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Fantasy/AnimationAuthor: Fantasy/Animation
Christopher Holliday is Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education at Kings College London (UK). Alexander Sergeant is a Lecturer in Digital Media Production at the University of Westminster (UK), specialising in the history and theory of fantasy cinema. Each episode, they look in detail at a film or television show, taking listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Language: en Genres: TV & Film Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Footnote #71 - Synthespians
Monday, 19 January, 2026
Listen as the brand new Fantasy/Animation Footnote tackles the complexities and contradictions of digital performance and cyber stardom via this discussion of synthespians, a term very much anchored to early-2000s concerns around the future of acting, agency, and authenticity whose popularisation was largely prompted by the rise of motion capture and other forms of computerised intervention. In this latest instalment, Chris takes Alex through the origins of (and key discourses surrounding) the cyberstar and the broader entertainment industry’s increased turn towards the creative possibilities of the “synthetic thespian”; how scholars have grappled with the divergent forms of labour and performance styles engendered by CG avatars, proxies, and digital doppelgängers; the role of celebrities in mediating shifts between old and new media, including the stakes of newer star-centred forms of digital replication; and the growing anxieties surfacing in late-2025 regarding the arrival of synthespian ‘Tilly Norwood’ and what artificial intelligence and machine learning might now mean for the next phase in digital cyberstardom. **Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo** **As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts** **As featured on MillionPodcast’s Best 10 UK Animation Podcasts and Best 60 Movie Podcasts in the UK**
