AnimateTV 2008 is back on the telly

The hour long AnimateTV programme that was first broadcast in September 2008 is back on the TV - for one night only.

The programme, featuring all 7 films and interviews with the artists, is being repeated on Channel 4 on Monday night (2 February) at 12.20am and will be followed later on by Tim Hope's 2004 AnimateTV film Minema Cinema at 1.35am.

Michael Aubtin Madadi, creator of Tear Drops Blossom, has even done a nice drawing here to celebrate the repeat.


Image: Damaged Goods, Barnaby Barford

Putting Viewers First

This is a report from the UK's media regulator, Ofcom, on the future of public service broadcasting, and it matters to us because we a) work with Channel 4 and b) consider animateprojects.org as a form of public service broadcasting...  and Arts Council England's submission did indeed encourage the view that "publicly funded media ‘content’ such as the work Arts Council England funds (is) public service broadcasting and media
content."

John Wyver articulates our own concerns succinctly on his blog - the report really sticks it to 'arts broadcasting', asserting how the public rated the arts on television as a low priority. But what were the questions exactly? The report refers to 'the arts and classical music' - and if that was how the question was put, I'm sure people might well think how they download all the classical music they need and they don't watch opera on tv...so...score it low. But would people think how that funky AnimateTV programme they saw last night that was right up their alley was an arts programmes, so yes, they're a priority. It's grim - it's surely skewed evidence - but it's evidence for tv bosses to use against us! grrrrrrr.

The report also lumps together the arts with religion. Jesus Christ.

Animation Breakdown Weekend at Tate Modern

We are very excited to be working with Tate Modern on a weekend of screenings and discussion that will" explore the relationships between drawing, moving image, and the influence of digital technologies". Though I keep on calling it 'Animate Breakdown', which isn't sending out the right signals at all...

On 21 March, the Animation Breakdown Study Day will kick off with an illustrated talk by Brussels based curators Stoffel Debuysere and Maria Palacio Cruz. Artist panels will focus on drawing, photographic and digital practice. Confirmed participants include: Simon Faithfull, Ann Course, Dryden Goodwin and Emily Richardson. International artists attending include Joshua Mosley (USA) and Samba Fall (Senegal/Norway). The sessions will be chaired by curator Angela Kingston, Steven Bode (Director, Film and Video Umbrella) and David Chandler (Director, Photoworks).

On Friday 20 and Saturday 21 there are two 'Computer Baroque' screenings, curated by Richard Wright. Short Films on the Friday - a selection of defining works in the history of artists’ digital moving image that represent a period in which computer animation was the focus for the most audacious and exuberant experiments across all areas of new media, art and technology. The programme includes rarely seen works by Karl Sims, William Latham, Paul Garrin, Tamas Waliczky, Ruth Linford, Shelley Lake and James Duesing.

And on Saturday, a rare screening of WAX, or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees (David Blair, USA/Germany, 1991) - one of the earliest examples of how to use inexpensive, digital production methods, including computer animation by the now well-known media theorist Lev Manovich. Blair constructs a long-form, hallucinatory narrative that ties together the first Gulf War, flight simulators, psychic research...and bee keeping. Followed by a Q&A with David Blair.

Booking information and online booking here.

We'll be updating the programme here.

Organised by Animate Projects and Tate Modern in association with the Animation Department at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London and The Drawing Room Gallery. Supported by Arts Council England.


The image is from Time Tear by Sebastian Buerkner.

Flatpack Festival 09

We've been invited by the good folk at 7 Inch Cinema to put together a panel event for this year's Flatpack. So Animate Projects will be presenting 'Flipping Heck', featuring top talent Mark Simon Hewis, Stephen Irwin, Thomas Hicks and Suky Best on Friday 13 March.

Seems that the students and alumni of Birmingham City University are already looking to Stephen Irwin's film The Black Dog's Progress for inspiration for their shop window displays.

There's also, a special screening of Lorenzo Fonda’s documentary about Italian street artist Blu, Jim le Fevre will be rocking his Phonographantasmascope (turning record players into zoetropes), plus there'll be children's workshops, early cinema screenings and much, much more. And the special guests this year are David O'Reilly and Guy Sherwin.

Flatpack Festival brings an array of filmic delights to Birmingham from 11 to 15 March 2009.


Image: Unicycle Film, production still, Thomas Hicks

British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor - event this Thursday

Author event with Clare Kitson
Clare Kitson -Channel 4 commissioning editor responsible for animation from 1989 to 1999, and author of this excellent book is doing an illustrated talk at Pages of Hackney Bookshop this Thursday, 15 January. It starts at 7pm, costs £3, and you get a glass of wine as well.

Pages of Hackney
70 Lower Clapton Road, Clapton, London E5 0RN
Tel: 0208 525 1452

More information about the book here.

Tear Drops Blossom on the Great Wall

In December, Michael Aubtin Madadi had the pleasure of seeing his AnimateTV 2008 film, Tear Drops Blossom, projected onto the Great Wall of Oakland, a 100ft high wall in the centre of the City of Oakland, California. Michael has added some photos here to his blog that show how fantastic the film looks projected on such a large scale on a dark December night.

Image: Tear Drops Blossom on the Great Wall, © Michael Aubtin Madadi

The return of the projector with teeth

The 6th London Short Film Festival returns on Friday 9 January.


For 10 days, some of London's finest screening venues, including BAFTA, Shunt Vaults and Roxy Bar & Screen, will be hosting the best new music videos, documentaries, horror films and panel events.

The Festival opens at the ICA on Friday 9 January, 7.30pm, with a jam packed evening: DJ set by girl group Pens, live set by Midnight Expresso, visuals by Mr Hand By Hand and the premiere of the 3 Festival trailers funded by Vauxhall, directed by Lucia Helenka, Xanthe Hamilton & Michael Pearce, and Ben Slotover. Plus there's even a film screening of Lo-Budget Mayhem Shorts in the ICA Cinema 1 at 11pm (for tickets, see the ICA website).

On 18 January, you can catch The Black Dog's Progress and The Life Size Zoetrope on the big screen in the Leftfield + Luscious programme, 4.30pm, ICA Cinema 1 , in a collection of innovative and abstract new films; one of which will be awarded the Wallflower Press Award for best experimental film.

See you there?


Image: The Black Dog's Progress, Stephen Irwin

Aryan Papers - Kubrick - Jane and Louise Wilson

A nice start to the year is this write up in The Guardian about a Jane and Louise Wilson film we've commissioned with BFI Southbank and The Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts, London.