This presentation documents a practice-based animation research project designed for and installed in a healthcare environment to explore the potential role for animation to enhance well-being in paediatric hospital waiting spaces.

This paper emphasizes the storytelling possibilities of works done in a traditional animation techniques in contemporary context, when these works expand to a variety of venues, including galleries, museums and public spaces.

This proposal addresses the lack of significant research in the field of animation and its potential to impact on the health and wellbeing of young people in stressful situations in healthcare contexts particularly in waiting spaces for attending patients and accompanying family or caregivers.

The “Healing Nature” project recognizes the power of nature imagery and the integration of calming environmental elements into hospital spaces through various media, with the aim of supporting the mental, physical, and spiritual health of individuals and the hospital community.

Everyone loves stories. Narrative is a powerful tool for addressing and reflecting upon pivotal aspects of the human condition, with the potential of inspiring and aiding viewers through their personal dilemmas. Although the most popular narrative style is linear storytelling, this pattern has little to do with how people really receive information. Interactive media differ from traditional media in that participant can actively engage with and influence the outcome of the story.

“Trembling” presents the video work HOME in an adapted and somewhat modified form. It involves a camera’s journey through the space of a miniature home which is projected in a new way, adapting to a different location: the backstage of the theater, which gently distorts and fragments the projection.

Memory has become an important catalyst in pushing animation to new and unchartered territories, often balancing on the edge between film and installation.

This micro-presentation highlights the narrative aspect of animated installations — animation works screened in museums, galleries, and spaces other than single screen-based theatrical venues.

The Family Portrait animated installation was developed as an integral part of my PhD research at NTU/ADMSingapore in 2019 however, the production of this work in traditional puppet animation technique took a fewmore years to complete.

In the context of animated installations, gaps are present in the physical space between the projections in the gallery or any other space where the work is projected.

Bringing art into the hospital environment reflects the implementation and transfer of positive experience to the community. A work of art, in all its forms, can contribute to a positive effect on the observer, by raising his/her spirit, evoking thoughts, and stimulating emotions.

International Journal of Film and Media Arts (2021)

Presented at ‘Bringing Legacy to Life’ Stop Motion Conference 2021 Animation Research Network Scotland

As part of CINANIMA – Espinho International Animation Film Festival, where renowned names of cinema, animation and illustration pass through every year, Lea Vidakovic presents the masterclass Storytelling Approaches for Expanded Animation.

In this masterclass, spatial storytelling approaches of several animated installations will be discussed, including Sisters (2012), Splendid Isolation (2010) as well as a glimpse of a new work in progress.

Presented at The cosmos of Animation, 28th Annual Conference of the Society of Animation Studies, ADM/NTU, Singapore, 2016.

What happens to the story when animation expands beyond the screen, beyond the cinema venue? Do the new sites (both physical and virtual) call for different content, different form of presentation? What kind of stories would we tell in these immersive environments, that alternate the screen space?

Presente at the 31th Annual Conference of the Society of Animation Studies: Animation is a place, Lusofona University, Lisbon, Portugal, 2019.

Presented at the Symposium Narrative Structures and Visual Storytelling, Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Germany, 2016.