On the Principles of Visualizing an Animated Chronotope

Abstract

Animation technologies provide unique opportunities for visualizing and dramatic conceptualizing of four-dimensional space. The concept of the chronotope as a time-space complex, where matter turns into energy and time becomes the fourth dimension, was expressed by Albert Einstein in his theory of relativity and found a strong response in Мikhail Bakhtin’s aesthetics and in the film theory of Jean Epstein who wrote about the four-dimensionality of cinema. Sergei Eisenstein and Gilles Deleuze consider the fourth dimension in terms of film editing. How can one visualize it? Physiologist Alexei Ukhtomsky treated the chronotope as a comprehensive mode of interaction between living systems. Physicist Boris Rauschenbach interpreted four-dimension space as two worlds placed on opposite sides of a sheet of paper, whose habitants find the existence of the other side a miracle. Both models are consistent with Yury Lotman’s drama theory who envisions the plot as a crossing of the border between worlds. Understanding these principles in the context of animation drama permits to analyze the relationship between the space and the plot of an animated film.