The face in the mirror of dreams
We have a small show of new work coming 3/5-31 at The Bower Studio, a sweet apothecary/gift shop in Amherst, MA.
There will be a reception on 3/5 from 5-8! Illustrations and mini sculptures, come take a look! .
3月にthe bower studioという薬局&ギフトショップで小さな展示「ドリームリフレクション」を行います。
薬局をApothecary（アポセカリー）という時、それは少し古風な言い方になります。ドラッグストアというよりは漢方薬局に感覚が近いかも。楽しみです！
Starting in early December, we now have a one minute animation, Floating Nebula, playing on the Video Wall at The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. It is in rotation with 19 other videos, 10 from earlier in 2019 and 9 others that debuted with our own.
The Video Wall is 160ft long! The videos will be up in rotation with other event info for the foreseeable future, if you are in Boston please check it out! Even if the space isn’t open you can see the Video Wall from outside.
About the animation:
Floating Nebula is a space of relaxation and tranquility with a grand view of the energy rushing all around us. Energy exchange has been a point of interest for us for the past few years, explored through our Energy Plant, Energy Nebula and related series, often depicted by disparate shapes of watercolor, separated by narrow empty spaces, coming together to describe a larger idea. Floating Nebula centers us on the narrow empty space of quiet looking on as the separate individual forms of energy flow on.
Many thanks to Boston Cyber Arts, along with the Convention Center, who made this opportunity possible!
Through doing mystery envelopes for our Patreon patrons, we’ve slowly built a pile of interesting little items.
Some items are experiments for more elaborate ideas, others bring single elements of bigger works into focus. In particular we’ve been using our Energy Plants for many of the items, as these elaborate little pieces would otherwise literally fade into the background of the animation we are currently working on.
One of the experiments we have been working on are small dioramas. The ones we have created thus far are focused on a creature running among small plants, and while it’s a simple start and we have much more to do with them we are satisfied with how things are turning out.
The Energy Plant items we mentioned are a variety of die-cut stickers and magnets, sticker sheets and clear-backed stickers to name a few. Mostly we have been using Sticker Mule to create these, and they all have been high quality, and they have been very easy to work, super responsive to any questions. They also typically have weekly deals even so you can try an idea for a relatively low price before committing to a large order.
If you are interested in supporting us and learning more about our upcoming animation, Hakkori, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter! $5 (and up) per month get you a mystery envelope with many of the items mentioned above!
As we get closer to finishing Hakkori we’ve decided to launch a Patreon page to act as a gathering place for related info: background, influences, concept art, etc.. Depending on how successful it feels to us, it will continue on to future projects as well. It is also an easy way to deliver new goods, like stickers and postcards, to interested people. Have a look if you are interested!
We’ve already shared the first physical gift for our “little buddy” tier patrons: Hakkori sticker sheets! I’m not sure we’ll share every new gift as they are supposed to be a mystery, but we were excited about these stickers and couldn’t help ourselves!
We were invited to participate in the group show, Super Radiance, at Nook Gallery in Inglewood, CA, 11/10 - 12/8!
A number of Energy Nebula, debuted in our Fecund Opening show at the E.C.A. gallery in Easthampton, MA are included in the show.
We were lucky enough to be in town during the opening and met the organizers, Laura Darlington and Selwa Sweidan and many of the participating artists. It is a stunning show, if you are in the area please take a look!
(Some photos courtesy of curators Laura and Selwa)
Our animation camp returned for a second year, bigger and badder (...in a good way. All the campers were very talented) than ever. Another one week overnight camp with eight energetic and highly motivated campers. They spent all day every day drawing hundreds of frames to complete a variety of animations using characters they developed and in the evening they relaxed... with more drawing.
We look forward to seeing these animators go on to create!
We made an animated video with lovely local psychedelic band, BUNNIES!
The track is titled and animation is titled, The Problem with Link Think off BUNNIES’ latest album, Transportation to Mind Transformation.
Twins Reona and Oscar bide their time at their favorite snack shop waiting for more takoyaki and are lured to an alternate dimension. Will they be back in time for their takoyaki???
It was wonderful working with the band, we even got together for a takoyaki party upon release of the video.
We animated a segment for Vice News!
Titled, "Are we living in a computer simulated reality?", it looks at the theory posited by Nick Bostrom and the thoughts and opinions surrounding it.
The team at Vice News working on this piece gave us an enormous amount of freedom to create as we liked. It was an incredibly positive experience and we are deeply grateful to Linsay Van Dyke who brought us in to this project.
Shennong, mythical god emperor from ancient China credited with inventing herbal medicine, agriculture and tea, among other things, has been a strong source of influence on a personal animation we are creating. On 11/23 we were fortunate to visit a shrine dedicated to the figure in Tokyo. The shrine contains a wooden statue of Shennong, created during the Edo period, and is only open to the public for one hour, one day a year as part of the Shennong Festival. Many top players in medicinal businesses and research groups were present to pay their respects.
11/23、古代中国の医薬と農業、そして喫茶の祖である神農を祀る文京区・湯島聖堂で神農祭に参加してきました。この日は神農廟にある木製の像が1年に1度、数時間だけ一般公開される日。
いま制作中のアニメーションにも強い影響を与えている神農さんをわずか1週間の滞在中にお詣り出来たこと、とてもラッキーでした。
We designed and animated some flying creatures in a commercial for the Japanese company, Teijin. They pop out around 00:14!
The commercial began airing on Japanese television on 10/17/17.
We are grateful to Sun-Ad and Okuno-san, the director, for reaching out to us to work on this strange and beautiful project.
We are very excited to share a new collaboration with the amazing Juana Molina: The Jane Bone Adventures, an animated music video for the song, In the Lassa, off her album Halo.
Jane Bone escapes from her human's body and embarks on a journey to gain power across a variety of environments in a classic side scrolling video game environment.
The song used, In the Lassa, features Juana and her regular band mates, Diego López De Arcaute and Odín Schwartz, with John Dietrich of Deerhoof on guitar.
This project was a long time in the making. We first spoke with Juana Molina in 2007 and decided to collaborate in some form then. Timing and other obligations kept us from each other until we coincidentally reconnected on a trip to Japan last spring. We are deeply grateful to finally work together and this might not even be the end of our collaborations...
新しいアニメーション公開のお知らせです。アルゼンチン・ブエノスアイレスの音楽家Juana MolinaのMV「The Jane Bone Adventures」のフルバージョンが先日公開されました。楽曲は、今年5月に出たばかりの彼女のアルバム「Halo」より、「In the Lassa」です。ファナのツアーを今一緒に回っているディエゴとオーディン、そしてディアフーフのジョンがギターでこの楽曲に参加しています。
駆ける大腿骨、ジェーンボーンの活躍！の後の睡眠！マグマに囲まれて、紫の藁の上でどんな夢を見るのか、そしてその夢は彼女の未来を変えるのか…！スクロール移動のビデオゲームのような感じで、ジェーンボーンの物語を描いてみました。
彼女とのお付き合いは2007年頃まで遡ります。メールのやり取りを始めて、いつか何かを一緒に作ろうねと言い続けて長い月日が経ちましたが、昨年の春に東京で初めて実際に会ってからとんとん拍子に話は進み、やっと映像を作りこうやって公開できる日が来ました。私アヤの彼女の音楽との出会いはさらに数年前に遡ります。渋谷のタワレコの試聴機で「セグンド」を聞いていた頃の自分に教えてあげたいなあ。また一つ、不思議な巡り合わせの宝物が増えました。未来にまた一緒に彼女と何か作れたら。
From 7/16 - 21 we taught an animation camp for girls at Stoneleigh-Burnham School.
The camp focused on the type of animation we typically create ourselves: 2D, hand-drawn animation, but also branched into stop-motion, comics, watercolors and a variety of exercises useful for developing characters and story.
It was a great experience for us and we look forward to working with young people again in the future!
A fecund opening is any window of opportunity where energy may be released or accepted. The conception of life and emergence from the egg, the breakdown of organic matter and absorption of vitamins and minerals, the release of pollen into the air and stigma reception.
The active and receptive moments of nutrient exchange are a fecund opening.
Here are some photos from our show at ECA+ Gallery in Easthampton, MA July 2016
Our good friend Bromp Treb just released a new album, Concession Themes on Feeding Tube Records - and we did the artwork! It will be for sale on May 15th but you can preorder now. There have been many Bromp Treb tapes and even a split 7" but this is the first full LP to date. It's historic!
私たちの友人のノイズパフォーマー、Bromp Trebのニューアルバム「Concession Themes」が完成＆Feeding Tube Recordsにて５/１５より販売されます。現在はこちらにて予約受付中です。今までテープや７インチのスプリット版など出してきましたが、フルLPはこれが彼にとって初めてだそうで、その機会にアートワークを提供できてうれしいです。ニールおめでとう！
Wednesday, March 2nd 7PM at Amherst Cinema! We will be screening an animation program we curated with our good friend, Jo Dery!
There is even a Facebook Event!
Animator, Jake Fried will be in attendance and we will conduct a Q&A following the screening. The collection of incredible animators who will be screening are listed below:
Overture
The theme of the evening is Experimentation & Character. On March 30th, the second animation program will screen, curated by Academy Award Winner, Chris Perry. The theme of that evening is Dramatic Narrative.
It is going to be a very exciting evening! Get your tickets in advance!
http://amherstcinema.org/films-and-events/drawn-together-program-1-experimentation-and-character
3/2にAmherst Cinema（マサチューセッツ州）で開催される上映イベントDrawn Together Animation Festivalにて、この辺では珍しいアニメーターの友人Jo Deryと３人で選んだ短編アニメーション達がひとつのプログラムとして上映されます。英語のみですが、Facebookのイベントページもできました。
ボストン在住のアニメーション作家、Jake Fried は作品の上映＋私たちを含めた３組で上映後のトーク、Q&A などにも参加してくれることになりました。 上にあるポスターデザインはJake Fried、Jo Dery、そして私たちのイラストを組み合わせて制作したものです。
作品が上映される作家さんたちはこちらになりますー！
Overture
今現在制作中のアニメーションを少しだけでも（できるだけ…）この日にて見てもらえるようにがんばって作っています〜
http://amherstcinema.org/films-and-events/drawn-together-program-1-experimentation-and-character
Offerings for Furtherance, our show at GCC, has wrapped.
The show focused on the preparation for a new animation we are working on. The main attraction was four physical sets that will make up the locations for the majority of the animation.
There were also three life-size Energy Plants installed. The Energy Plants began in the first of our animations years ago and evolved through our work until they took physical form this year in our New Years card. The Energy Plants feature prominently in the new animation and we wanted to offer visitors a taste of what they felt like on a human scale.
Illustrations lined the main wall, using our Floating Nebula style they depicted elements of the upcoming animation, in story and theme. We will share them in the coming weeks and may even begin selling them on our site store.
Additionally, we had a wall dedicated to production, showing photos of inspiration, concept art and keyframes from the new animation. There was also a short video showing production of the sets and Energy Plants.
And on another wall we screened a selection of our previous animation on a loop.
It was the biggest show we have ever undertaken and we learned a great deal in the process of putting it together and hanging it.
We also gave a talk and held a workshop during the course of the show, both of which we felt went well. The school taped the talk so we should get a link to that in the not-too-distant future. We talked about the show in general and about the animation, the ideas behind the Energy Plants and the themes that will shape the animation. There was mention of fermentation, intestinal villi and Shennong.
The workshop focused on the collaborative nature of our work. We made watercolor and ink illustrations with the students, sharing steps of the process of creation with each other, letting go of individual goals and subverting previous intentions.
11/10~12/11の一ヶ月間GCCで開催された展示「Offerings for Furtherance」が終了しました。
タイトルのOfferings for Furtherance（オファーリングス・フォー・ファーザランス）は、次の季節に向かうための（前進するための）捧げ物、みたいな感じの意味です。
今回の展示は現在製作中のアニメーションに関連した展示で、映像製作を前に進めるための具体的なステップとしての展示という意味と、物語の内容（差し出したり差し出されたり多重に回転する命）その二つの意味でつけたタイトルでした。
会場では、夏から秋の間に製作していた実際のアニメーションに使うジオラマセットやイメージイラストレーション、そしてセット内の植物を等身大にしたオブジェ、壁面では制作・撮影風景を見せたり今までのアニメーションを上映したりしました。
数年前から二人のいろんなアニメーションの背景に出てきていた植物たちがあるんですが（古くはmumのRhubarbidooあたりから）、今年のニューイヤーカードで初めて紙の体を手に入れてからというもの独自の道を歩み始めて、エナジープラントという名前になり、結局これがジオラマセット＆アニメーションを作ってみようと決意するきっかけになりました。ある時は物語のメインキャラクターが物語を引っ張り、ある時はこのように背景を形作るものがその存在してる世界を周りに築きはじめることがあるんですね。。でもずっと期が熟すのをまっていた種のようなものだった気もします。フローティングネヴュラ（浮遊星雲）と呼んでいる平面の作品も今回は多く展示しました。アニメーションの世界を切り取ったり、物語の前後の日のようなイラストレーションたちを描いてみました。
ギャラリートークでは今作っているアニメーションとこの展示のつながりの事、そして普段はほとんど話さないし文字にもあまりしないこのアニメーションをなぜ作ろうと思ったのか、背景にある物語なども時間があったので少しお話ししました。そして数日後にはワークショップもあり、特に今回は「コラボレーション」をテーマにしたワークショップ群の一部という事で、来てくれた皆さんにも私たちが普段やっているやり方に近いもので絵を描いてもらったりしました。
今までで一番広いスペースでの展示、良い経験になりました。また展示は来年ひとつ決まっています。それまではアニメーション制作頑張ります！
We have a show coming up!
"Offerings for Furtherance" at Greenfield Community College
November 10th - December 11th
There will be a talk November 18th at noon - we'll talk about what is going on.
The show features all new work! We are making a new animation and the exhibition is a window into the creation process. Concept work, small sets and related material will be on display.
来月、展示やります！
Overture展示「Offerings for Furtherance」
会場：Greenfield Community Collegeのサウスギャラリー 期間：11/10から12/11まで
11/18（昼）には同校内でトークもします。（展示・トーク共に無料）
今制作中のアニメーションの世界を少しだけ覗ける窓のような展示になると思います。お近くの方は是非に！
Northampton Book & Print Fair was a great success! We were able to speak with many interesting people, share and sell our work and pick up a lot of wonderful art. Plus we had a huge amount of help from our amazing intern Sarah and the best table share mates, Fafnir & Neil! We are very grateful to the organizers for putting this thing together and letting us be a part of it.
ノーサンプトンプリント&ブックフェア、これで二度目のブックフェア参加でしたが、とても楽しかったです。
試しに出してみた箱入りエナジープラント（次の映像世界に出てくる予定のもの）はなんと完売！weird healingジンや新作ポストカードもたくさん売れて、weird healingの読者さんとも会うことができて、たくさんの面白い人たちと知りあいました。バックヤードには地元のベーカリーとカフェからの差し入れで山ほどのパンやスコーン、マフィン、コーヒーやリンゴなど…。
インターンのサラ、ありえないくらい頑張ってくれて最高のヘルパーでした。ファフナー＆ニールと同じテーブルシェアできてよかった。またこのイベントは反省点を生かして続ける予定だそうなので、とても楽しみ！
Next Sunday (10/4) is the Northampton Print & Book Fair at A.P.E. Gallery from 12 - 6. We will be there sharing a table with our good friends Fafnir Adamites and Neil Young Cloaca!
We will be selling a special edition of the Weird Healing zines (volume 1 & 2 combined!) along with stickers, postcards, original illustrations and some additional surprises.
Come visit us!
10/４（日）、普段は現代アートを展示するギャラリーA.P.E. Galleryにて開催されるブックフェアNorthampton Print & Book Fairに参加します。時間はお昼から夕方の６時まで。友人のFafnir Adamites と Neil Young Cloacaの二人とテーブルをシェアします。
今回は、Weird Healingのジンのvol 1 & 2を合わせたスペシャルエディションと新たに制作したポストカード、ステッカー、イラスト原画ももしかして、そして他にも考え中です。他の展示のメンバーもなかなかすごいので（マザーズニュースも来るとの噂！）ぜひ遊びに来てくださいね。
This Thursday night we're screening an animation (Coast - the version with live scoring by Ale) at this magazine launch/ screening loop at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Gallery 51.
It's part of the group exhibition, 'eat me alive so that I may see you from the inside', with works by Torsten Zenas Burns, Alicia Renadette and Maggie Nowinski.
The screening runs multiple times between 6 - 9 PM. We will be there to hold your hand.
木曜の夜、ノースアダムスにあるマサチューセッツ・カレッジ・オブ・リベラル・アーツのギャラリー５１にて「Coast」のAleライブスコアリングバージョンが上映されます。
ここで開催中のグループ展「'eat me alive so that I may see you from the inside'」の関連イベントで６~９時の間他の作品とともに流れる予定です。私たちも会場にお邪魔します:)
