Projects :: Neon Aurora
October 2007
Soundtrack commissioned by Threshold Studios and Mike Shaw
Neon Aurora is an abstract exploration of colour, form, sound and movement which attempts to unify dance, music, animation, sculpture and drawing. It might be better described as an animated sculpture than a film because the illusion of actual space and three dimensional form is so fundamental to it.
Neon Aurora was realised through collaboration with dancer Ian Dolman whose movements describing various sculptural forms were recorded using a motion capture system. These traces of motion were converted into brush strokes in Maya to progressively map out a series of sculptures in virtual space according to the rhythm and timing of the dancer's movements. Animating the cameras' movements around the forms further enhanced associations with the perambulatory and kinetic nature of experiencing sculpture. Finally, the motion, aesthetic and spatial dynamics of the evolving forms is complemented by a soundscape by Threep.
Michael Shaw is a practising sculptor who recently became interested in the potential of animation to recreate the perambulatory nature of viewing sculpture and its sophisticated capacity to create the illusion of three dimensions existing on two. Films completed to date include Respiro I selected for the 12th Media Biennale WRO 07 in Poland in May 2007, Respiro II and There, but not there which was short-listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2006. Further animated drawings completed in 2007 include Doodle, What might be & La linea nella sabbia, alongside Neon Aurora a commission from Threshold Studios in the UK to respond to the theme Kinetica.
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