Creative Skillset have joined up with us to run our annual Animation Industry Event and we’ve got all manner of topics being covered, by special guests from a wide range of very different areas. Each of them are ready to impart their knowledge and answer your questions in four carefully chosen panel sessions. For anyone working in the industry, thinking of working in the industry or just plain curious these four sessions are indispensable. Chaired by Saint John Walker, Creative Skillset.
Read Saint John Walker’s blog entry about this event here
Animators have always experimented with new tools and computer code is no different. As barriers to animators learning code and coders learning animation disappear, new genres of work are appearing. Some of the most startling work is coming from playing to the computer’s strengths of repetitive iteration and responding to rules set by a programmer/artist, rather than painstaking animation work. The role of the animator becomes akin to a gardener (a metaphor used by pioneer William Latham), setting sequences to grow and then pruning the least aesthetic or interesting.
We’ve assembled a variety of coders and animators who will explain how they got started, give you an insight into new tools and techniques, and show how computer science and creativity are pushing the boundaries of animation.
At Barbican book tickets
Confirmed Panelists
William Latham – Professor in Computer Games at Goldsmiths, University of London
William Latham is Professor in Computer Games at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he co-founded the well-known MSc Computer Games and Entertainment Course. He is active in a range of research fields including scientific visualisation/Serious Games work with Imperial College, Bioinformatics Dep.
William originally trained as an artist at the RCA and is well known for his pioneering organic art and animation in evolutionary art and design in the late 80s and early 90s. He founded the independent games developer Computer Artworks Ltd. Games produced include the number one Playstation and Xbox game ‘The Thing’ based on the John Carpenter cult sci-fi horror film for Vivendi Universal.
He is Director and Founder of Games Audit Ltd. In addition William is a Co-Director of LGU London Geometry Unit and SoftV Ltd, a company focused on medical Neuroscience games applications working with UCL Business. William is on the Advisory Boards of the Develop Games Conference and the NFTS Games Course in the UK.
www.digitalartsonline.co.uk
Quayola – Visual Artist
Quayola is a visual artist based in London. He investigates dialogues and the unpredictable collisions, tensions and equilibriums between the real and artificial, the figurative and abstract, the old and new. His work explores photography, geometry, time-based digital sculptures and immersive audiovisual installations and performances.
Quayola’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; British Film Institute; Park Ave Armory, New York; La Gaite Lyrique, Paris; Forum des Images, Paris; Grand Theatre, Bordeaux; Palais des Beaux Arts, Lille; MIS, Sao Paulo; Triennale, Milan; Sonar Festival, Barcelona; Elekra Festival, Montreal and Clermont Ferrand Film Festival.
www.quayola.com
Richard Wright – Director at Futurenatural
Richard Wright is a visual artist who has worked in animated media for twenty years, including many early pioneering digital animated films and interactive installations. He holds a PhD in the aesthetics of digital cinema and has published nearly forty papers, articles and book chapters. He is currently working on ‘decorative surveillance’ – a live video project that uses the flow of people through urban spaces as an animation tool.
www.futurenatural.net
Corrado Morgana – Programme Leader in Computer Games Design at University of South Wales, Newport
Corrado Morgana is a semi-retired artist, curator and musician. He is currently Programme Leader for Computer Games Design at University of South Wales, Newport where he teaches both practical and theoretical components. His research examines arts and video games crossover practice, specifically transgressive and subversive production within existing game engines. He also enjoys glitches, blue screens and streaming errors.
Corrado has co-curated national exhibitions exploring game spectatorship and independent and experimental production and has been involved in various large scale collaborative media arts curatorial projects.
Computer Games Design Course Blog
Paul Mumford – Company Director of Labmeta
Paul Mumford is a director and animator specialising in projects that bring together audiovisual production, design and moving image. Central to his work is an understanding of the relationship between sound, image and movement.
Working in house with companies like Immersive and Imagination, assisting artists like DFuse and Quayola or realising projects in their entirety he produces content for immersive spaces, large scale installations, interactive technology exhibits, global stadium tours, brand experiences and animated films for end clients like Sony, Phillips, Nike and MTV.
His work has been shown at many galleries such as the London BFI, V&A Museum, Tate Britain and the ICA and have been performed internationally at events such as Cybersonica, Onedotzero, STRP, Multiplicidades, Mapping, Cimatics and Sonar. He has given lectures and written a number of articles on live cinema and audiovisual performance through the publications ‘VJtheory’, ‘Audiovisual-On Visual Music’ and the events State of the Image, MIGZ, FestAnca and Plasa+.
www.labmeta.net
Other LIAF Animation Industry Events
Tax Breaks & the New Future of Animation
Living Long & Prospering in Animation
The Importance of Sound in Animation
