Teaching, Experimenting, Looking to the Future

This Fall, I’m teaching animation through the School of Poetic Computation. It’s a revised version of a course I taught at Rutgers several years ago, the goal is to get out of your own head and explore the many ways to animate, like using coffee grounds, paper cutouts, puppets, or markers. I’m finding the right mindset, and here’s some whiteboard marker experiments from yesterday.

I’ve got a pile of post it notes too, I’ll do something with those. Cardboard boxes, laundry pins, paperclips and plastic bags- everything becomes a potential subject. Just pick it up and run with it.

I never feel confident before a class begins. Doesn’t matter how much experience I have, or how many awards come my way. Expectations make me clammy and I don’t want to let anybody down. It’ll shift once we get going and find some momentum. If someone you know might be interested, please forward this on to them. Applications close in just a few days and there are scholarships available too.

We’re headed to the Adriatic coast for 10 days. We’ve got books and beach towels and our coffee maker. We’re going to the same place we went last year, a villa that was fixed up by a local guy and his Mom. They host a few folks at a time and cook pizzas in an outdoor oven. There’s string lights and a swimming pool and views of a neighboring farm. Last time we took the winding route over the Appenine mountains and oh boy the rabbits braced against my legs for every switchback. They HATED it. They like the soothing music of Olafur Arnalds, but even Olafur didn’t help.

We’ll take the tunnel this time.

Seeyou after vacation.

Bub, our videogame, featured in The Guardian.

-C.