Paul Winkler: Migrating from analogue to digital practice

This article investigates the self-taught experimental animation practice of German-Australian moving image artist Paul Winkler. His practice embraces an array of image manipulation techniques, some of which he invented. This practice originated in 1964, spanning over 50 years, and has recently productively migrated from analogue to digital production. What happens to this practice when we move to digital production? Winkler’s trajectory offers a case study in the shifts and resilience of experimental animation practice through the lens of Vilém Flusser’s ‘technical image’. Flusser’s concept was developed in response to a pervasive digital culture but also reaches back into proto-cinema, maps and prehistoric cave painting.