‘The Dressmaker, remnants of a life. The re-creation of the Self and memories through animation’

The Dressmaker, remnants of a life, is a study case of our research, at the Animated Learning Lab, as a means of reflection on the re-construction of the self through animation; understanding the self as our history and story. It’s about how we see our own story; everything starts with perception (Beau Lotto, 2013).
Currently it’s not very common to conceive animation as a communication media of biographies. Nevertheless, features as Drawn from Memory (1995, Paul Fierlinger), Waltz with Bashir (2008, Ari Folman), It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012, Don Hertzfeldt), Wrinkles (2012, Ignacio Ferreras) o Rocks in my Pockets (2014, Signe Baumane), are clear samples of the treatment of the autobiographic memory and documentary through animation techniques.
When we produce an animated film, we can appreciate how the creation of characters and scenarios are transformed into visual metaphors, making possible the re-creation of past moments or the simulation of possible ones. We experience, thanks to the imagination and complex cognitive processes, new virtual situations, carriers of great knowledge, which help us to reflect upon thoughts, feelings and actions, which will build our best movie: the illusion of life, our ecstatic truth.