Tabacaria 
Tabacaria tells the story of a poet contemplating everyday life from his window across the street from a Tobacco shop. The poem describes a representation of an infinitude that permits human beings to become sensible to ideas and philosophical constructions. For this reason, we can detach ourselves from the immediate present and transport our existential problems to a metaphysical level. “Tabacaria” is probably one of Fernando Pessoa’s most well-known poems. Written by the Portuguese poet in 1928, he published it under his pseudonym Álvaro de Campos in 1930.
The poem remains remarkably contemporary, providing a reflection on humanity by exploring our capacity of analyzing the world philosophically despite the limitations of our stranded bodies. This animated short film brings the poem to life through rapidograph illustrations reinterpreted as stop-motion cut-out animation.
This film was produced with the financial assistance of the ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educators Forum 2021 Faculty Grant.
The material aspects involved in my creative process permit direct manipulation of the images in space and time, allowing for further experimentation using digital tools not constricting them to pre-codified effects. This results in an organic look and feel, that would be quite difficult to obtain through digital simulation of traditional drawing and animation techniques.
Animation, specifically animated films, are quite commonly associated with the cinematic universe. By revisiting definitions of animation from the perspective of the design disciplines, scientific visualization, and digital culture, I question the validity of classifying animation as a subset of film. Alternatively, I suggest that animation be understood as an art form with a unique language and ‘grammar,’ mediated through multiple mediums and environments: film, digital networks, virtual reality, architecture and human-computer interfaces. If we accept that animation is not restricted to cinematic formats, therefore not exclusively a film art, we can consider animation as an art form in itself.
