That (Yorkshire) Sound

Currently I’m developing an animated portrait series – audio interviews, recorded soundscapes, drawings and forms assembled as experimental animations. The visual language and vocabulary will vary to best describe each person.

I just watched this beautiful short film, That Yorkshire Sound, by Marcus Armitage. The visual style is varied but weaves the story together.

I love the way the short audio clips are brought to life with his evocative drawings, or sometimes the other way around. Both sound and visuals complement one another in a way that doesn’t always happen.

The presentation reminded me of why I also loved animated Marfa by The Brothers McLeod…like looking through a sketchbook, we experience the hints of narrative as an environment of visual and sound bytes, and the overall interpretation stays up to us.

SWOON: deep dive

I first began noticing SWOON‘s artwork on the streets in Brooklyn in 1998? 99 – beautiful intricate art pasted to buildings, on walls and in doorways. Her installations have also long been an inspiration, and now I’m loving seeing her new experiments with animation.

The short stop motion pieces are featured mostly on her instagram page… facebook too I think.

An excerpt from an article in Juxtapoz magazine:

“[stop motion] opens up so much potential for the creation of meaning and narrative. And because our thoughts and dreams unfold over time, I really get the sense that time-based mediums speak to the subconscious in unique ways, which I’m enjoying playing with. It’s so much fun to take a deep dive and learn something solo, from scratch.”

So good to see new experiments and here’s to all those pushing themselves (and their work) onward.