Another Storycorps story... John and Joe

This animation isn't technically something I would ever try to emulate myself, and it definitely wouldn't have been the style I would have picked for such a sad story, but somehow it works. I think maybe it's because it doesn't overpower the voice of John Sr. His story is at the forefront, which is how animation like this is supposed to work. So although it's a bit cartoony, you could say it's not as stylistically sophisticated as some of the other animations I look at e.g. the modern love ones, it works because it has heart.

What a nice idea! (Storycorps)

A while ago I heard about this and thought it was a really lovely and amazing idea to get people communicating more with each other and actually listening to each other's stories. Everyone loves hearing a good story and other recent projects such as Humans of New York have proved this. People are interested in each other's daily lives, their stories of love or loss and hardship because it makes us feel more human ourselves. I personally am addicted to reading the Modern Love Column, and it's not because I'm a soppy romantic (almost as many of the stories are about lost/failed love, familial love or friendship, as there are stories of true love conquering all). In a technological age where everything is fast-paced and abbreviated, it seems people still feel the pull of a well-told story.
Storycorps is an online archive of such stories, told and recorded by everyday people. They've created an app that allows you to record your conversation and upload it straight to the storycorps archive, and have come up with a set of questions to help those of us who don't know where to start. What's more, they've even started animating some of the stories as well!

Throwback Tuesday! Selfridges

This time last year I had just been interning with Selfridges' VM department, and helping them create their Christmas displays. I think this was a good experience for me in terms of showing me what I'm really interested in. I came into the process a little too late I think, and missed the creative designing part, which would have made me feel more involved. Spray-painting the trees gold and doing the actual crafting of pieces for the window displays was really lovely as it reminded me of stage design work I'd done in the past, but as with most voluntary jobs there were dull tasks. I didn't get to help at all with the main window displays, as they probably weren't sure of my capabilities, which did leave me stringing up fairy lights and 'fluffing' fake Christmas trees in the store, occasionally on my own. Personally I find working in a large company less rewarding than for a small team, but it might have taken me longer to realise this had I not tried volunteering for Selfridges.

Saturday Club Workshops

I'm currently planning 2 workshop sessions for MMU's Saturday Art Club in the new year. I volunteered with NADSC last academic year and over the summer. It's a nationwide initiative run by the Sorrell Foundation, which seeks to inspire creativity in young people. Last summer they had stalls at both weeks of New Designers and there are Saturday Clubs all over the country now. It's doing really well and seems to be growing from strength to strength so I'm always so happy to be involved in volunteering or running the workshops.

The workshops I'm involved in during January are based on a 4 week programme of papercraft. I'm planning one workshop based on a similar activity session I ran last year, which encourages the SatClubbers to create their own storyboards, shadow puppets and scenery for a shadow puppet theatre. Two weeks later they'll be creating artist books (concertinas, pop-up and pocket books) with me, after having been inspired by Special Collections the previous weekend.
More news on this in the New Year.

Jazz site

Over the summer I did some assisting work for film maker, Antony Barkworth-Knight on the Manchester Jazz Festival and he's just made a lovely little site talking about the project and who was involved. My first professional animation job has some official accreditation, and hopefully this will lead to some future festivals being interested in showing the film!

The Evolution: Seeds and Streams site

 

 

 

Origami Penguins

I've recently worked two days with Antony Barkworth-Knight on his latest project for the Manchester based band, Go Go Penguin. We're creating some visuals for the band's tour which will be projected behind them on stage. This is Antony's project so he's running the show and doing all the film work, but he's had me in studio creating various origami paper shapes for the content. 
These visuals correspond to the music video he made for Go Go Penguin's new album, so they have a cohesive look for the tour. Although, he's gone for more variety in the paper constructions he's had me making, and I've been developing geometric and organic structures rather than following traditional origami techniques of creating recognisable shapes such as animals. 
I've been experimenting with a variety of folds, modular pattern making, different types of paper and using scored lines and slices to create 3D paper models. 
I'm reliving the Paper Structures module in Art Foundation and it's been rather lovely to spend two days remembering all those techniques and inventing new ones. 

This video is the work Antony did for Go Go Penguin's new album and the premise upon which we've been working for the new tour visuals.

Artists Assemble!

YES!!! The Turner Prize has been won this year by a group who do not necessarily conform to the traditional notion of being artists, but have made arts part of the community. Lovely to see so much going on in terms of the social benefits of art lately and finding more and more people are using creative thinking to tackle community issues. They are not separate entities at all. Art does have the power to change things!
And all under the age of 30, making them the youngest winners of the Turner Prize ever. How wonderful. And for a project in my local area. I'm liking it even more.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/07/turner-prize-2015-assemble-win-by-ignoring-art-market