AniVision: Animation in Ephemeral Films from Austria, East & West Germany between 1945 and 1989: A Combined Film Analysis and Computer Vision Approach

• Applicant: Dr. Erwin Feyersinger
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies ; Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468856086

Animation has been incorporated into many filmic forms since the beginning of film history. However, animation research has mainly focused on dominant formats such as animated feature films, experimental films, visual effects, animated television series, and documentary films. Many other formats and contexts have been barely researched or not explored at all. One such marginalized context of animation is its use in nonfiction films with a clear utility, so-called ephemeral films. This category includes genres as diverse as commercials, educational films, social guidance films, corporate films, military films, public service announcements, or newsreels. The interdisciplinary project AniVision investigates which stylistic patterns characterize the use of animation in ephemeral films in different production locations (Austria, West Germany, East Germany), over time (1945–1989) and across various (sub)genres. This focus on ephemeral films from German-speaking countries during the Cold War period facilitates comparability across an international corpus in terms of historical and political developments, in terms of production contexts and the dominance of analog techniques. We hypothesize that interactive content-based retrieval methods enable a systematic analysis of large-scale corpora, resulting in novel domain-specific insights. Thus, AniVision follows an interdisciplinary approach: Animation scholars define fine-grained film analytical and art-historical parameters of animation styles. Computer scientists formalize and model these parameters into innovative automatic retrieval methods specifically targeted at ephemeral films. The automatic detection and characterization of animated content as well as an interactive exploration of the corpus support quantitative and qualitative studies by animation scholars. Our interactive retrieval approach tightly intertwines both disciplines and leverages their mutual strengths.The project is a joint collaboration between St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (FHSTP) and University of Tübingen (UT). Key researchers at FHSTP are Franziska Bruckner (project lead and PI) and Matthias Zeppelzauer who contribute rich interdisciplinary expertise in animation history, visual retrieval and (automated) film analysis. Key researcher at UT is Erwin Feyersinger who has vast experience of researching narrative structures and stylistic phenomena of animation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Franziska Bruckner; Privatdozent Dr. Matthias Zeppelzauer