DANSTOPIC: ar workshop with areal dance space
An experimental 28 second animation responding to an anonymous letter written by a dancer about their work philosophy and struggles in their practice
I joined a workshop on how to create AR content, which is when you can scan a printed image with your phone, and the image "comes alive" in the form of animation, playing in the space that is outside the printed frame. We used the app Artivive for this workshop.
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As for the content itself, each participant to this experimental workshop received a letter written by a dancer in Areal dance company to each other- responding to soul-searching questions about their practice. This letter served as a brief, or at least point of departure.
It was interesting to decipher what they meant, as the letter I was given was responding to questions that I had not seen. I sensed pride, and also defensiveness in the letter. The dancer wrote that dancing is like a dress they put on, and while it seems that their dance partners are close comrades on the stage, the kinship felt immediately disappears outside of this context. The letter spoke also about the holy trinity, to which I put my own personal irreverent spin on that image, and how they struggle in and out of depression, that I visualized by making the character "fall" and "land on their feet" again, playing back into a loop.
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It was an interesting experiment of visualizing an anonymous letter, I can imagine working with narration for this project, so the animation has more context readily available to the viewer, creating a more well-rounded piece of animated message.
I animated this in TVPaint, and added sound effects using Garage Band and Boombox.