"Pulses of Abstraction utterly transforms our understanding of the form and history of animation. Diving deep into techno-aesthetic experiments with form in abstract animation—lines, color, photograms, frequencies, and digital codes—it shows that animation is not merely a kind or genre of cinema. Animation is the mode of technical individuation for moving image media, a vital creating that gathers up individual artists, artworks, and audiences in a distinctive movement of thought. Andrew R. Johnston thus overturns film history, too, revealing a non-linear pulse of techno-animist dissensus rumbling beneath our chronological habits."—Thomas Lamarre, University of Chicago
"Pulses of Abstraction is an erudite book that addresses histories and theories of technology, cinema, philosophy, music, and art through the lens of experimental animation. Without losing sight of the animations under discussion as ‘sensuous works,’ Andrew R. Johnston shifts our focus away from the screen to how these works are made. Drawing on a vast body of archival material and engaging big aesthetic questions, Johnston shows how paying attention to the technological problems that drive experimentation enriches our ability to do aesthetic analysis, and he develops a precise and original vocabulary for describing experimental animation that is sorely needed. This book is a gift to the field."—Karen Redrobe, University of Pennsylvania
"Pulses of Abstraction is not only an essential contribution to animation and cinema, media studies, and media archaeology, it demonstrates the necessity of bringing these three fields into relation. Its exemplars—weirdly beautiful and beautifully weird—constitute a canon which, in Andrew R. Johnston’s animate analysis, becomes a new foundation for studies of time-based media materialisms."—Matthew Kirschenbaum, University of Maryland
"A fascinating and important look at some key voices in abstract animation and how their unique perspectives overlapped with technical innovations to create new visions and trends."—Cartoon Brew
"Pulses of Abstraction takes an innovative approach to animation history, combining key figures, elements, techniques and technological developments."—Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television
