• Thesis working title: The agency and life cycle of objects in animation and their symbiotic relationship with the animator.  

•  Director of studies: Professor Paul Ward 

• Second Supervisor: Dr Romana Turina 

Charlotte Blacker studied Animation at BA and MA level at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). She is now a Senior Lecturer in Animation at UCLAN, teaching at the HBU-UCLan School of Media, Communication and Creative Industries in China.

PhD thesis abstract [Working/Provisional]:  

Using my practical and theoretical knowledge of mixed media model making and animation, I wish to investigate the symbiotic relationship between object and animator, to understand their reliance on each other, how their separate histories feed into ‘the work’, and how they could be considered an extension of each other. Using anthropologist Alfred Gell’s theory of ‘Distributed Personhood’ and anthropologist James George Frazer’s theories on ‘Sympathetic Magic’, I will be exploring the connection of persons and objects, how the two are not mutually exclusive, and how together they form a living narrative that transcends the ‘completed’ work.  

My study will also investigate the relationship of craft and animation, the ever-evolving theories 'the object', new narrative, and animation as a therapeutic tool.