The Independent Animated Short Film as a Therapeutic Tool for Artist, Patient and Physician: Case Study: Squid Ink and C Plan

Abstract

[Abstract]: Nowadays, it is increasingly common to find examples of animated films that reflect social realities that have to do with the world of health. Animation has proved to be a universal language that shows complex medical and social problems, to the point that, not only projects as Animation in Therapy, awarded for innovation in health which is sponsored by The National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA); but also specialized workshops have been carried out; for example, Healing Education Research Therapy (HEART) founded by Melani Hani; as well as events like Animation on Prescription, held in the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival. This paper analyzes Squid Ink and C Plan, two animation short films which are used as a therapeutic tool of artistic mediation to promote positive social values. The idea of animation is to provide abstraction and symbolization of motion pictures. In this sense, the visual metaphor will have great rhetoric relevance and will be emphasized on both cases of study. The use of animation as a form of art and as mediation has a dual purpose. Firstly, it helps to have a better understanding of those who are affected by Crohn’s disease and hepatitis C, and, secondly, it familiarizes chronic patients and health personnel with language and artistic values of animated images. Also, the idea of the practice of animation will be highlighted in the short films as an expressive medium that could later be applied in the medical field, empathizing with patients and medical staff as active participants of the proposed animated short films. Both films have a large allegorical weight, one of the reason is the use of animals as main characters to represent symptoms of the diseases mentioned above, and the use of a very simple narrative structure and movements. The present paper will deepen the idea of the representation of different experiences through animation where the metaphor is based on the animation technique, able to express interpersonal difficulties: “The essence of the metaphor is understanding and experimenting a kind of thing in terms of another one.” (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980).