The Ever-Expanding Scope of Animation Historiography: A Discussion of Interdisciplinary Approaches and Methods

Accounting for animation’s pervasiveness, heterogeneity and intermediality, this article reflects conceptions of animation historiography. It brings together contemporary perspectives and methods in the research of animation history/historiography, and considers tangible approaches outside animation studies. Particular attention is paid to materials and aspects that are overlooked and non-canonical. The authors conceptualize animation historiography in the shape of a rhizome, enabling a better understanding of the relations between canonical aspects and fringes, and enriching the dialogue between the various disciplines, actors and institutions writing the histories of animation. Following a look at the current state of debate about animation history/histories and historiography in animation studies, the article surveys pertinent debates in film studies, art history and media art history. It then discusses historical research in performance studies and in the history of science, both concerned with fields where animation is often marginalized, as well as animation-related research on motion graphics and useful cinema, themselves under-researched topics, for perspectives to reconceptualize animation history. Media archaeology, its approaches and methodology, will be addressed repeatedly from the perspectives of the different disciplines and areas. The article is conceived as an ‘open paper’, understood as an invitation to further discuss animation historiography on a metalevel.