Performance Animation

One of my favorite experimental filmmakers also just so happens to be one of my favorite animators. Miwa Matreyek, a multimedia artist, animator, and designer combines her skills to incorporate her beautifully collaged animations with her own physical performances. She explores the physical interaction of her body with the animated world around her.

Matreyek gives live performances in a variety of showings and installations. More of her work can be found on her website: http://www.semihemisphere.com/

Off the Air

Off the Air is a adult swim show that airs late at night. It is a compilation of experimental films that they find on the internet. They cut the videos together and animate the transitions with unique and "trippy" changes. I personally love the show. I think it is a very creative work of art that while at some points can get extremely weird, is truly enjoyable to watch.

The show has a plot based on a specific word like "falling" or "color", then the makers of the show choose selections that fit into that category. The run time of each episode is only around 11-15 minutes, but there is so much going on in each that it feels just as long as a episode with a normal half hour runtime. 

The show focuses primarily on animation but there are some times when some strangely edited live footage comes into play. As seen above there is a colorful spider that made its appearance on the "Dance" episode where it was performing a strange mating dance that had some strange editing and animation. 

Off the Air incorporates a lot of unique contemporary animations. I find the style of some of the animations they choose to include to be very inspiring. The experimental videos are all entertaining but the animated ones specifically catch my attention due to their creativity and style. 

Here are some links to full episodes:

Colors

Animals

Falling

Food

Bead Game / Afterlife

Here's some early pioneering stop motion animation from Ishu Patel, who worked for the National Film Board of Canada for over twenty-five years producing and directing animated short films while also working as an educator. He developed many animation techniques, including one that allowed thousands of tiny beads to move under a continuously zooming camera (which can be seen in Bead Game). He is known for his experimental style and focus on deep philosophical issues.

Bead Game (1977) was nominated for an Academy Award in 1978. He used beads as a medium and transformed them continuously, offering his vision of evolution from the smallest forms of ancient life to modern man.

Afterlife received an Outstanding Achievement Award at the London Film Festival in 1979. He placed clay shapes on top of glass and lit the animation from below, producing what you see here. This particular animation is considered one of his greatest.

While these videos are both pretty old, it's still important to understand how far we've come and how these animations have inspired artists today.