The highlights in the past year of digital animation, this selection of works favouring abstraction over representation, and experimentation over application.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2005
The Digital Space 2005
Digital animation remains an amorphous term. Depending on the platform of the lecturer, digital animation may be the natural development of the art of animation, referencing all that came before it; an all-new aesthetic, rewriting the rules as it sweeps all before it; or a powerful aesthetic development shaped predominantly by commercial applications. The arguments will, hopefully, never be resolved. The Festival is delighted to stir each of these pots within this selection of works favouring abstraction over representation, and experimentation over application.
Obras 2004
A single-take, technical tour-de-force. A poetic journey through the crumbling ruins of Barcelona’s irreversible destruction.
Empire 2005
The perfect juxtaposition – an imagined, invisible array of modern weaponry is imposed onto real footage of a more gentle time.
Ninja Tune: Highlights 2004
This legendary UK music video label was created in 1990 by Coldcut. Eschewing the normal desire to have their work screened on TV, they instead concentrate on works which turn up in the clubs, raves and concerts. In lieu of an entire programme of their best work, here are a couple of highlights – Jaga Jazzist: "Animal Chin" (by AKFF!) and Bonobo: "Flutter" (by Ben White & Chris Rule). Enjoy.
The Journey 2004
A charming and evocative, although somehow fraught, journey through a gently undulating digital landscape.
Grau 2004
Pure abstraction at its very finest and most imaginative.
Will The Summer Make Good For All Of Our Sins 2004
A truly creepy, nightmarish world virtually seeps off the screen and slowly spreads its tentacles into the theatre.
Kontrol-Eskape 2005
Digital animation legend ‘mAt&spoN’ thrusts his latest masterpiece onto the screen. A demented hand rampages through a machine cityscape.
Chrysalide (Pt 1) 2004
An astounding tour de force of pure character animation. The filmmakers have generously allowed this fully animated extract of a larger experimental film to screen.
Don’t Touch Me When I Start To Feel Safe 2004
An utterly transfixing digital manipulation of photo-realistic figures.
Loop 2004
An astoundingly rich three-dimensional world traversed simultaneously by a speeding camera and a crawling snail.