My presentation is complete and has been delivered! I’m so happy I got to get in contact with Alan and Aisling through this process, it’s a valuable relationship I hope to maintain. I feel like this research situated me in my practise a little more, allowed me to think about where I want this degree to go; do I want to go this deep? Do I want to go more lighthearted?

I want to challenge my own ideas in the same way that CODA challenges the depiction of death.

I uploaded the screen recording of my presentation as an unlisted youtube video which is attached below, and as my references were not shown in the video, I’ve put all slides below too.

Original Script / Rough Transcript

Can I please begin by asking if everyone is happy to watch clips that include flashing images? Also, we are going to be dealing with themes of death and existentialism so if that’s not your jam; please feel free to sit out for this one.
  
 Slide 01 And maps and plans, recurring themes of death and grief
  
 Slide 02 A Dublin based studio driven by auters
  
 -       Introduction: Who are andmapsandplans? What is an auter? 
 -       Talk about emails with Alan Holly: the “death trilogy”
 -       Recurring themes in the films: death, grief, rebirth. An abstract section ¾ of the way through. 
 -       A brief description of each film: CODA – a lost soul wanders the streets of Dublin before meeting death. AN ISLAND – a man attempts to conquer a deserted island, and by association his own grief at the loss of a loved one, BARDO – our protagonist suffers anxiety in a modern world, self realization and ultimately transformation.
 -       relating through our main character: focus on humanity. I’m going to read a little excerpt from my conversation with Alan:
 -       “Animation, short films anyway, very often seem to deal with themes of death and time, something about the nature of animation and the time it gives one to contemplate while working perhaps, a specific awareness of time, timing and time passing too.”
 -       We will mainly be focusing on CODA, with a little bit of BARDO here at the start, as there was just not enough time to fully explore all three.
  
 Slide 03 Dealing w death through creation
  
 -       As artist I feel that we are always trying to find new ways to process and cope with the difficult or inexplainable experiences in life. We cannot acquire answers for what happens when we die, and this is what drives speculation and stories around what ‘could’ happen.
 -       There is an irony to the multitude of media that explores death; literally creation from anti-creation. We are obsessed with it, because we cannot answer these questions. We can only continue to wonder.
 -        
  
 Slide 04 How has Death changed?
  
 -       Various depictions of death from comedic, to neutral, terrifying to comforting (we’ll get to that one later). Death depictions source
  
 Slide 05 Cartoons for the adult existentialist
  
 -       Coping through humour, cartoons for the adult existentialist: Adventure Time, Bojack Horseman.
 -       I’ve recently been watching Bojack and despite being a comedy series, the show deals with extremely bleak scenarios. (No spoilers please, I have a season left. Even avoided researching it to avoid them)
  
 Slide 06 Irish Folklore Influence
 -       Another recurring theme is Irish and Irish folklore influence. It was important to Alan specifically with CODA to set the film in his own surroundings (Dublin) and likewise with Bardo, on rural life in Ireland in 1940. 
 -       And folklore:
 Banshees – originated from bean sídhe (women of the fairy hill) these fairy woman sing to the dying and bring them to the "other side." When looking at details of the banshee’s cry we see reports such as “mournful cry”, a “wailing, piercing cry” and “pitiful”
 Dullahan / Coiste Bodhar, or what we would know probably as the headless horseman.
  
 -       I’d take you through a larger history but for now we’ll focus on folklore around death and rebirth in Irish culture, as there is a lot to unpack there.
  
 Slide 07 BARDO
  
 -       Recordings from Aisling’s grandmother, Seamus Heany’s poetry inspired imagery and landscape. I really look forward to watching it. I was provided a ticket to an early screenings by `Aisling but unfortunately even with a VPN I was not Irish enough to fool the Irish Conference website into letting me watch it.
 Aisling told me too, that she is especially influenced by Irish folklore. There is a bird character ongoing throughout the film, and she told me this often symbolizes a dead ancestor who visits in Irish folklore, including in her own family.
  
 Slide 08 Personal Interest
  
 -       Talk about my own interest and influence in my own work. I actually proposed an animated music video about a banshee, to the backing track of “the great gig in the sky” by Pink Floyd for a project last year. (it wasn’t chosen but we won’t talk about that bit)
 -       My banshee was mouthless – peaceful, mourning, more based on the origins of the bean sidhe. Interestingly, you will see a similar take on Death in the film I am about to talk about; CODA.
  
 Slide 09 CODA
  
 -       So, CODA is the film that started this whole presentation. I remember watching it when it came out and it really feeling like something special. And then of course it went on to win many awards; various ‘best director’ s and ‘best picture’ s included in there, so everyone else obviously agreed. The film is set in Dublin, but when asked, Alan told me this was mainly because the studio writers tend to draw from their own experiences. The overlap with folklore may be unintentional, but the theme of death and grief for their own life that our character experiences is what I want to focus on.
 -        
 -       I’d love to show you a short clip from the film now.
  
  
 Slide 10 FILM VIDEO
  
 Slide 11 Character Design 1
  
 -       The decision to leave out certain detail was in part about placing our focus on the main character but also about leaving those background characters as blank slates, particularly in the second half when they are the memories of events and people.
 -       The team made the decision to leave out details to help place the focus on the main character, but also to leave the background characters as blank slates. We see an interaction with a loved one later in the film during the abstract section, and our protagonist is almost ‘leading’ them, pulling them through the scene.
 -       When it comes to death herself, the design does not hugely stray from traditional ideas of death ie. A black, cloaked, larger than life figure, but the ‘feel’ is different. 
 -       This image is one of my favourites from the film. A moment where, death meets the main character where he is. She grieves with him, giving him a moment to feel before she takes him for her own.
  
  
 Slide 12 Structure
  
 -       which I thought was an interesting approach, because these abstract sections tend to be quite intense, and in a lot of ways hardly a place to pause. I do think that the abstract element lets your mind wander, and perhaps this is what Alan was referring to: you are thinking purely via images and music; your mind gets to decide what you think has happened and what the story leading up to this point could have meant.
 -        
 -       As previously mentioned, Alan did not specifically draw from Irish folklore for his influences, but it is clear to see that specific imagery was chosen for a reason.
  
 Slide 13
  
 -       I want to talk for a second about the ‘ego states’ theory in psychotherapy because even if unintentional, the imagery holds a lot of meaning. 
 -       Eric Berne, psychiatrist, theorised that you have three personality ‘states’, parent, adult and child.
 -       The child ego state is the part of the personality, which is preserved from actual childhood; it also contains all the impulses a person was born with. The child ego state is, as said above, primarily about spontaneous feelings, needs and wants of the child.
 -       So, seeing our protagonist begin in adult when still alive, and return to child in death is an interesting parallel, especially as he is expressing this need for ‘more, more, more’ a repetitive and basic need, and something I’m sure we’ve all asked for as a child. 
  
 Slide 14
  
 -       Decay, skeletons; quite common death imagery and symbolism.
  
 Slide 15 Death the Mother
  
 -       It’s interesting to note that CODA evokes these feelings of ‘safety and solace’ that we associate with a positive parental figure, through death’s character without directly intending to depict a mother. Think back as well, to what I was saying earlier about the ego states, in this film, death is that nurturing parent role in a way.
 -       As often is with art, we do not know or control what others will take from it, and this ‘death mother’ was what resonated with me when watching the film. 
 -       I would argue that the imagery of a mother is not inherently female. I chose to see death as a representation of creation and rebirth. The mother as an abstract symbol for protector regardless of gender.
  
  
 So that with that in mind…
  
 Slide 16
  
 The film ends with our protagonist taken into death’s arms, leaving life as he began; a child in the arms of a mother.