Han Dynasty

I'm excited to be helping young filmmakers involved in Jump Cuts make the animated part of a film about a wonderful exhibition at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.   The Search for Immortality is beautifully put together exhibition of tomb treasures from the Han dynasty.  The most spectacular object on display is the jade suit of armour, sewn together with gold thread.  Jade was thought to protect the body from decay and corrupting demons, I think the suit would also be worn in conjunction with 9 orifice plugs though, and this caught the young people's imagination.   There were many fascinating objects and it was very enlightening.  The group are going to make a documentary film with fictional elements with Ryd Cook and Rick Harvey, and I will join them over half term to animate.  The group were so extremely sparky, I can't wait to see what they come up with.

A second patch

We have been given a second allotment in West Ham. It looks like hard work in the photograph but we are four strong adults and we got the potatoes in just in time. The plot is the greatest complement to snipping and animating, although it's hard to get there at the moment because the Olympics is in the way. I'm not grumbling.  No I'm not.

Busy bees

In the last few weeks I've been very busy doing some green screen work, the analogue way, to make a new background for the beautiful KT Tunstall.  I've made a new house out of paper, and soon she can dance in there.

Darth Vada is getting a house too.

Easter

We've been very busy doing important things. 

Now we are back.  I have dealt with the funny smell in the studio and tidied up from our Pop up Picture Palace.  I'm going to be very merry working on a project for KT Tunstall, developing a new project with Emily Tracy and finishing the year's teaching at Anglia Ruskin.

Pop up Picture Palace

Here are a few lovely pictures taken by Amy Scaife on the night.

Popcorn!

Me, Ashley and Emily

Tony Tunes on his wind up grammaphone

Our lovely audience

Dick Turpin galloping through the audience

From Wood Street Train station

There was certainly a flurry of rendering yesterday before our Pop up Picture Palace was to take place at 7.30 in the evening.  The wall was just rendered by 3pm, the film by 3.05pm.  So Emily and I even had time to do hair and make up as Ashley's wonderful schedule suggested.  Yes, we dressed up and there was popcorn, golden chairs and Tony Tunes and his wind up gramaphone.  There will be many photos of the fantastic event, but tonight I will just post a before and after picture of the wall, we went back this evening to take a few pictures from the roundabout and give out the last of our programmes.

Our pop up picture palace poster

Ashley has made us a wonderful poster for our pop up picture palace.  Even though an event is counterintuitive to me as an animator, that poster makes me excited, but then I remind myself that there is a persistent amount of digging on the event pavement, the dentist wall that we will project upon is still patchy and we have got quite a lot of animation to do still.  Would Pro Plus be the professional answer?

David Hall - 1001 TV Sets (End Piece)

All these TV's, 1001 of them, are busy transmitting analogue signals from terrestrial channels, until the moment that the signal is switched off.  I wonder if David Hall knows when that will be? He is showing the work at University of Westminster's P3 Gallery until a few hours after that moment.  What an exciting artist he continues to be, and how fitting to have him signal the end of analogue telly with this amazing, huge, noisy, hot, live floorscape.  Go along if you can.