Guu Press | Magazine - Characters at War: An Interview with Pictoplasma

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When it first came out?

I didn't "only" like South Park when it first came out. I just liked it more then, especially the disrespect for traditional storytelling and popular psychology. But with time you get used to it and it’s not so surprising any more, is it?

Yes, the shock value decreases. What about The Simpsons?

The Simpsons is also very popular in Europe. But I only get to see the German dubbed version there, so it's not the same. I don't know, I guess I'm just not much of an animation or narration fan in general.

Your observation that there’s nothing out there in the animation world for adults reminds me of the term “kidult,” which you used in your lecture preceding the opening. Describe the kidult a little more for us.

A kidult is just a person who’s reluctant or even unable to join the professional, responsible, nine-to-five world in one way or another. A kidult enjoys youth culture and might hang on to certain cartoons and never grow out of collecting action figures. Many characters and toys nowadays appeal to and are designed for kidults.

Something else you mentioned in your talk, as well as in your opening essay in Pictoplasma 2, is how characters are associated with feelings of loss. I’d like to hear more about this.

Characters are symptoms of loss because they’re flat, reduced, and dead; they’re perfection and simulation, always frozen and always fake. And you can’t inflict pain upon them. But even though they’re not alive, they promise something alive. We could almost take them up in our arms. The same idea is illustrated when you consider a photo of your deceased grandmother. She is flat, frozen, and not real. Yet she offers something alive.

Are the characters alive in your own minds?

Oh, yes. We can hear them all the time -- chattering and squeaking and running around.

What do you think the future holds in store for character design in terms of interactivity? I’m thinking of robots.

Robots are a good idea. But aesthetics is still a key component. The more a character design is reduced, the higher the number of people is who can relate to it. With more information and detail comes a smaller audience. So with respect to interactive robots, the goal is to reduce the design and not scare people away. This of course is contingent on the increased mobility of technology in the future.

In the near future, however, you’ve got your sights on the PictoOrphanage. What else can you tell us about it?

The PictoOrphanage invites anyone to adopt a character and welcome it into the world -- from its inception to birth and then to life. Sponsors can help lift characters from the flat-faced world of 2D art into the physical reality of today. You can check out sonograms of adoptable characters on our website.

The orphanage takes Pictoplasma to a new level of seriousness, but it also reveals our ultra-pathetic side. [Laughs.] We’re very excited about the prospect of having character-clad people at the next conference. Character costumes can be tricky though. They can lose their convincingness if one gets too close. That’s why some of the photos we showed in our talk show characters in real world settings like smoky subway cars and disco-lit dance floors.

Your lecture was great and I think you’d be wonderful in a classroom. Would you ever want to teach?

Thanks. We give the occasional lecture or talk, but teaching isn’t a priority at the moment. Academia seems to be more focused on assigning credit than on promoting good discourse anyways. But who knows where we’ll be in the future?

Guu Magazine at GuuPress.com

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