CONCEPT

“In my work, thought is an afterthought and experience takes priority. A gust of wind sliding past your skin, the drops of water that shock your face in small pricks, the annoyance at a train’s closing doors, the disappointed taste of sour strawberries, the sunlight pinching your face, the calm comfort of a long-awaited embrace, the tight pain of sharp memories, the ripple of pleasure in your muscles, the overwhelming wash of color at concerts, the subtle joy at the return of curiosity- these innate feelings and sensations I find profound and allow me to be present, and I need to be present. Inconsistency, fear, and chaos echo from my past, reminders of idiocy and immaturity and insecurity, and to be truly present in insignificance I ground myself in existence and give myself freedom to experience this life in full. To dissect these moments would remove that power, leaving empty, big words that don’t mean much.”

For my thesis project, I decided to make an animation using a graphic, vibrant, and simple style. Inspired by the life montage scene in Masaaki Yuasa’s “Mindgame”, my work centers on a single individual, showcasing bits and pieces of their life in small flashes. Only just enough is shown to understand, and then that moment is gone, in fragments like memory. This isn’t autobiographical, and none of these images are my memories specifically, but all are inspired to some degree by my own experiences. Originally, I intended it to span across an entire life, but knowing my age and how many experiences I can’t fathom, I decided it would only extend to the character’s early adulthood.