In today's era, both worldwide and in China, the use of animation techniques for disseminating, displaying, and reproducing cultural heritage information is becoming increasingly common. This chapter aims to address two primary objectives. Firstly, it seeks to investigate the feasibility of utilizing animation as a medium of communication. Secondly, it aims to examine the distinctive communication characteristics and advantages of animation compared to other methods of media, such as pictures, text, and video, within the context of digitizing cultural heritage. This chapter will discuss and analyze the above questions and explore the applicability and inevitability of animation as a medium in the process of cultural heritage digitization from the perspective of three variables between communication science and animation arts—communication mission, communication ecology, and communication terminal—to provide interdisciplinary research ideas and foundation for the theoretical development of cultural heritage digitization, communication science, and animation.
TopDiscussion On Animation As A Communication Medium
Firstly, can animation be used as a medium? The study of animation as a medium has begun to rise in theoretical research in Europe and the United States in recent years (Chow, 2013; Lamarre, 2009; Macdonald, 2015; Torre,2017).Media, in the sense of communication science, refers to the use of media to store and disseminate information as a material tool (Nick & He, 2014). The famous American communication scientist Schramm believes that “media is a tool used to expand and extend information transmission during the communication process” (Schramm & Potter, 1984).
Animation integrates the animation content, film ideals, and cultural sustenance of creators and publishers and transmits them to viewers through a dynamic sequence of images, thereby completing a communication process. From this point of view, the animation process is exactly Schramm's definition of media. In his article “Understanding Media,” McLuhan proposed that “the content of any medium is the medium.”
No media can exist independently, and one media always serves as the 'content' of the other. The moment when the two media hybridize or intersect is when the truth can be discovered and inspiration can be given, resulting in new media forms, because the similarity of the two media is that we stay on the boundary of the two media. (McLuhan, 2011)
Animation is a content form on different media such as movies, television, mobile phones, and the Internet, while transmitting content, it is also spreading in a unique way for animation. In this sense, animation becomes the media itself, while movies, television, and other media become their content through more integrated media forms, such as CNTV, and APPs of CNN, BBC, iQIYI, and Tencent Video, while retaining their original media attributes. De Fleur describes media in a broader sense: “Media can be any carrier or group of orderly carriers used to disseminate human consciousness” (Defleur, 1989). Here are four key messages: communication, human consciousness, order, and carrier. From animated films such as “Flowers and Trees,” “Snow White,” “Avatar,” and “Dinosaur,” to various experimental animations, film and television animation works, there are all authentic portraits and reflections of human consciousness. The works of Spanish surrealist painting master Dali are filled with descriptions and reflections of dreams and subconsciousness. Hence we may infer that animation adds dynamic elements and time series, making the expression of human consciousness more free, smooth, and realistic. Therefore, animation has a very high adaptability to reflecting human consciousness. The orderliness of animation is reflected in its expressive techniques, with the principles and norms of lens organization in imaging and readable information recognition process design. Therefore, animation can not only reflect the instantaneous consciousness of humans but also connect with the camera through orderly screen organization and carry out the formation and dissemination of meaning. Undoubtedly, it has already possessed the core characteristics of media.
Secondly, how animated content acts as an effective communication medium?