Understanding the need to relate practice with reflection and theory, the festival will join the growing number of animation events that invite practitioners and scholars to engage with animation from different perspectives and address contemporary issues.

The Festival + Symposium format will allow animators to immerse themselves in the current discursive trends and scholars to watch and appraise the latest animation productions.

With this event the organization of the symposium aims to provide a platform for the development of the animation research community in Portugal, while engaging with the Society of Animation Studies (SAS) strategy to support and enhance a network among the international animation community.

Main Goals:

• To promote animation as a tool to engage with contemporary issues and the world we live in;
• To expand the role of animation in giving voice to socially active communities;
• To develop dialogues and create opportunities for collaboration and crossover between academic and practice-based projects;
• To expand the critical understanding of animation and reach new audiences;
• To provide an environment where animators and animation scholars present their work in a friendly and supportive environment.

Call for Presentations

The first edition of the animaScapes symposium will seek to expand knowledge of the relationship between animation practice, theory and activism, broadly defined as the set of actions whose goal is to bring about social change.

Participatory methods and social engagement have always held an important place in animation. Since its creation, animation has reflected society and its times, demonstrating new technologies and scientific facts, often combining it as entertainment for the wider public.

The historical avant-gardes also experimented with animation from its early days, challenging prevailing attitudes and proposing change. All this suggests that social engagement is to be found at the heart of the medium.

We invite animation researchers and practitioners to propose 15 to 20 minutes presentations or panel proposals (90 minutes) replying to the broad question: What is the role and relevance of animation in the current climate of uncertainty we live in?

We welcome theoretical and practical presentations on animation that reflect on and promote change in society, from an historical, contemporary or visionary perspective.
 
Proposed topics can also include, but are not restricted to:

• - animation as a socially engaged art practice
• - animation and gender issues
• - animation practice against discrimination
• - animation and globalization
• - animation and city space
• - methodologies for social engagement in animation
• - animation as a tool for decolonization
• - documentary / non-fictional animation
• - animation and journalism
• - animation and therapy
• - animation as and in performance
• - animation in socially-engaged video games
• - historical perspectives of activist animation
• - animation education and Educational animation
• - animation as a (Deleuzian) war machine
• - animation within the aesthetic regime of art (Rancière)
• - animation collectives and their production