SEAT Presents: Big Red Wallrus, Thurs, Oct 11

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Oct 032012
 

Remember how the Seattle Experimental Animation Team has been making work on one portion of the big red construction wall on Capitol Hill? Specifically a portion of wall near the cone fountain inside Cal Anderson Park?

Well, this four-year project involving rotating animators is called Wallrus, and on Thursday, Oct 11th as part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk we are turning the wall into a screening space, and projecting the work created on the wall in the last two years. Here is the Facebook event.

Specifically you will get a chance to see Clyde Petersen‘s video for The Thermals, animated in chalk, Tess Martin‘s short film The Whale Story, animated in paint/pixellation, and works in progress from Amanda Moore, Webster Crowell (you may remember people roaming the park in rocket suits a few month ago?) and Otto Bulut (actually animating this weekend! So stop by the park to check that out also).

Since it’s art walk there will be snacks, beverages and live music!

 

Big Red Wallrus

Five murals, Five animators, Five larger than life experimental films.  Thursday October 11 2012 from 7 to 9pm at the North end of Cal Anderson park, join SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) for an outdoor peek at five films animated larger than life on the Sound Transit Construction wall.

Clyde Petersen, Amanda Moore, Tess Martin, Webster Crowell and Otto Bulut host three screens with finished videos and works-in-progress in an evening including live music, snacks and rocket juice. 

Catch SEAT shorts on the big screen at Local Sightings

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Sep 252012
 

The Local Sightings Film Festival is the best film festival in Seattle – at least according to the Seattle Weekly. And yes, it’s hosted by the NW Film Forum, and yes, I (Tess Martin) been volunteering in their office for the past two years. But still, this festival rocks, and I’m super happy that two of my recent shorts are screening in the Experimental Shorts program. It’s on Tuesday, October 2nd at 9PM.
The two shorts screening are The Whale Story, created with the help of around 20 volunteers in Cal Anderson Park, just a few blocks away from the NW Film Forum. The other film is Hula Hoop, a 1.5 minute short originally conceived as part of a collective film by the Seattle Experimental Animation Team, which also rocks. Both are great to see on the big screen – The Whale Story because the whale looks really BIG, and Hula Hoop because the sand looks really TINY.

Another pretty awesome short from a SEAT animator is Britta Johnson’s video for Laura Veirs’ song ‘King Kong Kitchie Kitchi Ki Me O‘, also playing in the Experimental Shorts program on Tuesday the 2nd.

And when you arrive at the NW Film Forum, look up! You will see an installation of animation projected onto kites! This is an iteration of Flying Cinema, an ambitious SEAT project spearheaded by Webster Crowell. And if you like animation, you must of course also attend SEAT animator Drew Christie’s program he has all to himself, The Drew Christie Show, this Saturday, Sept 29th at 9PM.

Aug 082012
 

Thank you to everyone who came out to the reception and lecture last Friday, celebrating the opening of the first Seattle Experimental Animation Team gallery show, Stop-Framing Me. Here are a few photos of the show to get your juices flowing, but they really don’t do justice to the exhibit, so you should come see it in person! The Steele gallery is on the third floor of the Gage Academy (1501 10th Avenue E) and is open Monday to Friday 10AM to 6PM.

Book by Drew Christie, used in the animated short ‘The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Lincoln’

Cut-outs by Tess Martin, used in the animated short ‘Plain Face’

Projection showing Webster Crowell’s animated short ‘Parasol’, and one of Webster’s kite installations, showing an excerpt of Davis Limbach’s animated short ‘Loopforms’

Three parasols by Webster Crowell, used in the making of the animated short ‘Parasol’

 

Jul 272012
 

Check out this nice little trailer for the SEAT gallery show at the Gage Academy, Stop-Framing Me:

All these films will be screened as well as artifacts used in the making of the films, as well as, of course, animation on kites! Also remember the opening reception is on August 3rd at 6pm, and the lecture starts that same evening at 7pm!

SEAT Gallery show at Gage Academy: Stop-Framing Me

 Installations/Screenings, SEAT, Stop-Framing Me Steele Gallery, Upcoming  Comments Off on SEAT Gallery show at Gage Academy: Stop-Framing Me
Jul 192012
 

The Seattle Experimental Animation Team is happy to announce their first collective gallery show at the Gage Academy, opening August 3rd, 2012 and up until September 1st (the Steele Gallery is open daily 10AM-6PM). That evening there will also be an artist lecture with co-curators by Tess Martin and Webster Crowell. Deatils above – don’t miss it!

Rare animated shorts from the Film Forum vault

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Jun 292012
 

Did you know that the NW Film Forum has a vault full of film reels at the back of their building, past the kitchen and under a staircase? Did you know that this vault contains some animated gems that probably have not seen the light of a projector in years if not decades? Well, they are screening some of them in a special one-off program curated by their special guest archivist!

The program is called Search and Rescue and includes four animated shorts outlines below (incldues one by John Hubley with possibly the voice of Meryl Streep!). The rest of the program also looks pretty cool. Oh, and did I mention that all proceeds from this screening go towards supporting the continued work of their archivist? Pretty cool. The screening is July 5th at 7:00PM.

Here are the four animated films:

Why do you smile, Mona Lisa?

“Why do you smile, Mona Lisa?” (1967, 13 mins) – An amusing re-imagining regarding what took place the day Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Who would’ve known cats were so integral to Da Vinci’s process. Grand Prize winner for animation at the Bergamo Festival 1966.

“Fire!” (1975, 9 mins) – The acrylic paint technique used in animating this tale of a forest before and after a devastating fire is the primary captivator in this film.

 

Automania 2000

“Automania 2000” (1961, 10 mins) – A cartoon set on the stage of a future wherein people live in their cars and have provisions conveniently brought to them via floating pods in the sky.  A sneaky spot of commentary on the state of consumerism, that isn’t far off the mark (except for the cars that give birth. Which is a shame really.)

 

 

 

Everybody Rides the Carousel

“Everybody rides the carousel” (1975, 21 mins) – Part two of a feature length animation based upon the psychological development of personality. Submerge yourself in the hallucinatory and chilling depiction of the human psyche.  This one is directed by John Hubley! And may include the voice of Meryl Streep – she did some of the voices, but it’s hard for me to tell if her section is included in this installment.

 

 

The live-action shorts include and early Roman Polanski short, a scary sounding children’s fable, and a mini documentary about energy from 1974.

 

 

SEAT at HuskyFest ’12!

 Exquisite Corpse, HuskyFest, SEAT, Upcoming  Comments Off on SEAT at HuskyFest ’12!
Apr 102012
 

Come to the UW campus for HuskyFest April 19-21st! This fair will take over the main Pavilion on the UW campus (the big square near the Henry Art Gallery) and there are a crazy number of events and installations planned. The Seattle Experimental Animation Team will be set up in a portion of the grand tent screening some looped clips and the Exquisite Corpse collective film we premiered at Zeitgeist on March 1st. It’s free! Find all the info here: http://www.washington.edu/huskyfest/event/looped-animation-zone/

Announcing Re-Animated: An Exquisite Corpse Animated Event

 Exquisite Corpse, Installations/Screenings, Re-Animated!, SEAT, Upcoming  Comments Off on Announcing Re-Animated: An Exquisite Corpse Animated Event
Jan 292012
 

Exquisite poster design by Stefan Gruber!

 

The Seattle Experimental Animation Team presents ‘Re-Animated: An Exquisite Corpse Animated Event’, part of the March Pioneer Square Art Walk. Starting from 8PM, the Zeitgeist Coffee space will be sparkling with multiple projections on windows, screens and the exclusive Flying Cinema kites, displaying clips from recent animated shorts as well as a specially created collective film: seven clips forming a continuous Exquisite Corpse loop. This event is free and open to the public.

Thursday, March 1, 2012 8:00PM – FREE
Zeitgeist Coffee
171 S. Jackson, Seattle WA 98101

ABOUT THE EVENT

Two years ago the Seattle Experimental Animation Team held a mobbed event at Zeitgeist Coffee with four projection screens featuring twelve local artists. Re-Animated ups the ante by featuring the world premiere of an endless animated loop, specifically drawn, sculpted, pixalated or otherwise animated for the night’s events by seven Seattle animators, forming an exquisite corpse film.

Seven animators (Salise Hughes, Tess Martin, Webster Crowell, Stefan Gruber, Otto Bulut, Eric Ostrowski and Clyde Petersen), pulled slips of paper out of a hat – these contained two images (‘Girl on a bike’ or ‘dog barking’, for example) that were to be the beginning and ending images of their short. The prompts had been predetermined by filmmaker Salise Hughes so that, once edited together, the seven clips would form a continuous loop.

The animators are still unaware of one anothers’ prompts, ensuring that Re-Animated will be an exciting evening for all involved. The informal setting will also host recent work by other local animators projected onto screens, windows and flying cinema kites suspended from the ceiling.

This event hopes to expand the public’s awareness of animation as a medium of personal expression by bringing it to the Pioneer Square Art Walk, an evening traditionally centered around painting and sculpture. At the same time it encourages animation lovers, who have normally only experienced the medium at sit-down screenings, to enjoy animation in a gallery-reception environment, giving them an opportunity to interact with the artists. On a simpler note it is a party atmosphere for animation lovers to meet art patrons over a beer or coffee at the close of Art walk.

ABOUT SEAT

Seattle Experimental Animation Team (SEAT) is a collective of animator/filmmakers who use a wide range of techniques to make films frame by frame. SEAT uses nearly every technique from classical hand-drawn to computer animation. SEAT’s members make films independently, but group endeavors involve bringing animation to non-film locations, and these have been some of our most exciting activities. Outside our globally touring animation program (Inter-Action), we’ve created animation installations at Susan Robb’s Long Walk (2011), Arabica Coffee (2011), Zeitgeist (2009) and we’re embarked on a commission in Cal Anderson park to animate a wall mural for Sound Transit over the course of four years. Our growing collective of award-winning animators includes Webster Crowell, Stefan Gruber, Britta Johnson, Drew Christie, Clyde Petersen and Tess Martin.

The SEAT website is www.experimentalanimation.org, and the Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/experimentalanimation.