This Happened

Chris O’Shea, Andreas Muller and Joel Gethin Lewis present….

>>>This Happened

 

Hyper Island

A fun site with serious qualifications
>>>http://iad08.com

 

Alexandre Alexeieff : Cent Pour Cent 1957

More on Alexeieff and animated logos here >>>

 

Pierre Hébert

Population Exposion 1967

Pierre Hébert is one of those unclassified moving image artists, right out there on the boundaries. The work of the Canadian artist is wide ranging in form and technique. His 20 plus film career, the majority within the walls of the National Film Board of Canada, reveal an atypical creator who developed a hybrid of styles and techniques.
His first film, ‘Histoire Verte’, came into creation in 1963, scratched directly onto bleached film, the results mirroring earlier work of his predecessors, Norman McLaren and Len Lye. Etching directly upon the medium became an important technique for him and is recurrent throughout his career. Earlier experiments use simple graphic forms or blocks of colour that play with the viewers perception. Later works develop a more figurative approach to animation incorporating various techniques such as paper cut out, lettering, live action as well as more illustrative work.

Histroire Verte 1963

An interesting aspect of Hébert’s films is the connection with sound. Hébert played with the abstract qualities of sound; his first film mixes raw recordings of scrubbing and scratching noises most probably taken from the etching process itself. ‘Opus 3′, 1967 and ‘Around Perception’, 1968 were part of a series of more formalistic experiments with sound and image. These films all played with the concept of retinal persistance, the intermittent flashing of basic graphic forms, overlaying to create new forms and new combinations. The visuals are crude however the quality of abstraction is effectively expressed. With all these early experiments, it is the music that acts as a narrative structure.

Around Perception 1968

In later films, he begins to work with more musical compositions albeit within the free framework of improvisation. Many of the projections for Hébert’s work found their place within live performances, musicans improvising along with the film. For ‘Technology of Tears’, 2004, the music was performed by Fred Frith and John Zorn. It was created for a live dance performance the moving images becoming an integral part of the mise-en-scène. He even had Ornette Coleman score one of his more figurative and political works, ‘Population Explosion’, 1967, and this relationship with improvised music shaped many of his notions about how to animate and cut his films to such an extent that he went on to scratch directly onto film in live perfomance with the musicians.

 

Emile Reynaud

The French director Joris Clerté has a knack for simple yet effective story telling. In this particular animation, he traces the success and final downfall of Emile Reynaud’s Praxinoscope with which he had entertained many a Paris crowd at the Musée Grevin just before the turn of the 20th century.

Be sure not to miss Clerté’s latest work for the Olympics – http://www.doncvoila.net

 

Kyle & Karin on Tape

>>> Part Two Here

And for some further insight, here is a short documentary on film titles – 90’s style !
>>> Watch Part One
>>> Part Two

 

Offf Lisbon 2008

Artwork photographed at the Castelo de S. Jorge, Lisbon 2008

I had documented a few thoughts and reactions in coming back from last years Offf in Barcelona. So, it seems pertinent to develop a little on these with regards to this years event in Lisbon. Amidst the numerous conferences given over the three day event, there was one line of work that underlined my initial thoughts on a shift in design and inspired interest beyond many who were simply happy to present online portfolios.

The key conference on data visualization makes for a complete write up. And I will have something up on the subject soon. Suffice to say for this post, that the panel of Aaron Koblin, Santiago Ortiz and Manuel Lima, presented by José Luis de Vicente, was a wonderful introduction to what is becoming an increasingly important development in design.

This links and is directly concerned with motion design. The dimensions of time and space have taken earlier works in visualization to another level, one that is non linear and interactive. I had recently posted a piece by French designer, Vadim Bernard which is entitled ‘Statistics’. This rather simple animated visualization is a brilliant and efficient example of what data visualization is about : The use of graphic representation of abstract data to communicate ideas as well as amplify cognition. Put simply, making data visibly meaningful. However, what we were presented with at Offf, was on a whole new level that takes the designer across the fence into fresh fields of science and computer programming of systems. This whole new breed of work not only brings together a multitude of disciplines it demands the very need to create communication across those disciplines and this is something that is becoming increasingly important. It marks a considerable shift in thinking about what ‘design’ is.

On another note, but one that links nicely to the above reflection, is the fascinating project set up by Chris O’Shea, Andreas Muller and Joel Gethin Lewis, entitled, ‘This happened…..’ The project focuses on interaction design and its process of creation, the purpose of which is to encourage participation from a variety of professional backgrounds.

In my post for last years event, I mentioned an increasing trend in research as part of the design studio set up. It appears the research is finally coming out of the lab and opening up new paths of reflection and creation. The future for design is exciting.

 

Hyper Island

posted with vodpod

Yvonne Lu, Digital Media student from Hyper Island, talks about her last project and the animated video that was the outcome of that project.

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I was recently contacted by the Swedish Digital Media School, Hyper Island in order to spread the word about their diploma programs. As some may already know, Motion Design is a research blog with the intention of gathering and sharing knowledge in the domain and so I am pleased to be part of their tour.

Here’s a short presentation of the school and the tour project.

“Hyper Island is one of the most credible Digital Media-, Interactive Art Director- and Business Management-school in Sweden. Hyper Island is now recruiting to their Diploma Programs for English speaking people and this video is one of ten videos with the purpose to show what to expect when studying at Hyper. Ten different video clips will be touring exclusively on a few sites as well as on Hyper’s blog.

You can find more information about Hyper Island on their web site and on their blog; www.hyperisland.se and www.hyperisland.blogspot.com. Applicants and other interested are more than welcome to raise questions on Hyper’s blog or on your site. We will answer them all!”

 

Wim Crouwel Video

posted with vodpod

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>>> Watch the whole interview here

 

Weird Fishes : Radiohead meets Robert Hodgin