PERFORMANCE — footnote episodes

Footnote #71 - Synthespians

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.

FOOTNOTE PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJanuary 19, 2026PERFORMANCE, TECHNOLOGY, DIGITAL, CHARACTERComment

Footnote #70 - Pantomime

Sound, performance, and the body come together in this Footnote episode discussing pantomime as an entertainment spectacle, as Chris and Alex seek to map the possible connections between pantomime as a popular theatrical tradition emerging in the 17th century and both animation’s own technologies and representations and legacies of fantasy.

FOOTNOTE PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantDecember 8, 2025FILM HISTORY, PERFORMANCE, ANIMATION, THEATREComment