This course explores animation as an expressive, poetic, and emotionally driven art form. Emphasizing experimental and independent practices, students will engage deeply with animation not just as a technique, but as a language of emotion, memory, and transformation. Through lectures, screenings, workshops, and field research, the course guides students in exploring the emotional landscape of animation - where gesture, rhythm, form, and abstraction convey feeling more potently than words.

Students will explore key historical and contemporary works that move beyond traditional narrative, learning how independent artists use animation to express personal experience, emotional depth, introspection, and creative experimentation. From rotoscoping to morphing, hand-drawn expression to poetic digital images, students will experiment with techniques that align form with feeling.

The course is designed to foster an independent visual voice, inviting students to interpret the world around them, particularly the evolving landscape of Hong Kong, through the poetic lens of animated movement. Key themes include: emotion as language, animation as ritual, expanded cinema, and topophilia (love of place). Students are encouraged to build an emotional vocabulary in their animation work, while being supported by readings, feedback, and critique.

A mid-project screening and analysis session will serve as a creative intervention, offering inspiration and critical discussion to deepen ongoing final projects. The semester culminates in a final group animation project that synthesizes technical skills, theoretical inquiry, and experimental approaches.

Enrolment for SM5347 depends on School's permission, which will only be granted if the topic is essentially different from that covered in this course offered in or before Semester B 2025/26, SM6311 and SM6327.