Animating Platt Hall 
Unboxing is a short animation that tells the story of a doll escaping from her box in a museum storeroom. The film and model are the results of a collaboration between Sophie, Platt Hall (part of Manchester Art Galleries) and primary school children local to the museum. The project explores the potential of animation processes and collection objects to inspire curiosity, everyday creativity, character design, and storytelling. Children investigated the museum and its historic doll collection to develop character, story and mise-en-scène ideas.
Sophie combined these ideas with her own research into the manufacturing processes and materials of the dolls in the collection at Platt Hall to create the final model. In miniature scale, the project aims to activate a collection currently in storage for future audiences, using the craft work and sensory properties inherent in stop motion puppets and processes to invoke touch, play and storytelling in the museum.
Working in and with museums, I am inspired by the real material properties of different collection objects and how these might be used to inspire character, narrative and movement design. My animation process is collaborative, place-based and led by object encounters and material properties. Like any art form, I think animation is a form of self-expression, but I am particularly inspired by its craft-based processes and potential for collaboration.
