In response to this week’s theme Play and Stillness, I decided to create a looping animation resembling a lofi animation loop to emphasize on the infinity and stillness of time. The idea emerged as I was watching the lectures and seeing the examples. Some that stood out was how the examples shown tend to revolve around calmness, relaxation, and a chill, peaceful experience. I was tempted to experiment with it, what if I slowly and subtly ruin the peace, what if I slowly amplify the feeling of helplessness and annoyance as the response plays in stillness? So as an additional experiment, I tried to add an unexpected element that could enhance the feeling of stillness through creating the feeling of inability to stop something from happening or making a change. My response is a looping scene of teatime in golden hour, with a fly coming around and drowning into the tea. The teatime works as a visual to evoke relaxation, chill and peaceful time, while the drowning fly acts as a contrasting element that cancels the relaxation and brings anxiety.
Method
I am using ToonBoom Harmony to accommodate my animation production process and After Effects to add some playful sound effects. I did frame by frame method to produce the animation on 10 fps.
The teatime works as a visual to evoke relaxation, chill, and peaceful time, while the drowning fly acts as a contrasting element that cancels the relaxation and brings anxiety. The idea is to bring both comfort and discomfort simultaneously, and to accentuate the stillness, how there is nothing we can do to get rid of the fly. The contrasting events should create an interesting mix of feelings, especially when the viewer gets more aware of and fixated towards the presence of the fly and possibly think of how many flies had drown inside the cup of tea. The looping serves as the main point of the stillness, helping the viewer to know that the events will still occur even if they are not seeing, it will always occur, no matter what. The colour palette, shades of soft pink, cream and yellow, and the warm tones were chosen to help bringing soothing aesthetic and calming atmosphere.
Context
Similar to most of my other responses, this response is an experimental practice in its core. I am experimenting with the combination of contrasting things, trying to see how it would be, what effects will it have on the viewer. In a sense, it is an experimental play, an exploratory attempt to find answers to the questions and curiosity that emerged within me. In the lecture, it was mentioned how “animation is a matter of movement set in relation to stillness”, said by Esther Leslie. That statement gave a new perspective towards the perception of animation as moving images. Taking that into account, I used the analogy for my response. The point of difference is what or who is moving and what or who is the stillness. As I have mentioned before, the product of my response, the looping animation, considered as the matter of movement, is set against the viewers, the stillness, as the viewer has no agency towards the events that are happening in the animation. Allowing the viewers to contemplate what is happening is also part of the response. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in his draft of Contemplative Computing (2011) defines how contemplative means: “a form of detached, calm engagement.” Regarding Pang’s definition of contemplative, my response can be a challenge for the viewer to contemplate upon, as it may create the contrary of calmness and may lead to fixation. However, if the viewer is able to go past them and allow themselves to see at the response in an objective way, then that should be the point where they can reflect and think about the meaning of the response.
Reflection
Regarding the outcome of the response, a question that rise is will adding a faint sound of buzzing fly adds to the annoyance and switches the focus more effectively, or does keeping it the current way be better as it is more subtle? I am now feeling unsure towards the contemplative intention of my response. It might have been better if I decided to add something subtle but symbolic, so that people can reflect upon it better. However, I do think that my current response, if people allow themselves to give a bit of time and reflect, they can definitely come up with meanings and philosophy, for example, being aware that there are things beyond our control and sometimes there is nothing we can do apart from embracing the stillness that we are in.
Reference
Leslie E (2006) From stillness to movement and back: Cartoon theory today, Radical Philosophy, (137), accessed 21 October 2022. https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/commentary/from-stillness-to-movement-and-back
Pang A S-K (2011) Contemplative Computing, accessed 12 October 2022 https://www.academia.edu/635387/Contemplative_Computing
By Eugenia Cynthiaputri
Email Eugenia Cynthiaputri
Published On: 21/10/2022