Inbetweening Beings was my MFA thesis work, as well as a 5-minute film. Watch the film below, and scroll down for the MFA documentation and link to full thesis paper.
Film Screenings and Awards:
Festival Ecocine, Campinas Brazil, Oct. 2-Nov. 1, 2023 - WINNER: Environment Animation Category
Inheritance TV Festival, Ireland/UK, Sept. 11, 2023
Planet In Focus Film Festival, Toronto Canada, Oct. 12-22, 2023
Innsbruck Nature Film Festival, Innsbruck Austria, Oct. 19-22, 2023
SunCine Film Festival, Barcelona Spain, Nov. 2-10, 2023
Fest Int’l de Imagem de Natureza (FIIN), Vila Real, Portugal, Nov. 6-12, 2023
Cutout Fest, Queretaro, Mexico, Nov. 16-19, 2023
Animac Animation Festival, Lleida, Spain, Feb. 15-18, 2024
Blue Water Film Festival, San Diego, USA, Mar. 21-24, 2024
Athens Animfest, Greece, Mar. 28-31, 2024
Rencontres Cinema-Nature, Dompierre-sur-Besbre, France, April 5-7, 2024
FilmFest Dresden, Germany, April 16-21, 2024
RiverRun Int’l Film Festival, Winston-Salem, USA, Apr. 18-27, 2024
Director’s Statement:
Inbetweening Beings uses the increments of animation to examine ecology in the Anthropocene. Experimenting with narrative filmmaking, installation, and the materiality of landscape, a variety of living systems are projected, asking where and how humans fit in. The stories highlight interdependence and disruption. Focusing on urban and human-disturbed landscapes, the film suggests a distinctly anthropogenic “nature” – jumbled, entangled, polluted, and resilient.
Credits:
Story, Direction, Animation, Design, Production: Isaac King / Music: Bram Gielen / Videography: Chris Blow / Sound Design/Mix: Isaac King
© Isaac King 2023, isaacking.net
Below is documentation of my MFA thesis work in OCAD University’s Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design Program. The animated installation was exhibited in Toronto at OCAD U’s Great Hall, April 10-16, 2022. Below is documentation of the show and my written thesis document, outlining my theory and practice.
Abstract: Inbetweening Beings uses the increments of animation to examine ecology in the Anthropocene. Experimenting with frame-by-frame filmmaking, installation, and the materiality of landscape, a variety of living systems are projected, asking where and how humans fit in. Referencing specific locations and relations, the installation connects human and more-than-human life with light and shadow, inviting reflection and implication. Focusing on urban and human-disturbed landscapes, Inbetweening Beings suggests a distinctly anthropogenic “nature” – jumbled, entangled, polluted, and resilient.
Keywords: Animation, Installation, Anthropocene, Ecology, Relations, Nature, Inbetweening
Drag around for some (low-res) 360 degree action!
Below is documentation of my outdoor installation tests, along with a large scale projection-mapping project, Returning. Exhibited as part of BigArtTO, Nov. 3-6, 2021, "Returning" celebrates the Day of the Dead through nature’s endless cycles of growth and decay on two sides of the Princess Park clocktower in Toronto. It references the the annual monarch migration to Mexico, where the butterflies have been interpreted as souls of the departed returning to visit. In the tradition of honouring ancestors, "Returning" presents the resiliency of natural ecological systems, of which humans are a part. With bright colours and constant motion, curious viewers were invited to the tower to celebrate, honour, and reflect together.
Here is my 10-minute Colloquium video presentation.
Below are some early conceptual and narrative maps.
