Animation allows play and imagination to occur out of anything and everything. As designated in the etymology of the root Latin word anima which translates as air, breath, spirit, soul, or life, animation truly gives liveliness to all things. Furthermore, certain elements around us have the natural potential of being kinetic and my interest is to harvest that perspective instead of producing new compositions. Water, fire, clouds, sun, wind, and most of nature’s components have an innate spirit to themselves by default and the animator’s role could be to merely document the world around him and put it in the context of his story. Besides, in my opinion, insects, trees, and rivers are a rather unexposed (or perhaps forgotten) crew of central characters that might bring novelty to the stop-motion medium. We see so many fantastical creatures that often fail to exploit a phenomenal incarnation, whereas it is a natural given trait to a storm.
Moreover, new studies show that arithmetic has biological origins, and since animation is intrinsically rooted in mathematics, it makes it even more natural to follow this phenomenal correspondence. The research discovers that bees can take a meandering journey to find nectar but then return by the most direct route, as if they can calculate the direction and distance home. So many more living beings around us have a rhythmical dance with nature that is fascinating to observe and allows us to see things in ourselves that we alone cannot understand (plus teach us algebra). Why not embrace this natural flow, instead of consistently inclining towards new, diverse, and massive construction? We are so spellbound by consumerism that we don’t even question our automatized work routines. Don’t mistake me, I am not saying we shouldn’t build new things, I am all in for developing fresh, new, innovative designs, but we can do this by exploiting the already existing resources. Or at least try not to produce new piles. Or somehow reuse them.
In my new stop-motion "No one ever looked at elephants as you do" I treat nature as one of my main protagonists. Because the film's structure allows me to play with the category "traditional characters" I decided not to involve puppets or creatures, but instead introduce objects, nature, and body transformation as such. Perhaps it is important to mention that the storytelling doesn’t submit to a classical plot-line where conflict, fear, resolution, and catharsis are the basic principles of narration, however, I think that the film has its own dramaturgical pulse.
'The process started in my early pregnancy when I began to take photos of my growing stomach and didn’t know what will be the outcome. Three years later, I am deep in production with the smell of lavender air freshener to cover up my studio's nebulous stink of organic decay. Luckily, I am surrounded by most of my daughter’s toys, so if nothing else, I play a lot. To start with, I am sharing a very pop-culture example of how I think the artist expressed very vividly the meaning behind the music by experimenting with hybrid animation of nature. Enjoy!
The information about the Bee knowing the shortest way back home was very new to me.
ReplyDeleteBut yes I agree that we can use the nature in so many ways, but no one is really reasearching this 'ways'. It seems like we never want to listen to nature. Mostly because it would take us to much time.