The Mascot

I think it's about time I mentioned The Mascot, a film I watched a year or so ago, shown to me by a friend. After watching it again recently I think there is definitely some influence to my current project. Namely, the act of showing of the creator pulling the creation to life, and also the mixture between live action and animation. I have seen puppets interacting with live actors (namely in the secret adventures of tom thumb) but it's usually via pixelation, which is nice but it's also refreshing to see a character react within a live set, environments and actors.

I really love The Mascot for it's technical achievements of the time. You watch some stop-motions in later years in comparison and they're actually quite clumsy. Starewicz had become a master animator by 1933, incorporating techniques never used before and rarely since, like moving the puppets during the actual exposure to create blurring for fast movement. Really only within the last 20 years stop-motion has made more of a technical jump in mainstream movies. But for some reason, I still refer the rawness of The Mascot.



The movie treats the characters more like toys that come to life; their expressions are extremely varied and you connect straight away with the characters because of this. The 30s were definitely a very expressive time in animation, everything is exaggerated and plots are governed more on the feeling that the director is trying to dismay. As a result most of the stories were nonsensical and more symbolic. I've always enjoyed the surreal like stories and plots and The Mascot is definitely one of them. The dog is trying to get an orange but in the process we are taken to strange worlds and see a multitude of strange and wonderful creatures. There is not much dialog in the movie either which makes it for the most part, an entirely visual and musical experience. My favourite animations are usually more sensory and seem to tap into something more inner, I find I can take more from something if less is said; where the visuals make up the story.



In relation to my work I think The Mascot has definitely been an influence in my test animations. The movement in the puppets is a little more jagged and I have always liked this affect of stop-motion; I do enjoy some contemporary stop-motion but sometimes I find they are too smooth and digitized with motion blur/airbrushing. Their is some motion blurring within this animation added by simply frantically moving the puppet in front of the camera, or through exposure, it's funny because it's a method I've used even before realizing The Mascot used it also.

In conclusion I find it quite sad that starewicz is so unknown even within the animation crowd; in my opinion it rivals disney, mccay, sullivan and other great animators of the time. Nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes.

Doug Aitken

Migrations - Doug Aitken

Leigh showed us this work a while ago and it's probably the one that's had the biggest impact on me. It's really in sync with my ideas about the wild in contrast to the pristine controlled environment we live in. Before viewing the work I had the idea that an animal that I created for my stop-motion could go beyond the set I create for it and find itself beyond where it was intended to go. I find this work quite endearing because these animals, while they seem quite out of place, don't seem anxious or worried themselves to be in such environments. While this is kind of the opposite one would expect, I guess in the end it really does say we are like the animal at core. We would probably all prefer to live in a warm, safe nest out of the cold.. But at what point does it become too much? At what point did we become so detached from the outside world that though an animal can survive where we are, we most likely couldn't survive where an animal does?

Bill Hart, James Barker and others

James Barker

I've been going to a few exhibitions lately of artists who use electronic media as their medium. One called Scarred by the Darkness featuring work from James Barker. I visited this exhibition a few weeks ago and I asked him if I could take some photos of the work. it was a very peculiar exhibition, there were no titles of the work, you just sort of were taken into a dark space and were threw around a little. Well, during my experience I came across this work which was probably my favourite.

You approached a with a screen situated down a long tunnel of mirrors. I couldn't resist the temptation of putting my whole head in their and looking around.

It was like another world in there. The mirrors made and endless array of the light flashing on the monitor. it was quite memorizing, I found myself going back to it multiple times. Though watching it was kind of eerie, here's this space created, just by reflections, and yet it felt as though I could place myself right into it. But it was dark and as the name of the exhibition suggests "scarred by darkness" quite a mysterious void of space that left me feeling almost empty. To me I think the work was about an endless journey, and what's at the end of it.. This work was almost just a question mark to the beyond. While many artworks pose these questions, I don't think I've been quite so taken by a media work asking it such as this for quite a while.

Here's some more works from the exhibition:

This work was haunting, pity I couldn't capture a very good photo, it was a bit dark. Anyway you peered your head through a small slit to view this mask, with what looked like entrails at the bottom of it. I was looking at this piece for quite a while too, I'm not sure I couldn't really decipher meaning from it, but the face, as faces do.. Seemed as if it was real, could have sworn I saw it move.

Another face, this one was connected to a whole range of things.. This one seemed less refined, the wax/plastic head had a light inside of it that behaved somewhat like a heartbeat. It was kind of interesting, but I didn't take much else from it than that. The exhibition as a whole was great though, Barker really transformed that space into a sleepless dream.

Bill Hart

Also went to see Bill Hart's exhibition The Guise of Thought at cast the other week.

Bill's work certainly just keeps getting better. I really love this collection of words that are seemingly floating in the an unconscious space. I watched it for a long time and let my own thoughts drift for a while. It made me think about how many thoughts I have that are just lost or forgotten, really makes me glad I've started blogging again in this journal, as well as my private one. I have so many ideas but often I'll just them linger until they become nothing. Sometimes you just have to grab an idea and expand it, write it down, spell it out. I found this work to be very in tune with how I've been treating my ideas for Emedia this semester. Often in the past my initial idea will grow into so many others, in my mind it's almost like a tree. But sometimes it's hard to try and remember those first sprouting roots. This time I'm trying not to get too carried away with meanings etc. I have my idea and I'm sticking to it, I'm certainly glad I'm so fond of my idea.

Research / Artists

Just been researching lately, thought I'd solidify some of my notes.

Relational Art, time - reality - fiction. A movement discovered by Nicholas Bourriaud, an art critic and philosopher in 1998. Relational art, formed when artists began showing their work online, on the street, everyday places sending their art through a system where anyone and everyone can view it. Art is no longer limited to a gallery or a 'stage', therefor the artist is seen less as a performer and more as a catalyst for making art pieces. The line is more blurred between the everyday opinion and the opinion of the art critic. The art piece has a relation with it's space, a relationship with the context and the history of where it is shown. I believe relational art ideally is all about context.

Artists involved with this movement who I personally find interesting are Angela Bulloch, Pierre Huyge and Carsten Höller.

Angela Bulloch Progression of 8 Perverted Pixels, 2008

7 DMX modules, 1 black box module. plexiglas, printed
aluminium panels, DMX cables, 1 RGB lighting system
DMX controller, size 52 x 52 x 52 to 62 x 70 x 62 cm

Works with boxes of coloured light, LEDs on canvas, like electronic paintings almost. Her interests lie in the structures and relationships and social behavior. Her art reflects the way in which we construct and interpretative information in the current age. I really love the bold colours of her work, very aesthetically pleasing and calming. Kind of a new age Rothko.

Soma - Carsten Höller
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

Höller's work are more like experiments that sometimes invite the viewer to participate. I like his work because he creatures such a diverse variety of stuff, from sculptures to electronic work and also work involving animals. I feel as if to get a true sense of it I would need to experience it in the flesh, but I like his style and I'm always a fan of art that gets people involved within it.

Pierre Huyghe, This is not a time for dreaming, 2004

Pierre Huyghe - Le Chateau de Turing, 2001

And of course I must mention Pierre Huyghe. I love where he gets his sources of inspiration and his sharing mentality. Bringing ideas from one place to another. His ideas and concepts very much gel with the idea of relational art. There's almost a child-like wonder to his work and I find my ideas and work relating to his. The idea of using characters as a catalyst to explain an idea or story, his connection with animation and bringing out one's inner child and bringing back the fascination we had of the world as children and our ability to look beyond the mundane and see something beautiful within it. Really enjoy his work!

Art Forum

Blurring the Boundries

Last friday I also went to a very entertaining art forum where Craig Walsh was speaking. His work is very impressive. I liked his blurring the boundries work, situating blown-up aquarium in a urban space. I also really loved his Classification Pending artwork. I think his work also relates to relational art. He often places his art in urban environments, street art with meaning. He creates his own galleries. As an artist I feel as though this doesn't happen enough in the art world, not thought provoking stuff anyhow. It's very limiting thinking my art will only ever be shown in galleries. He also made some permanent public artworks.

Classification Pending from Craig Walsh on Vimeo.

Permanent public artwork is an interesting concept, I'd very much love to have art that directly engages the community and steps beyond the gate of the art world. Everyone can enjoy art, you don't need to be a gallery go-er to get something from a piece, take Mona for example. As a animator I find myself a bit constricted in sharing works in all manner of spaces, and while I do also dabble in other mediums I find it difficult to ever stick to them. While I suppose I enjoy the idea of people watching my stuff in the comfort of their household through the internet or perhaps even TV one day, I think it's important to get directly involved with ones own community, to learn and grow as an artist, to be able to receive feedback up close.

Some more hands interacting with animation

Here's an animation I saw about a year a go created by Donato Sansone. The concept of the hand playing or interacting with the figures usually gives a feeling of a Godlike presence. However this piece is different, instead they seem to be orchestrating the piece. Amazingly constructed animation, the changed camera angles and nice flow of movement, it's very smooth and just seems like it has been recorded and sped up, but it's pure stop-motion. I think the only thing that lets it down is the sound.. Especially the crowd and the cheering, very sitcom like.. Doesn't fit the piece. I think music would have gone better with it. This would actually be great visuals to a music video. Still, the simple idea of sound effects would still work, if they were less corny. The sound is similar to my idea, except I don't intend to include an invisible stage crowd.

Here's an ad for Guinness, directed by Michael Schlingmann. He has some other similar work but this is a more known piece. I'm mentioning this because to focus more on the pixelation-side of things. People have done a lot of amazing work with pixelation, and I think this advert works really well. Maybe not as far as selling the product, but the visuals and sound work quite well together. It's like a hand dance. The only part where it falters is the concept seems a bit foggy. I think it's more something to "wow" people, and in this sense it wouldn't probably work in a gallery or otherwise. Still enjoyable to watch though.

Another piece that I've directed had influence from is "the secret adventures of tom thumb" (there's a clip in an earlier post of mine). It's a stop motion animation where animated puppets interact with human actors. I've taken a lot from the concept of the piece.. The animated character Tom is conceived by these human actors, it's very strange but also seems natural somehow. I think it's the relationship between the characters that makes it seem believable. Because of Tom's intimate size, when he interacts with his father there is a playful element. I took a lot from this film and I saw the connection between creation of this imaginary character and their creators, per say. While the film underlying message is a lot different to this concept, I think I took a lot more from it. I guess it's sort of like "the creation of adam" in a sense, although maybe less spiritual.