Text about Process

Working with Brad and dancers, as well as with Jeremy and his electronic compositions, has led me down a whole new path of inquiry - what is the optimal way to collaborate with people and creative work of other media and departments. After seeing the range and grace of the human body as dancers rehearse in the studios, I start to wonder "why don't our animators in the art department have a mandatory dance class"? Or why don't our video artists learn visual texture, rhythm and narrative from electronic musicians instead of just visual artists.

In terms of my own role and process of creating visuals for this animation, I have gone about the task by pulling the most inspiring imagery and ideas from geology (Pele's hair, geological time, subduction zones and tectonic movement) and think of the dancers in Brad's choreography as agents who can carry out the metaphors hidden within those geological principles/wonders. Since this is my first time creating visuals for a dance piece, many questions have come to mind such as: at what points should the visual backdrop support or be a counter-point to the dancers on the stage. The dichotomy of harmony and discord comes to mind when thinking about timing, color and texture in this video piece.

For much of the 3D animated background, I am starting with real source material, mostly taken photographs of stones and minerals as well as from HD video footage of volcanic activity, and pulled abstracted forms out of them. I have been creating movement in an animation from still photographic source material. This act itself makes me think of geological time, a living moving and breathing system that is wildly dynamic under our feet, though one that appears still and immutable due to our human frame of reference.  This type of translation that I speak of can be seen in the following stills from the animation:

In this image, on the left is a still from the animation where a slow-moving roll of extruded stone is seeing stuttering along (alluding to time lapsing by). Different levels of texture, camera angle, focus and background are introduced to create space. On the right is the source image used to create the first section of the animated roll sequence. If you look closely, it's possible to identify the common elements between the source and animation screenshot.