Stan Douglas and the animation of Vancouver's urban past

McKim, Joel (2020) Stan Douglas and the animation of Vancouver's urban past. In: van Gageldonk, M. and Munteán, L. and Shobeiri, A. (eds.) Animation and Memory. Palgrave Animation (PAANI). London: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 163-179. ISBN 9783030348885.

Abstract

Stan Douglas is one of Canada’s most respected artists, best known for his highly conceptual work in cinema and photography. The themes, subjects, and locations he explores are often global in scope, and his challenging work is most often firmly situated in a gallery context. This chapter is an opportunity to explore Circa 1948 in greater depth in the context of Douglas’ larger body of work and as a significant example of animation and urban memory. While the work is clearly an unusual foray into animation and interactive technology for Douglas, it does intersect with his broader artistic interests in many compelling and sometimes unexpected ways. I ultimately argue that the digital renderings of Circa 1948 allow Douglas to re-animate Vancouver’s urban past, while simultaneously questioning the processes of development and economic change affecting the contemporary city, fueled in part by the growth of computer imaging and gaming industries themselves. The chapter begins with a brief description of the work itself before moving into a consideration of how it connects to some of Douglas’ recurring preoccupations, including his archival interest in the urban history of Vancouver, his examination of multiple and often conflicting experiences of modernity, particularly in relation to black identity, and his examination of the characteristics, affordances, and biases of the “apparatuses” of imaging technologies.

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