Alan Robert Cholodenko is an American-Australian scholar, film and animation theorist. His most recognized work are two of the earliest publications in the field of animation studies, namely ''The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation,'' published in 1991, and ''The Illusion of Life II: More Essays on Animation,'' published in 2007. His work in the field was reviewed by animation and film scholars Richard Leskosky and Vivian Sobchack. Cholodenko's work has been featured in such publications as the ''

International Journal of Baudrillard Studies Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

'' and '' Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal'', as well as in the anthologies ''Animating Film Theory;'' ''Erasure: The Spectre of Cultural Memory;'' and ''Animation: Critical and Primary Sources''. Throughout his career, Cholodenko has been proposing a theory of animation conjoining animation theory with

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...

and both with ' poststructuralist' and 'postmodernist' French thought, especially inspired by the work of

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

and Jean Baudrillard. Taking animation, animation studies and animation theory into the world of such thought since 1991, Cholodenko helped to elaborate a theoretical 'base' for the constituting of a 'discipline' of animation studies, postulating animation as 'discipline' of all 'disciplines'.

Career

Alan Cholodenko organized ''The Illusion of Life'', the world's first international conference on animation, in Sydney in 1988. The guest speakers at the conference included

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...

, Warner Bros. famed animator, as well as Irene Kotlarz, Director of the Animation Festival in Bristol, Terry Thoren, Director of the LA International Animation Celebration, and Sándor Riesenbüchler, noted Hungarian animator. He organized the second international conference on animation, ''The Life of Illusion'', in Sydney in 1995, on post-World War II animation in Japan and the United States, held at the Japan Cultural Centre and the Museum of Contemporary Art. As a result of both conferences, Cholodenko edited two books: ''The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation'', in 1991, and ''The Illusion of Life 2: More Essays on Animation'', in 2007. Alan Cholodenko was the recipient of the 2010 McLaren-Lambart Award for Best Scholarly Article on Animation from the Society for Animation Studies for his article 'The Animation of Cinema', where he revisited the legacy of early film animator Émile Reynaud. He has been a member of the

Society for Animation Studies The Society for Animation Studies (SAS) is an international learned society dedicated to the study of animation history and theory. It was founded by Harvey Deneroff in 1987. As of 2022 its president is Chris Pallant.Orson Welles' last film, the documentary ''

Filming Othello ''Filming Othello'' is a 1978 documentary film directed by and starring Orson Welles about the making of his award-winning 1951 production '' Othello''. The film, which was produced for West German television, was the last completed feature film d ...

'' (1978), asking Welles questions from the audience at the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also appeared in the documentary ''Derrida'' (2002), directed by Amy Kofman Ziering and Kirby Dick, walking and talking with Derrida in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, New York.

References

External links

* The University of Sydney website: https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/alan-cholodenko.html#collapseprofileresearchinterest *Alan Cholodenko's Academia page: https://sydney.academia.edu/AlanCholodenko {{DEFAULTSORT:Cholodenko, Alan Film theorists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academic staff of the University of Sydney