The name of show:    Explosion Therapy

Finally, One of digital puppet show on the theatre that proformancing way is really shows the good combination of art and technology.

Terrapin is the Australian innovator of puppetry-based visual theatre embracing new technologies, creating contemporary storytelling, and touring and collaborating nationally and internationally. The company injects skills and programs into the Tasmanian community, entertaining family audiences and supporting and developing artists.

Terrapin has embarked on a new course to create contemporary puppet theatre. This new direction is defined as digital puppetry.

Digital puppetry is only distinct in that digital technologies are used to create characters in the same way wood or foam is sculpted to carve puppets or fabrics are used to make costumes.

Digital puppetry is not about using animation or projection to decorate the set of a show. It is not a form of animation or multi media cartoon but rather an exploration of new ways to be theatrical in puppet based visual theatre. It is principally concerned with using inanimate objects that in this instance are digital in some aspect of their functionality, and finding ways of applying these in the already animated world of puppetry.

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Terrapin digipuppet theatre

Frank Newman, Artistic Director of Terrapin

Kevin O’Loghlin, General Manager of Terrapin

Digital puppet blog主旨, 長期希望能透過科技,藝術,文化等不統領域人才/團體能透過此平台相互交流布袋戲,偶戲, 數位表演等議題..今日一個朋友也以相同概念, 發展令一種跨專業的相互合作方式, 可以找報不同性質的合作夥伴～或是創業時經驗分享～因該對大家蠻實用的！The Squad blog launch Today!
它充滿設計師＋程式開發者＋市場經營者的。讓我們遇見人群, 專業技術分享, 展開各自專案合作的契機。

歡迎大家近一步了解~THE SQUAD BLOG

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David Dupouy

The socio-cultural perception of the puppet tradition in the Taiwanese animation.

(by Vincenzo De Masi and Amy Piao Jingwei)

In 2011 China has become the first world producer  of animation  with about  220,000 minutes produced by the Chinese studios of animation breaking the record held by Japan.

But few people know that the  90% of the production of the American animation is produced in Asia and in the Chinese studios.[1]

To reach this record the Chinese government has promoted and sponsored the animation cinema and it has created new schools and universities. 2006 was an important year because the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) started this new kind of project, and so there was the birth of about 6000 animation studios, about 500 animation departments and over 1,300 universities offering professional training for cartoonists. “About 64,000 students majoring in animation have graduated from universities and 466,000 were studying in colleges“ said Zhao Shi, deputy director of SARFT.

It’s quite interesting the way the government is trying to find a national identity through the animation.

In this period China is experimenting new forms of animation drawing inspiration for the anime from its neighbor Japan and for the narration and the techniques of production from Europe and the USA.

In this historical period, Taiwan has always tried to draw inspiration in its animation production from the Chinese traditional art so it was able to create original animated products which, at the same time, use traditional techniques such as the palm puppetry and mixing them with the new animation technologies offered by the computer graphic. The Taiwan puppet show originates from Southern Fujian Province in Mainland China. The modern puppetry has been developed from the traditional palm manipulated form and tailored to fit the studio shooting for TV and cinema. One of the most successful products is the series with over 1,600 episodes called Pili, produced by Pili International Multimedia Inc. The Pili show even extends its influence to the international video arena with first Pili movie ‘The Legend of Sacred Stone’ in 2000.

In a preliminary stage of this paper we will explore the history of the Chinese schools of animation specialized in the puppet animation. In order to underline the peculiar characteristics of movie production we will conduct our analysis from a comparative point of view, taking into consideration the historical point of view. In fact during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government has promoted the production of the puppet animation, such as ‘Little Eighth Route Army Soldier’ (Xiao Balu), produced by the Shanghai Puppet Theatre. We will highlight not only the differences but also the touching points between the old school of puppet animation and the new one.

In a second stage we will examine the state of the schools of puppet animation in China and in the Taiwan, dwelling above all on the international success reached by the puppet animation Pili which are considered the best example of mixture between the traditional puppet animation and computer animation in the framework of an original animation production.

We will also try to understand how the puppet animation schools have created this new kind of hybridization. Our choice to focus on the Chinese animation model will draw from some preliminary observations.

This so ancient art was even considered died or it was present only in any shows of little importance, but thanks to the animation schools of puppet animation of the Republic of China, today we can witness a new rebirth of this special kind of art.

Vincenzo De Masi is a PhD Candidate of University of Zurich - Reseau cinema CH - Seminar für Filmwissenschaft. His research topic is the audio-visual animation products in China (diffusion and production). Therefore I intro the PiLi entertainment Company to him and assisted them get in touch! Vincenzo visited the PiLi Taipei office, 01/ 10/2011. After the visiting the Pili Company that Vincenzo wrote a paper about his point of view about Taiwanese puppet. The title is ““Pili” culture: old artistic puppet traditions alive. The socio-cultural perception of the puppet tradition in the Taiwanese animation.”

April 2010 - May 2010

Making Things Interact Class - Spring 2010 Carnegie Mellon University
Developed by Cooper Sanghyun Yoo
Instructed by Prof. Mark D Gross
Digital Puppet uses a wood cross bar which has a Wii Remote inside. It has same traditional interface by using vertical or horizontal control of the bar. Pinch the bar to control the puppet turn left or right, and roll the bar to control it’s jaw and head.

Ps. I visited CMU Interative class once. There are a lot of intertesting projects. But I think this project is too easy for their students. Ha!

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Mark D. Gross