Prometheus’ Modern Life: How USC Re-Animated Frankenstein
The floating head of Dean Catherine Quinlan, projected on Doheny Library, disguised with a custom Frankenstein Snapchat filter by USC animation alumnx Yo-Yo Lin. (image via University of Southern California)
It was raining when the fourth wall broke at University of Southern California’s Doheny Library, on April 4, 2019. The building’s facade served as the screen, on which projected the face of USC library dean Catherine Quinlan, who activated a custom Snapchat filter, replacing her visage with that of a black and white classic movie monster. Addressing the gathered audience, she recited a quote from the 1931 film adaptation adaptation of Frankenstein. “I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you.”
And then the celebration began. The library transformed into a meticulously projection-mapped stage of visual art and live performance, serving nearly an hour of interpretation, deconstruction, and resurrection of Mary Shelley’s foundational science fiction novel, Frankenstein. Combining animation, original music, dance, architecture, theatre arts, installation, and the aforementioned Snapchat filter, an unprecedented achievement for the school manifested: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Re-Animated.
The live interdisciplinary performance was conceived by Amy Murphy, Professor of Architecture, and Lisa Mann, Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts in the John C. Hench Division of Animation & Digital Arts, and the USC Libraries. Inspired by how affecting I found the recording of Re-Animated, I reached out to Murphy and Mann by email, and they responded to my questions about the project jointly.
“You have to understand that this kind of cross-campus collaboration has never been done before at USC,” say the Re-Animated masterminds.
Very little on this scale had even ever been attempted at USC. All six of the university’s art schools were conscripted into the celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of Frankenstein, bringing together a team of nearly 200 students, faculty, library, staff, and alumni to dig up and breathe life into the most resonant parts of Shelley’s story. Rather than dictate and micromanage so much creative energy, Murphy and Mann learned from their source material and let life take its course.
“Once we decided on this approach, and that it would take the form of a patchwork of student projects stitched together—literally ‘Frankensteined’ together into an exquisite corpse (pun intended)—the process was organic.”
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The monster’s assembly is a psychedelic anatomy parade, animated by Eli Ayres. (image via University of Southern California)
Frankenstein: Re-Animated took 18 months to build and the results were poetic. Each artist involved in the whole acted as a bone, organ, or muscle in the larger artistic beast. The various components, while distinct in their own way, fit together in a collage that summarizes the story, celebrates its history, communicates the gothic ambiance of Frankenstein—an achievement made all the more shocking when you consider the various levels of familiarity each collaborator had with the source material, and the limited scope of their personal contributions.
“To be honest, I only knew the rough outline of the Frankenstein story,” says Robert Wolf, a composer whose music scores a psychedelic parade of anatomy representing the monster’s assembly (animated by Eli Ayres). “Through pop-culture, I have of course come across it several times, but I never read the original novel by Mary Shelley or even watched a full Frankenstein movie. As a horror story, it was never super interesting to me, even though I do read and love other classic horror authors like H. P. Lovecraft.”
“In that sense, the project felt really fitting to my impression of the Frankenstein story, since all my associations with it are fragmented, pieced together from cartoon, comedy or film references. A collage of different eras, styles and genres. That's what I found really smart about this approach to show the Frankenstein story in all these different art styles.”
Given the collage aspect, it’s amazing how coherent the finished result was. Various levels of familiarity, different creative languages, the simple fact of how many people were involved—there was nothing normal about the Re-Animated process.
As a lead composer on other projects, like the virtual reality game Fall From Grace, Wolf is used to having a view of the entire picture. “I'm usually in close conversation with only one or two people and I'm usually writing all the music a certain project needs, so most of the time I write a lot of music in a very similar style. Frankenstein: Re-Animated was unique in that it allowed me to explore a lot of different musical ideas in only a few minutes of music.”
And therein, I suspect, lies the key to the success to Frankenstein: Re-Animated. After 200 years of circulation, celebration, and re-imagining, it is too many things for too many people for a unified aesthetic to capture what it means. Even in our own interpretations are pieces of a larger, undying entity.
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Re-Animated was a massive interdisciplinary collaboration between USC’s six art schools, combining dance, animation, music, architecture, theatre , and art & design. (image via University of Southern California)
Frankenstein Re-Animated ends with an epilogue celebrating the strong influence Mary Shelley’s novel in contemporary pop culture. The Powerpuff Girls, Terminator, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels starring Michael Fassbender as an artificial human—all of these contain Frankenstein DNA, brought to life with that same 200 year old spark of pathos, curiosity, and horror. The genre’s characteristic lack of answers and closure helps keep its inquiry alive through the generations. What we value in Frankenstein, and in all classic horror with longevity, are whatever questions allow us to probe our own fears.
“Although we were interested in the idea of scientific discovery, most of the students and faculty became more interested in the Creature’s P.O.V.” say the creators. “The fact that he was someone rejected. His otherness. The way he was misunderstood, perceived and treated by society as a monster. This theme is absolutely relevant and relatable today, but rarely explored.”
And it was through this lens, borne through such unbridled collaboration and exploration, that their own perspectives changed. Through the project, Murphy and Mann say they discovered deeper humanity and emotional depth in the text. The focus on the creature that emerged from their own construction, revealed new readings of the monster’s loneliness and struggle for identity.
Discussion and celebrations of horror like Frankenstein: Re-Animated allow stories we know to morph into our modern anxieties. They teach us the enduring value of unanswerable questions, and show us new angles of our enduring fears. So when Murphy and Mann say they would happily remount their production, that’s reason to celebrate: every thrill, every shock, every horrific experience is another chance to see ourselves reflected (or projected) in the masterful artwork of Mary Shelley.