Friday, January 8, 2016

At the moment, We are at the end of week 1 of the Experimental Sand Animation Workshop. Throughout the week our understanding about the medium and our knowledge about the methods of animating using this medium has steadily but surely increased.
Our work usually begins with a session where we look at already existing works in this medium. We have already seen the few sand animation films that we have with us, but we viewed two of them again today, to remind ourselves of how sand has been used in animation already.The films were viewed as a way to remember that in sand animation maintaining the beauty of the medium and it's uniqueness is also equally important. Our recent efforts and trials were in a way leading to a more or less 2D and black and white kind of style. But correction of this slight change is on the way. The gradient and partial opacity the sand can produce is special to this medium, and including this effect in the film throughout is also important.  The learning experience prepares us to try new things, and experiment using this medium. Also it helps us to use the knowledge towards the completion of our project.

We also watched several animation films that combine orthodox narrative techniques with new approaches to challenge and subvert the dominant presentation that is usually conveyed in mainstream animation films.  

Examples of these films that we watched today are:  

The Street (1976) by Caroline Leaf, available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGWSYrgB6gM

Girls Night Out (1987)  by Joanna Quinn, available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ficrLSm-dYk

The Hand (1965) by Jiri Trnka, available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS4Th36zN_g

Thanking you,
Sincerely
Arjun Janardhanan Kappatan

Note:
The Street is a film that uses metamorphosis, and ink painting on glass to tell a realistic story centred on a young boy's emotions.  Girl's Night Out challenges female stereotypes with more realistic, natural depictions of women and The Hand was a political statement about freedom of expression.  These films contrast the artificiality of the kind of world that is commonly  presented to children in mainstream animation programming. 



1 comment:

  1. It is great that Augustine Kom has been in touch with us today from Manipur. It is difficult for him to get access to the internet, but we want to share the progress of the work with him, as this story is an inspiration from his Kom culture.

    I did ask Augustine a few questions. In response, he told me that to his knowledge, no animation films have been made previously on Kom storytelling. He also says that after completing his studies in August, he is planning to enrol in a two year course in Museology, because he can see that his cultural artifacts need to be interpreted to address the silence and be to be sustained. He feels that the young people of his community are very interested in animated artwork but that "no one has the technique, capacity, ability to put anything on it". He goes on to suggest that everyone in Manipur would enjoy the Kom stories in animation as they are well known in the area.

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