Cameraless Animation Workshop
with International Artist Steven WoloshenWorld-renowned artist Steven Woloshen was one of the artists represented in the exhibition. His workshops took place barely ten days after its official opening.
He introduced participants to direct animation and shared with them the tips and secrets of his amazing technique. Participants had the opportunity to use diverse types of materials to draw, scratch, and paint over strips of film.
Using a specially adapted digital microscope, Woloshen, with the help of our Undergraduate Student Assistant Zi Yan Liu, digitized each of the many 8-frame-long strips the public produced. The final animations compile all these film strips synchronized to jazz music.
Direct Animation /
This technique is simple and at the same time conceptually sophisticated.
It consists of scratching, splotching, or painting on a film strip,
which brings to the fore the physicality of a material that, created to be
a reproductive medium, was supposed to be inconspicuous. [ ... ]
Direct animation was the first animation technique attempted by artists interested in revitalizing the traditional art of painting by incorporating time and movement into their creations. Italian Futurist artists Arnaldo Gina and Bruno Corra created hand-drawn films in the first decades of the 20th century; while Neo-Zealander artist Len Lye and Scottish/Canadian animator Norman Mclaren secured this technique's place among the arts. Several other artists used it for expressive purposes in films that cannot be considered animations.
Since celluloid film was phased out as a medium at the turn of the 21st century, the practice of direct animation has the potential to bring about a burst of unfiltered sensorial nostalgia to those who were once accustomed to using it. Meanwhile, this technique gives digital natives the opportunity to discover film as a "new" material and has the potential to make them better understand the history of film. The process of making films without a camera is also known as Cameraless Animation.
About the Artist: Working in cameraless animation since 1982, Steven Woloshen has been a lecturer, juror, technician, animator, and craftsman, and has conducted workshops on cameraless animation all over the world. He is Specialist of Archival Material at the National Film Board, Montreal, Canada, a world-leading institution in film archival and conservation practices. He has authored the practical guidebook on camaraless film-making Scratch, Crackle & Pop (2015).
This program was supported by the Ryla T. ∧ John F. Lott Endowment for Excellence in the Visual Arts, administered through the TTU School of Art, and the Art History Area, School of Art, TTU.
About the Artist: Working in cameraless animation since 1982, Steven Woloshen has been a lecturer, juror, technician, animator, and craftsman, and has conducted workshops on cameraless animation all over the world. He is Specialist of Archival Material at the National Film Board, Montreal, Canada, a world-leading institution in film archival and conservation practices. He has authored the practical guidebook on camaraless film-making Scratch, Crackle & Pop (2015).