FA7P42 - Narrative Contexts in Animation and Architecture Exhibition
Apologies if this post is better late than never but life has been rather hectic with me in the past couple of months what with preparing to move to my new flat and searching for animation jobs.
The exhibition was in collaboration with Bloomsbury Publishing and the London International Animation Festival. It took place on 1st December 2016 and had Crossovers between animation and architecture, the main disciplines of the exhibition.
A short film was shown on Vimeo and introduced visitors to the exhibition. It is a work-in progress project by BA students.
Nag Vladermersky, founder of the LIAF, could not make it to the private view of the exhibition.
The main aim of Narrative Contexts in film was to create "new aesthetic experiences rather than rational or literal representation" of ideas.
Speakers included animation course leader Mark Collington, Professor Graeme Brooker and part-time MA Animation students Richard Haynes and Sophie Burrows.
There were several projects on display such as the BA set design project, the Museum of London 3D zoetrope and a mixture of work from both BA and MA animation students.
Lists and notices of works-in-progress
Notices for the Museum of London Thomas Becket 3D zoetrope project
My BA film Looming Marvellous: Living with Asperger Syndrome on the screen.
My MA film The Five Senses of Asperger Syndrome on the screen.
Richard Haynes's The Wind in the Willows caravan display
John Taber's set design
Mark's book Animation in Context, which I deigned the cover for, was also on display at the exhibition.
A slide of the book cover of Animation in Context was shown alongside the process of writing and publishing the book.
Semiotics and Semantics
Semiotics is the study of signs while semantics have more emphasis of body language and hand gestures. For example there is an image from the Disney Pixar film Up (2009) of Carl and Ellie in a hospital or GP room and Ellie has her head in her hands, Carl is placing his hands on her shoulders and the doctor is talking to them. In semiotic terms there are signs of despair in terms of Ellie being told she has either had a miscarriage or is infertile. In semantic terms Ellie is crying as she has her head in her hands to show she is upset about the miscarriage or her possible infertility while Carl's hands on her shoulders represent comfort.
Museum of London project
Thomas Becket was the main focus of the Museum of London project. Each badge was based on original pilgrim badges and was made either by laser cutting on wood or out of clay. The replica badges were then made into a 3D zoetrope that, when spun around with strobe lighting lighting them, gives them the illusion of movement.
Graeme Brooker (far right in photograph below)
The first panellist was Professor Graeme Brooker. He discussed how found objects can be turned into representations of architecture to tell a story. He has written several books about architecture.
His book Adaptations is about narrative contexts in architecture, such as that of "a building that has become redundant or has lost its value."
The inspiration for his book has eight strategic stages:
Reprogramming - strategy about changing use.
Intervention - teasing the narrative
Superuse - this term was coined by Dutch architects. Architects would search for matter outside the project and use it in the project.
Artifice - the art of constructing an expedient trick.
Installation - straightforward term of installing a space for an exhibition.
Narrative - the key topic of Graeme's book.
On/off Site - building architecture on site prototype away from the buildings.
Insertion - building something that fits inside or around an existing building
Sophie Burrows - using stop-motion to express anxiety
Sophie is especially fascinated by how anxiety can affect our sensory factors. Her profession is education-based.
Sophie shared a list of common anxiety triggers and fears such as being out of control, being ridiculed due to anxiety a few doing something wrong.
Stop motion "explores scale and space," "provides a paradox between peripersonal and extrapersonal space" and "possesses haptic space."
Recreating anxiety triggers in the form of animation could lead to people being more understanding of anxiety.
One slide shows two versions of the same image. The first image is the original while second image is a manipulation of the original that shows how people suffering with anxiety would see it.
The following slide shows sketches based on the photographs on the previous slide. The sketch on the left has added people on the seats to show that people with anxiety find it hard to cope with crowded spaces.
Richard Haynes (far right in photograph below)
Richard has worked for Aardman. He based his Caravan of Curiosities, which is on display at the exhibition, on the caravan in the 1983 stop-motion adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, which was his childhood obsession.
His main focus of the project is nostalgia and he read a book called Yearning for Yesterday.
Despite The Wind in the Willows quite often being believed to be aimed at children, Kenneth Grahame did not intend to write it for children although he wrote it for his son.
Instead of using the original materials to build his caravan, Richard made it out of foam board.
Richard studied semiotics for the construction of his caravan.
The caravan was originally displayed at the 2016 Summer Show at the London Met.
Richard is an amateur actor in his spare time. He combines his passion for acting with his passion for nostalgia. One play he recently performed in was The Pirates of Penzance.
In addition to stop-motion animation, Richard wants to experiment with Adobe After Effects and 2D animation.
Richard's current project is based on the four seasons.
