anim8

I have recently been exploring my animated local environment with a series of filmic forays, continuing a familial home-movie tradition. The relative convenience and availability of contemporary digital media has implied a new challenge – to express, communicate and engage an audience with primitive and animistic energies through such antithetical apparatus…

videos

• a wood for the trees – shadow play 4710 (silent) my first attempt at a short film, using a 12mp digital camera and editing with i-movie. the sequences were captured during a walk on windy afternoon in the forest of bere in hampshire. https://vimeo.com/65748932
• one line in the sand (drawing a simple line in the sand at low tide takes about 5 minutes) http://vimeo.com/22802801
• natura (WIND & WAVES – a representation of the animate nature of the wind upon my local natural environment)  http://vimeo.com/22801168
• a prayer (a process-based narrative film exploring elemental ideas, ritual and primitivity) http://vimeo.com/22799650
• butterflies (an observational energetic exploration of a natural event) http://vimeo.com/22798381
• spinning STONES (a playful combination of drawing, sound and animation) http://vimeo.com/22800400
• i am outcast by you (an ambient melancholic meditation – inspired by the healing power of nature) http://vimeo.com/22799361
• she sells seashells (an experimental sound/image representation of listening to the ocean) http://vimeo.com/22517521
• searching for the spirit of eden (a film taken at dawn in the tropical biome at the eden project, april 2011) http://vimeo.com/23526120
• the respectful decapitation of a wood PIGEON (a simple document to record the investigative process of de-breasting a wood pigeon for the purpose of human consumption. Some may find this film disturbing.) http://vimeo.com/23446795
  
• A BUNDLE OF STICKS Rough video documentation of some of the practical research towards my MA ART & ENVIRONMENT project A BUNDLE OF STICKS. The majority of the footage was taken at COURAGE COPSE CREATIVES in North Devon while working with site artist Katy Lee as part of a sustainable woodland restoration programme. https://vimeo.com/52414216
• rolling stone, watwick bay, pembrokeshire; A simple film documenting a disc shaped stone being rolled across a sandy beach. The film is made up of 180 still shots taken by Francesca Owen and then edited using i-movie https://vimeo.com/56682605
• night waves, westward ho! 812013 A simple film of waves breaking in the early evening on the beach at Westward Ho! in North Devon on my HTC phone with natural sound. The evening was grey and darkening. I particularly enjoy the colour and image distortion created by the limited technology. BEST VIEWED IN THE DARK. https://vimeo.com/57128264
• burning 9 bundles, COURAGE COPSE 9113 a short film documenting the eventual (and ritual) burning of 9 bundles of sticks that have been used in various projects over the last 6 months – from ecological art workshops, community dance performances and contemporary art exhibitions the bundles have been enjoyed by and inspired many people taking on a powerful presence of their own. But the bundles were made to be burnt and so they have come to their fitting end. Many thanks to COURAGE COPSE CREATIVES and HOME GROWN KIDS in North Devon where they were made and to where they were ultimately returned… https://vimeo.com/57625936#at=0
• sticks in the wind – westward ho! 24113 On a recent visit to my local beach I stuck a stick in the sand. The various elemental forces in play instantly transfixed me, filling me with a sense of exhilaration – the wind, the weight of the stick, its texture, form and flexibility, the tentative support of the sand and shingle creating a viable tension and suggesting a living, breathing entity through which I might relate to my place within the world. I have since been playing with this idea using a variety of sticks of different weights, lengths and thicknesses and in different weather conditions. This short film documents some of my initial experimentation… https://vimeo.com/58193443
• talking sticks, northam 7213 two sticks suspended between two posts in the wind by a car park on the north devon coast near appledore – simple but most satisfying! i am presently really enjoying the immediacy and subtle expressiveness of short films and natural sound… https://vimeo.com/59166748
• high tide, westward ho! 12213 Over the years I have been fortunate to spend much of my life close to the sea, aware of the tides and its constant changes and power. My present home near the magnificent Pebble Ridge at Westward Ho! in North Devon is often dominated by the low rumble of waves breaking, drawing the large round cobbles back and forth across each other. Such timeless action and the living landscape it produces fill my spirit with a power, energy and peace as ageless and deep as the ocean itself, bringing life and its problems into perspective. This short film hopefully captures something of the immanent tranquility and power such moments inspire… https://vimeo.com/59592275
• the sound of sustainability, courage copse 8413 having volunteered to help with some bramble clearance at courage copse – a local woodland restoration project in north devon returning a larch and fir plantation to a sustainable oak and hazel coppice enterprise – expecting a quiet day usefully connecting with nature, i was called to reflect on the ever present necessity and reliance on modern technology even within the most well-meaning projects, being accompanied all day by the sound of chainsaws felling and trimming trees nearby. this selection of stills and sounds from the day were captured with a kodak HD camera and edited using i-movie. https://vimeo.com/64229814
• 3 concentric circles, bideford black ball 25813 a short film to document rolling a ball of bideford black earth pigment in 3 circles on a piece of paper to create a simple print. the print will become part of an exhibition about the pigment at the white moose gallery in barnstaple, north devon in september 2013. https://vimeo.com/73451170

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