why

A week ago, I got pulled into one of those get rich multi-level marketing schemes, in the process of aggressive persuasion, the guy recalls on my education.  Provoking me with the idea that this past 4 years of my education has been a waste of time and that me being an artist will “not be making any money”, the entire process made me realize something. I didn’t decide to do art to make money. To me, art has always been about discovery, the joy of discovering a piece of truth within the web of society.

With that being said, the interest of my film concerns the idea of human nature, the idea of human beings able to show incredible compassion and ruthless cruelty to one another intrigues me. It creates a paradoxical idea, this self looping tape if that plays over and over through the history.  Through the making of this film I hope to find out more about humanity traits, by studying my own creative process and what my perception of humanity really is.

Whether I succeed in making others understand will be the hardest part of this, implementing the correct images and letting it grow into an idea. Clarity and simplicity will have to play hand to hand in order to let the audience project their own ideology of humanity onto the screen.

My areas of interest vary from war history to psychology, the article “Your Brain: A User’s Guide” by Time magazine has an important self-realizing element in the process of this research. It focuses on the brain not as an organ, but as you. The fact that you can replace your liver, you can replace your heart, but you are your brain, as well as the idea of consciousness within living beings are all being considered into the research element. Most importantly it’s about finding that universal perspective on what is humanity.” Are we nothing but clever robots?” (Kluger pg 19), or is there something more to our being than mushy brain matter.

Another article that guided me along the way though I have yet to figure out the book completely is “Has Modernism Failed?” it points concerns on the mass art culture of today, the idea that art is no longer a passion but a career approaches the subject of our future. The notion of if art is an escapism from reality, what’s escapism of art when it becomes your life. It focuses on the subject of this film indirectly as it solely influences me on my thinking process, not as the main intention the film.

Taking into consideration are other cultures that have come before our time, the Roman, the dark ages, histories of war. They all take on a cycle, and we seem to be waiting for the next big war, perhaps it’s nature’s way of population control. Those will play a bigger part in the film, hopefully by the end of this year I will have a better understanding to humanity.

My personal inspiration as an animator has been the short film “onwards”, directed by Jarvis James, not necessary influencing my own style but an inspiration to what animation doesn’t have to be, this glamorous realism the world seems to be fascinated with. Instead a passionate sincerity towards a simple journey that speaks for itself and allows all viewers to connect with it.

The film itself came from a cultural mythology, but as it has evolved and progress much more than a simple mythology, but a conceptual standpoint that I want to push towards for others to connect with.

Bibliography

Kluger, Jeffrey.  Your Brain: A User’s Guide. Time, 2009. Print

Gablik, Suzi. Has Modernism Failed? Revised Edition Thames & Hudson, 2004. Print