Animate Projects

Animate Blog Moving..

2011-08-02T10:21:00.003+01:00

We're not going to be blogging here anymore..we're going to be blogging at Animate Projects Observer instead. Please go check it out.And of course..keep track of us through..animateprojects.org for films, interviews, essays, newsSubscribe to our Monthly NewsletterOn Facebook: facebook.com/AnimateProjectsOn Twitter: @animateprojects @AnimateObserver

APEngine closing

2011-08-02T10:11:00.000+01:00

APEngine was an online journal project produced by Animate Projects. A space for debate and discussion across the area of moving image practice from a range of perspectives and a place in which to encounter and engage with different creative and critical ideas.APEngine launched at onedotzero‘s Adventures in Motion September 2009 and was Media Partner to AURORA 2009 in November. It was produced by

Arts Council England says animation and animators will be supported through its National Portfolio

2011-06-14T10:00:00.003+01:00

As we’ve mentioned before, Arts Council England rejected our application to be one of its National Portfolio Organisations because it was decided that Animate Projects did not fit into a “balanced portfolio”. NPO status would have meant core support for three years from April 2012, and would have enabled us to produce around 50 new works and exhibited over 150 experimental works online.We have

Animate OPEN Digitalis: deadline approaching

2011-06-09T15:05:00.000+01:00

The deadline for submission is fast approaching – there’s one week left to apply, all entries must be sent by 10am Monday 20 June. It’s our first exhibition selected from an open call.Animate OPEN Digitalis is for complete works by UK-based artists, animators and filmmakers, produced since January 2009. We are looking for works that - in a broad sense - explore, question, subvert or confound our

Animate OPEN: Digitalis

2011-05-19T14:14:00.003+01:00

Image: Digitalis © Sebastian BuerknerAnimate OPEN: DigitalisA fresh open for experiments in animationAnimate Projects - the champion of experimental animation – announces a call for its first online exhibition to be selected from an open submission.The Animate OPEN is part of Digitalis, a strand of activities throughout 2011 that sets out to explore, question, subvert or confound our expectations

#CUJOPRIMITIVE twitter competition winners

2011-04-08T11:55:00.007+01:00

Earlier in March we put together a competition to mark the UK DVD release of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. A grand prize of three copies of the Primitive issue of CUJO of which only 1000 copies have been published were up for grabs, quite the treat! We asked you to tell us three famous people or animals you would like to have been in your past lives.

de-animation - Arts Council England's new Portfolio

2011-03-31T17:39:00.005+01:00

Arts Council England’s head honcho Alan Davey was answering questions on The Guardian’s Culture Cuts blog this lunchtime, so we took the opportunity to ask why they’d decided, apparently, to exclude an entire artform - animation - from their new ‘Portfolio’ of funded organisations.Apparently we were wrong - animation is there, Alan said. There are ‘galleries and moving image companies such as

Arts Council Head Honcho doesn't answer our question

2011-03-31T13:56:00.003+01:00

From The Guardian blog:Animate Projects:I appreciate the difficult decisions, but the process doesn't seem completely 'transparent' to me, and nor does the 'intellectual framework'. I wonder how 'the best mix of organisations in terms of..artform' can exclude animation - the artform that my (hitherto ace funded) organisation specialises in.Animation is interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, something

now let’s see..where are we..

2011-03-30T18:05:00.002+01:00

In deciding which organisations to fund (from April 2012) as part of its new Portfolio. Arts Council England took the opportunity to ‘find a balance’ across its investment in the arts - including artform, size and type.So just what kind of ‘balance’ have they achieved?They shafted Animate Projects, but we’re just one organisation. Albeit the only organisation focused on experimental animation. Or

Animate Projects denied Arts Council England Portfolio status

2011-03-30T12:10:00.003+01:00

Animate Projects is sorry to announce that its application for Arts Council England's National portfolio funding from 2012 was unsuccessful, because there are ‘other arts organisations whose contribution fits better into the national picture’. As we announced in January, our application to Arts Council England’s Grants for the arts programme for

Competition: win a copy of the exclusive CUJO PRIMITIVE

2011-03-22T15:59:00.007Z

To mark the UK DVD release of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, we are pleased to offer three copies of the Primitive issue of CUJO as prizes. CUJO is ‘a magazine and a guide to the imaginary’. It’s free, published in Italy, distributed by hand, published in a numbered edition of only 1000 - and available only in ‘personal places that the artist loves and

Lapse: online exhibition

2011-02-21T12:17:00.006Z

"The technology [work with 3D, inverted camera position, subliminal techniques] and heavily mediated image allows the viewer to look at a slightly altered and dislocated version of the world that calls into question our daily relationship with the environments that we have created and engage with." Helen Sloan, Lapse 2011Our latest online exhibition, Lapse, showcases the work of five artists who

Animate and ACE

2011-02-18T14:45:00.005Z

We'd like to thank people very much indeed for all the supportive comments. We have been encouraged by Arts Council England to make a resubmission to Grants for the arts, and that's gone in. It is for a substantially reduced programme, but their support would allow us to continue, and to work on fundraising from other sources for projects.We'll keep you posted. And thanks again.

Arts Council Axes Animate

2011-01-27T10:56:00.008Z

We are very sorry to announce that Animate is likely to close down at the end of March 2011, following Arts Council England’s decision not to fund our 2011 programme. Animate began in 1990 as an Arts Council/Channel 4 scheme and has been supported by the Arts Council England continuously for 21 years. We set up Animate Projects four years ago, following the sudden death of Dick Arnall.

Brrrmmmmm... APEngine: moving image transmission

2009-10-12T16:03:00.002+01:00

We are pleased to announce that APEngine - our online channel for debate and discussion across the range of independent moving image practice - is now live. There is already a wealth of articles, film clips and interviews to enjoy over at http://www.apengine.orgHere are some of the highlights that have already been published:FeaturesJen McLachlan on the State of Screen-based DanceRachel Baker on

Engine has ignited!

2009-09-11T11:02:00.003+01:00

Last night saw the launch of Engine at onedotzero_adventures in motion. An interesting discussion about the relationship between commercial work and independent work took place between Gaelle Denis, Quayola, Tal Rosner and Chris O'Reilly at the BFI Southbank. There'll be more about it on Engine soon.So, Engine is now live with interviews, articles, news and views - check it out here.

Bye bye blogger

2009-08-14T11:43:00.008+01:00

You may have already heard that next month we're launching Engine - our new online space for debate and discussion across a range of moving image practice, and as such we'll no longer be updating this blog.To keep up to date with what's happening with Animate Projects and Engine, sign up to the animateprojects.org mailing list or RSS feed to be in the loop.

Guest blogger: Salthouse 09 by Daniel Bell

2009-07-21T10:37:00.025+01:00

The annual exhibition of contemporary art at Salthouse Church in North Norfolk, this year carries the theme of ‘Salt of the Earth’. Curated by Simon Martin the show features the work of 50 artists with a Norfolk connection, encompassing painting, printmaking, ceramics, film and installation.The exhibition touches on the biblical metaphor of ‘salt of the earth’ with drawings and sound recordings

Kinofilm Call for Entries

2009-07-17T12:13:00.001+01:00

The 11th edition of the KINOFILM Festival will take place in Manchester from 23-28 February 2010, as a European Short Film Festival and invites submissions from all over Europe including former Eastern Europe and Baltic States.Kinofilm has a unique reputation for showcasing the best short films from around the world, whilst being renowned for seeking out diverse, challenging and groundbreaking

MeetMarket submissions for Sheffield Doc/Fest now open – artists welcome

2009-07-15T16:11:00.005+01:00

Sheffield Doc/Fest invites submissions from artists working in single-screen and/or cross-platform/interactive media, to our flagship documentary and cross-platform marketplace pitching event, MeetMarket.MeetMarket is Doc/Fest's pitching initiative designed to match documentary makers' most innovative project ideas with UK and international buyers. MeetMarket generated £7.5m in negotiation in

Internships available at Animate Projects

2009-07-10T15:14:00.001+01:00

Animate Projects is currently looking for two part-time volunteer interns: one to assist with marketing, the other to help with production and distribution.If you’re interested in finding out more, check out the Opportunities section of animateprojects.org.Deadline for applications: 24 July.

Engine: moving image transmission

2009-07-10T15:09:00.005+01:00

We are excited to announce that in the autumn we'll be launching Engine. It's a new online channel for debate and discussion across a broad range of moving image practice, and from a range of perspectives. It will be a place in which to encounter and engage with different creative and critical ideas, that encourages comment and discussion.We will have vodcasts and interviews with artists,

AnimateTV: suspended animation

2009-07-01T16:57:00.001+01:00

We are very sorry to say that there will not be an AnimateTV Open Call for UK artists and animators this year. Channel 4’s arts commissioning is on hold, but we are pursuing other funding possibilities with Arts Council England.If you think AnimateTV should continue, we would really like to hear from you - via this short survey. It will only take a couple of minutes, and it could really help

We recommend: Feel the Force at Cafe Gallery Projects

2009-06-12T12:07:00.005+01:00

Feel the Force, the current exhibition at the Cafe Gallery Projects in Southwark Park, is a group show of 8 international artists who through photography and video explore ideas around the use of force, whether it be psychological, physical, political.Notable pieces included: the unsettling video piece by Sarajev-born artist Maja Bajevic (image above), where a woman facing the viewer is

The Spine by Chris Landreth

2009-06-05T17:03:00.006+01:00

The recently revamped National Film Board of Canada website is currently showcasing the new film by CG pioneer Chris Landreth.The Spine tells the everyday tale of a marriage falling apart, made fantastical through Landreth's astounding signature 'Psychorealism' style of visualising human psychological states. The film was made with the assistance of fifteen animation students from Seneca College

We recommend: Currents of Time at Rivington Place

2009-05-29T12:11:00.008+01:00

Zineb Sedira's latest solo exhibition, Currents of Time, opened this week at Rivington Place, east London. The show features new work Floating Coffins, an immersive multi-screen installation complemented by an atmospheric soundscape, thoughtfully arranged in the main project space of Rivington Place. Sedira explores through the piece the graveyard of rotting ships that exists at the Mauritian

Guest blogger: Oberhausen - part two by George Clark

2009-05-11T15:10:00.007+01:00

As the oldest short film festival in the world, the unique strength of the Oberhausen often lies in drawing from its own remarkable history. Two of the special programmes this year returned to the past of Oberhausen in different way; firstly in the retrospective of Nicolás Echevarría, a Mexican documentary filmmaker, whose only experience of the festival until last year was having his first film

Guest Blogger: Oberhausen - part one by George Clark

2009-05-07T10:07:00.007+01:00

'Weg zum Nachbarn,' which translates into English as 'The way to the neighbour,' was established as the motto of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in 1958, then in its fifth year. Now in its 55th year, the festival has gone through successive changes of direction, weathered protests and upheavals and championed successive generations of filmmakers and artists while retaining its

Turner Prize 2009

2009-04-30T16:09:00.012+01:00

If you could nominate any artist working with film, video, animation for the Turner Prize who would it be?This year's Turner Prize shortlist consists of a sculptor, a surrealist, a Lucy Skaer and a painter called Richard Wright (no relation to the curator of our Computer Baroque exhibition) - not a video artist in sight. Since Mark Leckey received the prize last year for his animation lecture

Move It on 28 April

2009-04-17T17:31:00.005+01:00

We'll be at Picture This in Bristol on 28 April, from 7.30pm, presenting Move It - discussion, drinks, drawing and a delightful screening.Gary Thomas, Co-director of Animate Projects, will be discussing the process and practices of making drawings move with artists Mark Simon Hewis, Thomas Hicks, John Parry and Sarah Cox. Plus the audience will be invited to have a drink and take part in some

Computer Baroque - now online

2009-04-17T17:14:00.010+01:00

We are proud to present Computer Baroque, curated by Richard Wright, online from 14 April to 7 July 2009. Computer Baroque is a selection of defining works in the history of artists’ digital moving image, featuring computer animation pioneers: Karl Sims, Yoichiro Kawaguchi, William Latham, Beriou, John Tonkin, Chris Landreth, Peter Callas, Simon Biggs, Ruth Lingford, James Duesing, Paul Garrin,

We recommend: The Politics in the Room/Evolving

2009-04-17T13:16:00.003+01:00

A sort of graduation show for the first cohort of artists on the LUX Associate Artists Programme - a post-academic 12 month professional development course for artists working with the moving image - there are eight online works to view here. And...LUX is showing four 'Darwin related' films from its collection, including a couple of Animate commissions, another film that we should have

Abandon Normal Devices - call for submissions

2009-04-08T16:55:00.002+01:00

We are thrilled to have been working with FACT Liverpool on the Primitive project. The installation and cinema short get their UK premiere at FACT's Abandon Normal Devices festival in September...and their call for submission is live...deadline 7 May...

Poop! - call for dirty movies!

2009-04-08T15:02:00.002+01:00

We love the Poopy Poopy Poopy song from Malcolm in the Middle,And now, the London International Festival of Animation is looking for..well, not dirty films, but films that deal with the serious issues of sanitation. There's a £1,000 prize and the deadline is 15th May 2009.The competition is run in collaboration with Poop - set up to promote, educate and facilitate a wider understanding of life’s

We recommend: Susan Collins - Seascape

2009-04-08T14:48:00.005+01:00

An exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on England's south coast, and online here. "a series of gradually unfolding digital seascapes created using imagery captured in real time by webcams installed at five key vantage points along the south coast between Margate and Portsmouth."Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and the De La Warr Pavilion, Seascape is a brilliant,

We recommend: Garden Pieces at BFI Southbank, London

2009-04-08T14:13:00.005+01:00

A wonderful welcome to Spring in these delightful programmes curated by artist filmmaker Peter Todd. A broad range of horticulturally connected works, in turn beautiful, quirky, dark, and generally mesmerising. Including Avant-garde classics, with some anthropological and early cinema diversions."With works from 100 years of cinema, and from Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, Robert Beavers, Stan

We recommend: Semiconductor's new film

2009-04-08T14:06:00.003+01:00

Black Rain...it's awesome - "sourced from images collected by the twin satellite, solar mission, STEREO". The universe reimagined - or revealed - as a structuralist hallucinogenic spectacle thing. Eamesian Now.

Animation Breakdown: Drawn to Life

2009-03-31T13:42:00.008+01:00

The Animation Breakdown Weekend at Tate Modern has now been and gone. If you missed it never fear - the films from the Computer Baroque programme will be on animateprojects.org from mid-April and the Study Day presentations and Q&As will be online soon...In the meantime, you can read the transcript of the presentation that Belgian curators María Palacios Cruz and Stoffel Debuysere gave at the

Animation Breakdown - "waging war for territory on information media"

2009-03-19T07:31:00.004Z

Vital London lister kultureflash has posted a great write up on the Animation Breakdown weekend..witty, informed and astute...(scroll down to the Friday 20 March listing...)One conspicuous region where negotiations are still taking place, borders are drawn and redrawn, boundaries blurred and sharpened, is that occupied by animation -- a field still reaching wildly off in all directions but with a

Animation Breakdown Weekend at Tate Modern - confirmed line up

2009-03-10T14:13:00.004Z

It is getting close and we are getting very excited. Though of course there's Flatpack before then.All the Animation Breakdown speakers are confirmed. And we've posted biogs to show how impressive the line up is. The day starts with a talk by Belgian curators Stoffel Debuysere and Maria Palacios Cruz, and they'll be interspersing words with films, including Kota Ezawa's The Simpson Verdict and

We recommend: Mariele Neudecker's Winterreise

2009-03-10T12:27:00.007Z

Artprojx are presenting a rare opportunity to enjoy Winterreise (2003), a characteristically haunting and beautiful feature length film by Bristol based artist Mariele Neudecker - perhaps best known for her 'tank works'. It was made in collaboration with Opera North, with a Schubert song cycle as the soundtrack for 24 short films.The screening is at 1pm, Monday, 30 March, at the Prince Charles

We recommend: Light Years Away

2009-03-10T11:55:00.005Z

We are looking forward to Hilary Powell's film Light Years Away, which has its outdoor premiere next Wednesday, 18 March,6.30 - 8.30pm, under Archway Tower, by Archway tube station, London N19. It's one of what looks like an exemplary series of serious but engaging public site projects commissioned as part of the Archway Investigations and Responses programme.Light Years Away is being shown where

Guest Blogger: Rotterdam festival blog - jury and beyond, part two by George Clark

2009-02-26T09:53:00.004Z

Phil Collins’ new film, zasto ne govorim srpski (na srpskom)/‘why I don’t speak Serbian (in Serbian) (UK/Kosova, 2008) originally made for the 55th Carnegie International, is a brilliant dissection of the politics of language in the former Yugoslavia. What starts as a theoretical enquiry in to the non-use of Serbian in Kosovo despite the fact that it was the main language for the generations

Guest Blogger: Rotterdam festival blog - jury and beyond, part one by George Clark

2009-02-23T18:10:00.002Z

After missing the film festival in Rotterdam last year, I was looking forward to attending again in 2009 any way I could. In the midst of figuring out how I was going to get there and where to stay I got an email inviting me to be on the jury for the Tiger Awards for Short Film. Surprised and flattered I quickly accepted before realising that I was committing myself to. The entire short film

Matt Hulse in Cornwall

2009-02-20T10:43:00.002Z

No, that's not a picture of Matt, but it does bear a fleeting resemblance. Matt is in Cornwall on a residency, editing a feature (no less) length film about a walk. A long walk. Check it out here: anormalboy.wordpress.com/

Phantoms of Nabua - a new film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

2009-02-18T15:18:00.006Z

We are very pleased to announce the premiere of a new film by Thai artist and filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul.Phantoms of Nabua (2009, 9'45") was commissioned and made specifically for online and you can see it here. It is part of Primitive, a multi-platform project commissioned by Haus der Kunst Munich, FACT Liverpool, and Animate Projects. And produced by Illuminations Films London with

The Films of Jeff Keen at the BFI

2009-02-16T15:01:00.003Z

The work of British experimental artist Jeff Keen is being celebrated in a season at the BFI Southbank, London, from 17 to 27 February. Keen has been making experimental films over the last 40 years, experimenting with multi-screen presentations, visceral soundtracks and brutal animation techniques. For an idea of what you can expect, check out Keen's Marvo Movie, 1967, here.

Guest Blogger: Stephen Irwin on Clermont-Ferrand

2009-02-11T15:28:00.004Z

My Animate Projects film, The Black Dog’s Progress, was selected for the Lab Competition in this year’s Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival so I went along for a couple of days to see what goes on at a festival of this scale.Two days definitely wasn’t enough time to see the huge amount of work on show. Luckily there isn’t much else to do in Clermont-Ferrand (other than the festival it’s also

Guest Blogger: Clermont-Ferrand travel diary by Tal Rosner

2009-02-11T09:37:00.015Z

Hello! I've just come back from Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and was asked to write a short blog entry about it - so - here we go.This year was the first time I visited the Festival, an extremely well-organised week, with numerous screenings in multiple venues. I arrived on the 5th day so was only there for the last part of the festival. The 3 main competitive sections were the National (

Jane and Louise Wilson talk about their Animate commission Unfolding the Aryan Papers on Radio 4's Front Row

2009-02-10T10:43:00.003Z

Listen again..Monday 10 February... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/past_programmes.shtml

transmediale 09 prize...

2009-02-06T10:07:00.003Z

We are thrilled to report that Tantalum Memorial, by Graham Harwood, Richard Wright and Matsuko Yokokoji, has deservedly won first prize at this year's transmediale festival in Berlin. A "telephony-based memorial to the people who have died as a result of the “coltan wars” in the Congo", the installation was shown at the Science Museum in London last year. It is very powerful stuff.We're also

Wysing now postponed

2009-02-05T10:47:00.002Z

Just an update on the talk that Gary was supposed to be giving at the Wysing Arts Centre tonight: unfortunately we have had to postpone as there are major problems on the trains today and we can't get to Cambridge.Sorry about that, but it will be rescheduled sometime soon.

Animate Projects is animated at Wysing

2009-02-04T12:33:00.003Z

Thursday 5 February, 6-8pmWysing Arts Centre, Bourn, CB23As part of the public event series of Wysing Arts Contemporary: Animated, our very own co-Director, Gary Thomas, will be giving a talk on 5 February.Animated is the first exhibition in the Wysing Arts Contemporary series. An exploration of the everyday by artists working and performing in vigorous and dynamic ways. The works explore notions

AnimateTV 2008 is back on the telly

2009-01-30T14:31:00.007Z

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,

Putting Viewers First

2009-01-22T14:16:00.007Z

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

Animation Breakdown Weekend at Tate Modern

2009-01-20T16:58:00.007Z

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

Flatpack Festival 09

2009-01-14T13:03:00.011Z

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

British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor - event this Thursday

2009-01-12T12:30:00.004Z

Author event with Clare KitsonClare 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 Hackney70 Lower Clapton Road, Clapton, London E5 0RNTel: 0208 525 1452More information

Tear Drops Blossom on the Great Wall

2009-01-09T15:00:00.009Z

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

The return of the projector with teeth

2009-01-08T10:21:00.012Z

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

Aryan Papers - Kubrick - Jane and Louise Wilson

2009-01-05T11:42:00.002Z

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.

The Life Size Zoetrope on Directors Notes

2008-12-23T13:26:00.009Z

I've just discovered a lovely in-depth interview with Mark Simon Hewis and MarBelle on Directors Notes. The interview focuses on the production process behind Mark's 2007 AnimateTV commission The Life Size Zoetrope and I'm pleased to say Mark speaks quite positively about the experience. You can listen to and download the podcast here.The Life Size Zoetrope is showing next at the ICA in the 6th

Arts Council England commission animated Christmas Card by Animate's own Suky Best

2008-12-18T10:38:00.005Z

We are thrilled that the Arts Council commissioned Suky Best to make a wonderful animated Christmas card. You can watch it here.They made this wise decision having seen Suky's AnimateTV 2008 film Early Birds.

The Year of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

2008-12-17T18:12:00.001Z

Following on from Jacqui's account of her trip to Thailand for the Primitive shoot, Keith Griffiths has written an interesting piece here on the Illuminations blog about Apichatpong and the Primitive project.

Inventorium - the Brothers Quay...

2008-12-12T15:16:00.004Z

Also in Brighton, for another week, the chance to catch the Quay Brothers triple-value show at the University of Brighton, part of the excellent Cine City film festival (though the festival itself is done..).There's a Polish film poster show, including posters from the Quays' own collection and the University's archive. There's their first installation made specifically for gallery - Eurydice -

On Overgrown Paths - Ben Rivers

2008-12-12T14:57:00.004Z

Just this weekend left to catch Ben Rivers' top-notch show at Permanent Gallery in Brighton, developed in collaboration with Measure. At two venues, three films showing on 16mm in three 'self-built' cabins. I think that means Ben built them, not that they built themselves.Ben's films are uneasy portraits of people living at a remove from the rest of us, in places at a remove from where we find

Little Big Screen

2008-12-09T14:39:00.003Z

Read John Wyver's blogpost about animateprojects.org here.

The Song of...Bernadette

2008-12-07T13:19:00.001Z

Bernadette is a brilliant and haunting new film (or 'video for projection') - a 'portrait' of Bernadette Devlin - by Glasgow based, Dublin born artist, Duncan Campbell, showing at Hotel gallery, London, until 18/1/2009.More here.

SubmarineChannel.com

2008-11-18T15:12:00.004Z

Recently I discovered Submarine Channel, a site that regularly trawls the internet for the freshest talent and quirkiest sites the world has offer, as well as showcasing their many cross-media projects. We were flattered to discover that they had included us in their Top 10 curated online video portals, where you can add your opinion on who you think should be in the Top 10. And they ran a short

Thomas Hicks

2008-11-17T11:31:00.009Z

Thomas Hicks has just started to keep a blog about the production of his new AnimateTV 2009 commission Unicycle Film, including shots of the work in progress. The film is due to be completed in summer 2009.In the meantime, Thomas Hicks has a solo exhibition at the Michael West Gallery, Quay Arts, Isle of Wight, opening on 22 November entitled Dark City, Lonely Circus. The exhibition focuses on

Aurora! Aurora! Aurora!

2008-11-13T14:26:00.002Z

The festival's already underway..but we'll be there soon ourselves! AnimateTV live launch is Friday evening. And there's much much more. We are very excited and wish Adam and Kelly all the best.

Drawn to Life programme...in Brussels...

2008-11-13T14:00:00.004Z

Drawn to Life is a couple of terrific programmes screening in Brussels at the end of November that are right up our street, though not literally. Featuring Animate commissioned artists Stuart Hilton and Jonathan Hodgson..though not their actual Animate films. And lots of other key things too - it's a rare juxtaposition of artists coming from different places - just the kind of eclectic and

Call for papers: Archives and Auteurs conference

2008-11-12T11:47:00.003Z

The University of Stirling is looking for proposals for their 'Archives and Auteurs: Filmmakers and their archives' conference taking place on 2–4 September 2009. The conference will bring archivists, academics, curators and researchers together to discuss the ways in which study of the archives of filmmakers and the film industry can provide new perspectives and insights into the history of

Vertigo magazine - new issue out now...

2008-11-12T07:43:00.003Z

..and it includes a review of the British Animation Awards dvd Desire and Sexuality - Animating the Unconscious (perhaps a title that doesn't sit easy on a christmas present list), and a beautiful spread of some stunning images from Emily Richardson's Cobra Mist.As ever it is also packed with vital stuff - check out the contents. Then buy it and read it.

Glover - Jo Lawrence, animator in residence at the V&A

2008-11-11T14:56:00.004Z

I am keeping tabs on Jo Lawrence's blog - she's animator-in-residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. That in itself seems like a very enlightened but risky notion, but from Jo's blog, it is clearly paying off hugely. She's obsessed. And she's making a film. And it's about gloves. She is discovering lots of fascinating stuff in the museum, and saying very interesting things about it all. I'm

InterventTech: >> news and threads: Ekow Eshun closes Live & Media Arts at the ICA

2008-11-07T18:39:00.003Z

InterventTech: >> news and threads: Ekow Eshun closes Live & Media Arts at the ICAThe debate continues...

British animation: The Channel 4 factor

2008-11-07T14:04:00.009Z

Clare Kitson commissioned animation for Channel 4 from 1989 to 1999, and her book is a personal and authoritative review of the period, bracketed with a bit of the before, and observations about the current state of play.But the book is no wallow in a subjective history. Clare is scrupulous and questioning about all that kind of stuff. Her charting of the early days of Channel 4 is informative

AnimateTV - screening across the UK

2008-11-06T17:20:00.006Z

Our latest batch of extraordinary films are screening at Aurora, Encounters, FACT and Tate Modern this autumn.Catch the latest films by artists Barnaby Barford, Suky Best, Stephen Irwin, Michael Aubtin Madadi, Emily Richardson, Tal Rosner and Christoph Steger on the big screen. Plus, you'll get the chance to quiz the artists about their inspirations, processes, favourite colours etc.Employing a

Early cinematic treats at Curzon Soho

2008-10-31T13:24:00.005Z

Combining a love of early cinema and vaudeville, The Smoking Cabinet returns to the Curzon Soho this December with another packed programme of rare cinematic delights. Highlights include EA Dupont's Piccadilly (1929), Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton in Coney Island (1917), and The Whirl of the Charleston (1927). Plus there will be performances and live music in the bar, which will be suitably

British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor

2008-10-30T12:12:00.006Z

And here's a book we haven't got our hands on yet, but we're told it's in the post...Clare Kitson's British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, published on 19 November. Pre order here.Clare was Channel 4's animation commissioning editor from 1989 to 1999, and with the Arts Council's David Curtis, set up the Animate scheme. And the sample pages should really whet your appetite...it looks

Drawing and Animation

2008-10-30T12:09:00.004Z

And just so we don't get accused of bandwagoning...we need to sneak announce that we're developing our own drawing and animation project with The Drawing Room. We'll be announcing new commissions and plans for a touring gallery exhibition in early 2009.Olivia Plender, curator of, and artist featured in, their current exhibition, is The Guardian's Artist of the Week.

Drawing for Animation

2008-10-30T11:41:00.003Z

And just as Cornerhouse stages its drawing and animation show...the postman delivers a copy of Drawing for Animation - a new book by Paul Wells with Joanna Quinn and Les Mills.Its part of the Basics Animation series from academic publisher AVA, and its approach is primarily to get across the fundamentals of drawing in relation to classical, drawn animation, and it does this very well - it's a

The Intertwining Line - new show at Cornerhouse, Manchester

2008-10-30T10:00:00.005Z

The Intertwining Line - Drawing as a Subversive Art is a new exhibition running at Cornerhouse, Manchester, from 7 November 2008 - 11 January 2009. And it does more than the title exploring- "early and contemporary animation and its intertwined relationship with contemporary drawing."The show includes artists we've heard of and already rate, like Melanie Jackson, and others we haven't heard of -

Ben Rivers: At the Edge of the World

2008-10-27T13:49:00.005Z

This was a clearly a hot ticket last night at the London Film Festival - with people like Maggie Ellis (Head of Production at Film London) and Simon Field (festival director and producer) in attendance. Quite right too. It's about time the Festival did more to champion distinctive and contemporary talent.And Ben Rivers is a rare one, doggedly portrait-ing remote eccentrics. Film is clearly

Fear(s) of the Dark

2008-10-27T11:16:00.003Z

What with Halloween almost upon us, I recommend the wonderful Fear(s) of the Dark as a fright filled treat. A series of six short monochrome animations that each tells a very different nightmarish tale using a range of techniques from pencil drawing to abstracted shapes. You might not be all that partial to every film, and you may find Bluth's offering particularly nasty (12A certification?!?),

Vote for The Black Dog

2008-10-24T15:43:00.003+01:00

It's just come to our attention, thanks to Kate Stables at the Guardian Online that the Animate Projects commissioned film, The Black Dog's Progress, is up for an aniBoom Award.If you're a fan of Stephen Irwin's wonderful film then show your support and rate the film on aniBoom.

Power to the Pixel

2008-10-24T15:18:00.004+01:00

If anything could persuade the ICA of the "cultural urgency" of new media (see earlier post), the just happened Power to the Pixel conference could. There was a LOT to take in...and for the very first time, I think I will be checking out the conference archive... Most presentations confirmed that the only thing we can really predict about change is that it will happen, and if you were hoping for

Jeffery Marzi website

2008-10-24T14:42:00.003+01:00

Check out the official Jeffery Marzi website.See the film here.

ICA London "lacks cultural urgency"

2008-10-24T09:50:00.004+01:00

Bizarrely, just as Arts Council England prioritises digital opportunities, the ICA has announced that it's closing its Live and Media Arts Department because, in the opinion of ICA director Ekow Eshun, "the art form lacks depth and cultural urgency."Now, if this is true, then he's missing the irony of the ICA having played a role in any shallowing, and merely displaying a knack for tactless

Aurora! Aurora! Aurora!

2008-10-21T11:42:00.003+01:00

Aurora 2008 takes place in Norwich from 12-16 November, and the programme is online now. Aurora really is an exceptional event - "uniquely artist-orientated and resolutely ambitious" - and Animate Projects is beyond proud to be its partner. The official 'live' premiere of the AnimateTV 2008 films is part of the festival - with all seven artists coming along. As well as screenings, there are

Collaborative filmmaking

2008-10-15T11:56:00.004+01:00

On Channel 4's 3 Minute Wonders this week, to coincide with Frieze Art Fair, Frieze has assembled edited highlights of the entries for Frieze Film 2008. A collaborative film project that invited artists to upload their own and appropriated material to YouTube using Cormac McCarthy's The Road as inspiration. To create your own version of Road Movie, Frieze suggests that the user browses through

Bill Domonkos on Lumen Eclipse

2008-10-09T17:54:00.000+01:00

This month's online show at Lumen Eclipse features the gorgeous work of experimental filmmaker Bill Domonkos.Appropriating material from archives and the internet, combined with animation and live action, Domonkos creates sublime and visceral films. I particularly like The Fine Art of Poisoning which is a dark melodramatic tale using Victorian drawings and a macabre soundtrack.Bill Domonkos is an

Optimism in Conneticut

2008-10-09T15:55:00.007+01:00

If I was anywhere near Westport, Conneticut, USA, I'd be heading over to the Westport Arts Centre to see Optimism, a show curated by Michael Connor (on until 30 November 2008). It feels about as timely as an exhibition could. And it includes, and reminded me of, one of my favourite works - two short films by Walid Raad, part of The Atlas Group Archive. I think I saw them first at the Documenta 11

We recommend...Dryden Goodwin at The Photographers' Gallery, London

2008-10-09T13:39:00.004+01:00

Dryden made Flight for Animate. His show of photographs and drawings (and combinations) - Cast - is at The Photographers' Gallery in London until 16 November 2008. Jonathan Jones blogged very nicely about it in The Guardian:If you think there's no imagination, soul or talent in contemporary British art, this journey through the streets of London will make you change your mind.

Gary Leib rocks

2008-10-09T13:01:00.004+01:00

If you happen to find yourself hanging out by the Wonderwall at the Wonder Room in Selfridges, London (which is a favourite spot for us all at AP), you can check out Filminute 2008. Or you could just visit the Filminute website. Either way, our favourite by a long chalk, especially in these times of financial crisis, is Gary Leib's Wall Street. It deserves at least three-quarters of a trillion

The Black Dog's Progress nominated for Public Realm showcase

2008-10-01T14:17:00.005+01:00

We are very pleased to see that Stephen Irwin's The Black Dog's Progress has been nominated by Angela Kingston for Axis' Art in the Public Realm showcase. The Public Realm programme "advocates for diverse visual arts practice within the public realm", and it is great to see broadcast/online artist's film - being taken seriously as something that's a) art and b) available to the public in public/

Here:Radical Animation Now

2008-09-30T16:35:00.002+01:00

The Here event at Whitechapel, London, this weekend was brainstormingly awesome, even if we say so ourselves (actually..we just gave them bit of money to help bring Barry Doupe over from Vancouver). Barry showed his new, feature length film, Ponytail, and Jim Hollands showed Here.I haven't seen stuff this important for a long, long time. Radical is certainly the word - both films feel

Intern

2008-09-30T16:31:00.003+01:00

We're looking for one. Almost too urgently. If you're interested or know anyone who might be, please check the Opportunities section at animateproject.org. Deadline 6 October.

Take the Animate Projects' Survey

2008-09-30T14:48:00.002+01:00

We're interested in finding out more about the good people who use animateprojects.org so we've set up a survey here.We'd like your thoughts about our current website and also about the new online magazine that we'll be launching in early 2009. Plus, we'd like your suggestions for some all time Top Ten lists that we're drawing up.All those who complete the survey will be entered in to a prize

Here: Radical Animation reminder

2008-09-26T12:09:00.005+01:00

Here: Radical Animation is at Whitechapel London this weekend...Barry Doupe on Saturday, Jim Hollands and Patricide on Sunday...Be there. Be.