Incubating

This week has been busy.

First, there were the two meet and greet/workshops at Vtape for the Curatorial Incubator program. It was great to meet the other curators, but also a wee bit daunting. They are all men and all have completed their Master’s degrees. My friend Chris tells me it’s good to feel like you’re in over your head when it comes to creative projects, because if it feels easy/safe, you will get bored. I think this is true.

Anyways, Chris Gehman presented the first workshop on the history of animation and let us watch hours of short animations, both commercial and not. It was a little overwhelming, but also fantastically stimulating (in a creative way). On the second night, Steve Reinke came in and blew my mind with a 2.5 hour discussion about semiotics, Barthes, and the differences between text and image. I felt like my brain was going to explode, but I told myself it was a good refresher before school starts. Then we drank beer at the Wide Open and complained about Nuit Blanche and everything returned to normal.

Now I just have to figure out the selections I want to present for my programme (possibly in October? – dear God, that seems too soon). I am still partial to some combination of:

Daniel Barrow

Shary Boyle

and Zeesy Powers

With some Tsuji Naoyuki thrown in there somewhere.

Of course, there is still lots of time for more research and discoveries. Recommendations for other titles dealing with animation and the artist’s body/labour are definitely welcome.