Performing out of Line: Queer(ing) Animation Through Media Performativity

Performing out of Line is the culmination of a multi-layered performance-research project unravelling and articulating the relationship between cartoon animation and the performance of identity. The project began with a short series of performance and video projects that worked in stages to build on one another: a short compilation of clips from various cartoons were collected, edited together, and layered with music; rear-projection was used to show the selection of clips during a performance in which a projection of my shadow (created by the rear-projection) interacted with the cartoons; footage from that performance was edited to create a short video essay very generally addressing the relationship between animation and identity; the short video essay was used in another performance, in the same way as the first, so that my shadow could dance and interact with its �past self.� For the final stage, footage from the second performance was edited together with footage from the first performance, with the short video essay, with the compilation of clips, and with added clips and images to produce Performing out of Line . Working through this process to gather content for the project, rather than exclusively using collected clips and images, allowed me to make the essay�s arguments in a way I hope is more visually impactful. The aim of Performing out of Line is not to inflate cartoons to be more than they are, but instead to demonstrate how they are so much more than they are often given credit for.


Works Cited Within Video

Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity . New York, NY: Routledge.

—. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of "sex". New York, NY: Routledge.

Dunn, E. (2016). Steven Universe, Fusion Magic, and the Queer Cartoon Carnivalesque. Transgender and the Media, 44.

Lugo-Lugo, C., & Bloodsworth-Lugo, M. (2009). "Look Out New World, Here We Come"?: Race, Racialization, And Sexuality In Four Children's Animated Films By Disney, Pixar, And DreamWorks. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 9 (2), 166-178. doi:10.1177/1532708608325937

McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1967). The medium is the message. New York , 123 , 126-128.

Napier, Susan J. The problem of existence in Japanese animation. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 149.1 (2005): 72-79. JSTOR . American Philosophical Society. Web. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4598910

Ong, W. J. (2013). Orality and literacy. Routledge.

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Gregory Langner is an educator, researcher, and practitioner focused on the communicative and performative capacity of cartoon animation, and engaging the intersections of Identity-Performance and Queer experiences, Film and Media, and Performance Pedagogy. Greg's refereed scholarship has investigated the dynamics between performativity in animated bodies and Queer identity; advocated for an Intersectional Queer Pedagogy across general education; and proposed structured methods for dissolving speaker and performance anxiety in the classroom. Before pursuing his PhD in Communication and Performance Studies at Louisiana State University, Greg graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts and Dance, and Master of Arts in Communication Studies. Greg regularly utilizes his training in dance, theatre, and multimedia production to translate his scholarship into practice, having directed and choreographed more than two-dozen performances, and performed in more than forty original productions. Greg currently teaches in the Departments of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University, and at California State University, Los Angeles.