My artistic practice deals with documents and, more specifically, with the use and the exploration of their narrative potential. This dissertation is about three different cycles of artworks I... Show moreMy artistic practice deals with documents and, more specifically, with the use and the exploration of their narrative potential. This dissertation is about three different cycles of artworks I produced as part of the research project. The notion of animation inheres in each of the three case studies: – Case 1 focuses on my artworks about Simone Pianetti (1858-?), an Italian mass murderer who escaped and disappeared, and who then became a puppet character, animated as a stock character.– Case 2 focuses on Augusto Masetti (1888-1966), an Italian soldier who shot at his superior officer and declared not to remember having done it, as if in a state of ecstatic possession, as if animated by an external entity. Mainly using publications and workshops, I produced a series of artworks related to legal, medical and anarchist records on his case.– Case 3 follows the appearance of a puppet character in Colombia, el espiritado, and its supposed connections to the Masetti case. I describe a series of artistic works I produced, starting from a puppet script about the self-destruction of a village, which can be read as a commentary on puppetry, anarchism and animation. Show less
Animation has long been overlooked as source for political thought. The aim of this thesis is to rectify this, and it will do so in two ways. First, it makes a theoretical and empirical case... Show moreAnimation has long been overlooked as source for political thought. The aim of this thesis is to rectify this, and it will do so in two ways. First, it makes a theoretical and empirical case for animation as an intellectual source of political thought that should be used along with philosophical canon. Second, it sheds light on the political significance and expressive potentials of nonconventional sources for political theorists. The thesis explores the philosophical idea of emancipation, and expands the traditional corpus by drawing on Japanese science fiction animation (SF anime), a source that does not normally enter these philosophical debates. It argues that SF anime is a useful site for political theorists to interrogate pressing philosophical ideas, and it can engage with ongoing philosophical discussions through illustrations and thought experiments. Show less
