Animation as Art: A Multi-Sensory Experience Exhibit 2024

1000 Plateaus

100 Plateaus | 2004 - 2014
Camaraless animation on 35 mm film. 3:22 min
Soundtrack: Lionel Hampton
Canadian Film Institute Award, best Animation 2014.
Bottles of paint, wooden glass box, metal handle, cotton glove, roll of masking tape, book: London Street map, wooden calligraphy nib box with nibs, brushes, pens, markers, magnifying loop glass, sample film strips, meal/glass projection gate.

I created 1000 Plateaus in the front seat of a Dodge Caravan in 2004 with small and simple objects. It took 10 years to complete using roughly 5000 individual 35mm motion picture film frames. Road maps and the road seen through the front windshield were my sources of inspiration as I inked, painted, and scratched each frame of film. I was drawn to lines and dots on the maps, and I began to draw them on the film. In the book, A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari, the map is a performance, and tracing [it] involves “alleged” competence.
I felt as though my film project was a part of that trajectory. My actual Plateaus (the French word for shooting location) were film sets, a place where technicians sat idle and then participated in the making of scenes in a feature film. My goal was to create a short abstract film as I sat idle as transport driver in the shadow of larger film, re-purposing the tools around me as a recycling project. I also sought to create a dialog between myself and my passengers.

I think of my films as documents of my body. As I scratch and paint on film, I am a reflection of my pulse, my muscle memory and my vision. Small, portable materials allow me to create in unique spaces.

Each frame of film is small, but this allows me to look into worlds I could never draw in other animated mediums quote symbol

Steven Woloshen
Nationality: Canadian
Independent Artist

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Woloshen first attended Vanier College, where he worked with Super-8 film and video. Woloshen specialized in 16mm independent film techniques at Concordia University in Montreal. He initially made documentaries and collage films, but the freedom and accessibility of scratch animation won him over. He has since created animated and experimental films, which have been shown at screenings and festivals around the world.