gary Baseman, Kojo Griffin from America; Yue Min-Jun, Liu Ye, Tang Zhi-Gang from Mainland China; Ki Soo Kwon, Dongi Lee from Korea; and Hong Dong-Lu, Yang Mao-Lin from Taiwan, just to name a few. These artists’ paintings or sculptures exhibit the characteristics pertinent to animamix aesthetics, showing great artistic achievements. More artists from a new generation, especially those born after year 1975, are displaying obvious characteristics of animamix aesthetics in their creation.
We believe that this is very much affected by the time spirit, and it has just started. In the artists’ creations, there are virtual characters, embodiment of eternity, narrating touching stories via graphics and images. And these characters are bright, colorful, and capable of interactions, well representing the digital age, going beyond time, space and platforms. They give expressions to the aesthetic model of the 21st century for their contemporaries and the coming generations.
Animamix can be two dimensional or three dimensional; and certainly, suitable for digital media that transcend time and space. We believe that animamix aesthetics will inspire imagination knowing no limit in digital art creation in the future. World-class artists that represent the 21st century will be those who devote themselves to this field.
The charm of animamix in the digital world lies in its virtual quality and interaction. Living in the golden age of the Internet, people are experiencing a change in every aspect of their lives. Now, the idea of virtual life may sound interesting but far-fetching for us, but may be deemed normal among our future generations. As we know, people are labeled as “otaku” not necessarily because of their indulgence in the Internet world, but because they are the first to dive deep into the digital world, making the most out of the data and information in that world and therefore outperforming other people in certain knowledge fields. It is quite practical to say that our next generation would more or less manifest the characteristics of “otaku”. What is central to digital world is precisely its virtual quality and interaction, which are of perfect match with the essence of animamix aesthetics. We are going to witness a disappearance of the national boundaries in the future digital world. It is animamix aesthetics that enables virtual characters to surf freely in such world, to interact with one another, to change themselves and to have a wide appeal. Moreover, the influence will reach out to contemporary painting art, sculptures, fashions, designs, and advertisements, etc.
The exhibition “New Epoch of Animamix Aesthetics” has received wide support from artists. This is especially meaningful in that it reflects the current development of animamix art and anticipates that of the coming new age. We sincerely hope that this exhibition can bring animamix art to millions of comic fans, its aesthetics to art lovers, and inspirations to art workers.
Looking forward to the new epoch of animamix aesthetics, one would discover a mainstream aesthetics originating in the digital world is emerging. We should all have high expectations for it.
(Translated by Hui-wen Cheng) |
