Stop-motion animation responses made with various different materials and using a range of styles. Stop-motion animation accommodated for a huge range of ideas, perspectives, materials and skills throughout the workshops. This meant researcher and participants could navigate ideas and discoveries freely. Making links and connections, then being able to turn them into reality without many restrictions to possibilities....
'A Day at the Beach' - Anne-C, Coral Jane, P A Strivens and Sophie Bishop. Various Materials. Video made by participants and researcher during CollabArtMotion research workshops.
This video is a culmination of the participants and researchers ideas and skills. 'A day at the Beach' is the final animation that resulted from the series of research workshops in Nov/Dec 2019. Stop-motion animation provided a platform for a diverse range of skills, the 2D background, 3D models, beach huts and deck-chair. So many different materials come together in this animation meaning that it was a successful tool for creative inlusitivity. The following videos are the Researchers creative response to the processes involved in getting to this final piece.
'Inclusive Arts Practice Workshop' - Anne-C, Coral Jane, P A Strivens and Sophie Bishop. Various Materials. Video made by participants and researcher during CollabArtMotion research workshops.
This was the starting point for the workshops. Participants chose a material one by one to add to the paper. A photo was taken of each stage and it was then turned into an animation and edited. This was an introduction to the materials and stop-motion animation. This activity laid onto discussion around ideas and onto the next stage organically. It was playful and aimed to eliminate fears of participation and of going wrong, as there was no expected outcome. The activity lent itself well as a precursor to entering flow state.
'Ideas connection' - acrylic paint, Sophie Bishop
This video isn't one of the Researchers main creative responses but is a creative response to what happened during the warm-up activity above. This video starts with the three primary colours, yellow red and blue which then mix together, creating something different entirely. This was one of the Researchers warm-up activities for themselves, to then lead onto other ideas.
'Home-made friends/Lockdown Voices' - Mixed media - Frank McDaniels, David J Pitt, Tom Mellor, Helen Mellor and Sophie Bishop
This video was made when lockdown measures where first put in place. The Researcher had found during the research workshops that stop-motion animation had worked as a great tool for creating a calm space for collaboration to thrive. The Researcher wanted to see how this would compare when the people involved weren't in the same room. This proved difficult when trying to come up with a task and reaching out to those who may want to be involved. It did work, and the resulting video displays the combination of styles that could be used. The process seemed more difficult and much less straight forward, but this could be due to anxieties around the current situation.
'Natural flow' - 2D Paper and water colour stop-motion animation. This animation is in flow with no obvious beginning or end. The flow is only stopped by outside restrictions, such as time/length of video. During the research workshops a state of flow was entered into by starting with playful warm-up activities. Once in flow, ideas seemed to appear naturally among participants and progress happened very organically. It felt free and unbreakable, other than from outside limitations. The media used in this animation is limited and is perhaps not as playful or as obviously connected to the research until it is looked at closely. This piece was initially going to be one of the main pieces, but became part of the process towards making a creative response as it doesn't seem to quite portray the nature of the workshops.
'Circle', Various materials - Sophie bishop
Various materials come together in this video to make a circle which then spins around. Much like how in the workshops various ideas and materials came together to create a final piece. The materials are quite playful, which matches the nature of the workshops. This was more of a sketchbook idea, the Researchers 'playful warm-up' activity leading to more ideas, flow and onto the following creative responses.
'Connecting with Materials', Brown paper, sponge, peg - Sophie Bishop
In this video, the different materials have accompanying sounds which don't fit with the image. The sponge has the sound of a paint brush in water, the scrunched up paper has the sound of a peg closing and the peg has the sound of scrunched up paper. The idea behind this was to explore the connections made when working with materials. They might look or feel a certain way when we use them and make a certain sound, which might give us an idea, but to mix those sounds up make it more noticeable and confuses those connections. During the research workshops, connecting to the materials and then taking those materials on a journey, bringing them to life with movement and sound through animation, was all part of the process. This creative response also does this but with unexpected sounds, much like the unexpected outcomes of parts of the processes in the workshops. You wouldn't normally have the sounds of the sea with scrunched up tissue paper, but creating in this way and connecting sounds with movement, adds another dynamic which gives life to materials.
'Material Flow' Brown paper, green felt, pebble, text, cut out paper, bubble wrap, peg - Sophie Bishop
This creative response shows different materials entering mainly one by one with individual sounds for each. They represent each step of the way through the workshops and what it is to be in flow state. Each material is a response to the previous material, and they react to each other and make up a part of the whole picture. The pieces of text are left over from other artwork created by the Researcher that didn't work, but that relate to the research. The animation is supposed to look home-made, as during this research project, it was aimed to be as accessible as possible to participants, should they take something away from it. All animations were made using nothing but a phone, app and phone stand. Very few professional animation tools were used throughout any of the project. The Researcher was new to animation which eliminated the idea of the workshops being taught sessions, or that they were coming in as a professional. This can be important as an Inclusive Arts Practitioner as it sets the foundation and tone for what the creative journey is about. One Participant knew a lot about animation and had a lot of previous experience with it that they could share. Everyone involved had their own unique skills they could bring to the project, whilst exploring something together as equal members, learning and unlearning together.