[-empyre-] Introduction to week 4 and BLENDO

[Renate Ferro]

I can't believe that we are into week 4 of empyre's discussion on
Theorizing Animation: Content and Context.  A sincere thank you to
Christopher, Eric, and Melanie for being our guests this past week.  I'd
like to introduce Thyrza Goodeve who has made a number of posts already
this month.  I met Thyrza at the Quay Brothers exhibition here at Cornell
and she so graciously agreed to be our guest this month.  Also, Richard
Wright has also made posts especially this past week.  We are also most
grateful for his participation.  Welcome to Eileen Reynolds from Singapore
who will join in on this weeks discussion as well.  I have attached their
biographies below.

We will be continuing our discussion through Monday, the 28h of February. 
I'm hoping that all of our subscribers who have been lurking this month
will feel free to make posts as well.

I just got back from USC in Southern California and noticed that this week
they  are hosting an exhibition entitled BLENDO: A hybrid approach to
moving image art - combining 2D / 3D animation, Photography, Motion
Graphics, Text, Green Screen, or other elements. Anyone else heard of the
term BLENDO used to characterize manipulated moving imagery.  Anyone know
where it comes from?????

Thanks to all of you once again.  Renate

Week 4:Thyrza  Nichols Goodeve (US) , Richard Wright (UK), Eileen Reynolds
(SG)

Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, PhD is an art writer and Adjunct Professor at
The School of Visual Arts in New York City who teaches in the film, art
history, and MFA Art Criticism and Writing departments. She has known The
Brothers Quays since 1996 when she interviewed them for *Artforum* in
conjunction with the premiere of *Institute Benjamenta*. Most recently she
has followed the Quays foray into the exhibition space with their traveling
exhibition DORMITORIUM (curated by Ed Waisnis), a rare selection of vitrines
of original puppet theaters f such as *Street of Crocodiles* or *The Cabinet
of Jan Svankmeyer.* Last week she was with the Quays as they installed the
exhibition at the invitation of The College of Architecture, Art and
Planning at Cornell University  where the Quay Brothers work was featured.

Richard Wright is a visual artist working in animated media who made
several pioneering computer animated films and interactive pieces.
‘Heliocentrum’ (1995), an animation about Louis XIV, was described by
writer Hari Kunzru as ‘
an amazingly effective way of showing how a
sovereign manipulated power’ and ‘The Bank of Time’ was nominated for
a BAFTA in 2001. His last short film was "Foreplay" (2004), described
as “a porn film without the sex” .

Richard helped set up the MA in Digital Art and Animation at London
Metropolitan University and was postproduction and animation tutor at
the National Film and Television School for three years.  He has a PhD in
the aesthetics of digital film making and has
published forty book chapters, articles and reviews.

>From 2004 to 2009 he collaborated with Graham Harwood and Matsuko
Yokokoji, initially as Mongrel. Their last project 'Tantalum  Memorial'
won the transmediale.09 award.

Current projects include a public video work called “decorative 
surveillance”, researching a book about contemporary animation
practice, the “narrativising” of new media and data visualisation as
the successor to documentary film making.


Eileen Anastasia Reynolds is an experimental media artist working with
painting, photography, and stop motion animation. She is interested in the
visceral responses that stop motion animation creates, using tactility to
explore levels of emotional impact. Her current work, is an experimental
animated documentary that attempts to bridge illusion and reality while
embracing the magical realism of stop motion. Her ultimate goal is to
preserve the integrity of stop motion which, she feels, is the perfect mix
of art; including but not limited to sculpture, painting, photography,
lighting, performing, writing, and music.

Eileen continues to exhibit her personal artwork, consisting of painting,
photography, and stop-motion animation.  As an Asst Prof at the School of
Art,
Design, and Media at Nanyang Technological University since 2005, she has
taught stop motion animation, animation seminar, and animation history.

Her research interests include bioethics and emerging technologies, which
raise scientific, social, and ethical concerns. Her most recent project
embarked on a journey with 33 EEE students from NTU who helped in the
creation of an animated film series called "Synchronicity Series". They
performed, choreographed and animated their bodies using the stop motion
technique called pixilation.

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Art
Cornell University, Tjaden Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853

Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
Website:  http://www.renateferro.net


Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre

Art Editor, diacritics
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/