animation

Extraordinay Facts Relating To the Vision of Colours was once the title of the very first scientific publication about colourblindness. The text in this interactive animation claims all kinds of things about colours, while the colours themselves disclose different things. Not only the course of the text is decided by the user, but also what is and is not seen.

text and idea: Hans Kloos
technical execution: Olivier Otten

(translation description Literatuur Op Het Scherm)

Ah articulates a simple paradox of reading animated digital literature, which is that the eye, and by extension the mind, often has no sense of the future of a sentence or line of text and, more importantly, is not given the chance to retread an already witnessed word or phrase. Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industry's Dakota is a perfect illustration of this principle. In Ah, the central object of rumination is Einstein, but just as the physicist pondered the numberless variations between the presence of a "1" and "0," this Flash animation brings us back and forth between clever articulations and the ambiguous expressivity of single letters and syllables.

Time Jitters, 2014 begins with images collected in Without A Trace and uses them as the foundation for a series of animations. It has been presented as single channel projection, as part of an installation and is also an iOS app.

In this digital first picture book app, the reader encounters several interwoven stories connected by a thoroughly digital aesthetics that suits the different stories. The frame narrative centres around Kubbe, an anthropomorphic wooden log (kubbe is Norwegian for log) who is having a picnic with his grandmother and becomes curious about the shadows he sees. Upon hearing his grandmother’s story about how shadow theatre was created in ancient China, Kubbe decides to produce his own shadow theater: an unusal retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood”. The tablet’s affordances of back lighting, animation and visual spatiality are exploited in this app in a manner that suits and enhances the different stories’ individual characteristics. (source: ELO 2015 conference catalog)

The fascinating story of Moomin, Mymble and Little My comes alive in this new interactive storybook. Shake, rotate, swipe and tap the screen to discover the fabulous animations hidden on each page. You can listen to the narration or read the story yourself to your children. See what happens as Moomin travels through wonderfully illustrated adventures with his friends. Amazing interactive content and funny sound effects make the magical journey so exciting your children will enjoy this classic Moomin story over and over again. original illustrations and story by Tove Jansson eye-catching animations and funny sound effects amusing interactions on each page read-aloud narration (Source: http://www.spinfy.com/products/applications/the-book-about-moomin-mymbl…)

The poem-program Universo was developed by João Coelho in BASIC for a IBM PC. This is a computer poem which draws its own title - universe, in english - in a spiral that evokes endless movement, symmetry and chance - forming words in portuguese along the way.

Scriptpoemas (2005-) is a collection of poems or “poemas” which is still being written by Antero de Alda. He was described by Rui Torres as an explorer of “new paths for computer-animated poetry” (Torres, 2008). These short and (apparently) ready-to-consume poems were created using Flash, Javascript and ActionScript and they often enact the activity or attribute described in their title. Each poem seems to convey the literal meaning of the words used to describe them: the “poem in prison” is presented behind bars, the “spherical poem” can be described as a round object. However, as soon as the poems are activated by the reader, new details begin to surface. Antero de Alda makes use of the digital environment to uncover the many faces of a poem and the evasiveness of language. The arbitrariness of signs is, after all, widely explored by Alda in each poem. Nothing is what it seems and icons, concepts or famous photographs are defamiliarized and turned into traps designed to betray the reader’s senses. Verses, stanzas and verbal language are reshaped as, or intertwined with, icons, images, sounds and animations. These are not straightforward representations of objects, but particles of an ongoing reflection on language, literature and life.

So far, the following poems have been included in Scriptpoemas: Poema a 33 Rpm [33 RPM poem]; Poema Avariado [broken poem]; Poema na Prisão [poem in prison]; Poema para Jogar [playable poem]; Poema Suicida [suicidal poem]; Poema Pornográfico [pornographic poem]; Poema Zoom; Túnel de Poemas [tunnel of poems]; Sementeira de Poemas [seedbed of poems]; Poema Negro [dark poem]; Poema Ilegível [unreadable poem]; Poema Objecto; Poema Graffiti; Poema Embrião [embrio poem]; Poema Código de Barras [barcode poem]; Poema Habitado [inhabited poem]; Poema de Pedra [stone poem]; Poema Camuflado [undercover poem]; Poema Em Viagem [travelling poem]; Poema Trapezista [trapeze poem]; Poema à Lupa [poem through a magnifying glass]; Galeria de Poemas [gallery of poems]; Poema Puzzle; Livro de Poemas [book of poems]; Poema de Artifício [fireworks’ poem]; Poema Relógio [clock poem]; Poema Tremido [shaky poem]; Arquivo de Poemas [poems’ archive]; Poema na Tv [poem on TV]; Poema de Natal [Christmas poem]; Para não Esquecer [not to forget]; Manta de Poemas [quilt of poems]; Poema Carambola [carom poem]; Poema Carambola 1; Poema Reflexo [reflection poem]; Poema Escondido [hidden poem]; Poema Mensagem [message poem]; Poema de Passagem [stop by poem]; Poema Cinético [kinetic poem]; Poema Translúcido [translucent poem]; Poema Iluminado [illuminated poem]; Poema Diário [daily poem]; Poema Saltitante [hopping poem]; Poema Festivo [merry poem]; Poema em Construção [poem under construction]; Poema Intermitente [intermittent poem]; Poema Adesivo [adhesive poem]; Poema Declamado [recited poem]; Poema Declamado 1; Poema às Moscas [dusty old poem]; Poema às Feras [poem thrown to the beasts]; Poemas Entrelaçados [interlaced poems]; Poema (Im)Possível [(im)possible poem]; Poema no Espaço [poem in space]; Poema Esférico [spherical poem]; Poema Caleidoscópio [kaleidoscopical poem]; Poema Cibernético [cybernetic poem]; Poema Dactilografado [typed poem]; Poema Galáctico [galactic poem]; Poema em Código [poem in code]; Poema Arrastado [dragged poem]; Poema Colorido [colorful poem]; Poema Serpente [serpent poem]; Poema Centrífugo [centrifugal poem]; Googlepoema; Poema Telegráfico [telegraphic poem]; Poema Antifascista [anti-fascist poem]; Poema Psicadélico [psychedelic poem]; Poema Esqueleto [skeleton poem]; Poema Matrix; Poema Cativo [captive poem]; Poema Óptico [optical poem]; Poema Rotativo [rotative poem]; Poema Em Casa [poem at home]; Poema Subaquático [underwater poem]; Poema de Amor [love poem]; Poema por Tamanho [custom size poem]; Poema do Mar [sea poem]; Poema Ao Luar [poem under the moonlight]; Poema à Janela [poem at the window]; Poema de Pesquisa [research poem]; Poema Americano [American poem]; Micropoema; Poema Circulante [circulating poem]; Poema Flutuante [floating poem]; Poema ao Vento [poem to the wind]; Poema Elástico [elastic poem]; O Rasto do Poema [the poem’s trace].

References: Torres, Rui (2008). "Scriptpoemas' introduction", in http://www.anterodealda.com/scriptpoemas.htm.

Abra is an exploration and celebration of the potentials of the book in the 21st century. A collaboration between Amaranth Borsuk, Kate Durbin, Ian Hatcher, and a potentially infinite number of readers, the project merges physical and digital media, integrating a hand-made artist's book with an iPad app to play with the notion of the “illuminated” manuscript and let readers "hold the light" of language. In the artist’s book, the poems grow and mutate as the reader turns the pages, blurring the boundary between text and illumination, marginalia and body. Animating across the surface, the poems coalesce and disperse in an ecstatic helix of words, taking turns "illuminating" one another's margins and interstices.They play with the mutation of language, both by forming new portmanteaus and conjoined phrases, and also through references to fecundity as it manifests in the natural world, the body, human history, popular culture, decorative arts, and architecture, placing the shifting evolution and continuous overlap of all these spheres in dialogue with the ever-changing technology of the book. The iPad version of Abra, which provides a physical backdrop for the artist's book into which it is inserted, extends and revels in this ephemerality, putting special emphasis on interactivity to highlight the role of the reader. The poems spring to life onscreen: not only do they conjoin and separate, with a swipe of his or her finger, readers may join the collaboration and mutate the text further, creating new juxtapositions and surprising turns of phrase. Their texts provide scores for potential performances of the work, making Abra function much like the magic word of its origin–abracadabra–as an unpredictable living text. We are interested in both exhibiting the hybrid artist's book / iPad app and performing from the work. We would also be happy to give a presentation, if that is of interest. While the project is a collaboration between 3 people, only Amaranth and Ian are applying to present it. We both plan to attend the conference and are especially interested in the opportunity to expand the performative possibilities of the text, which to date has been performed by Kate and Amaranth in conjoined costume. Abra is being produced under an Expanded Artists’ Books Grant from the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago. The project will launch this spring. For exhibition, our piece requires an iPad running iOS7 and a podium. We can provide the artist's book. For performance, we can provide iPads and adapters. Amaranth Borsuk's books include Between Page and Screen and Handiwork. She teaches at the University of Washington, Bothell. Kate Durbin's books include The Ravenous Audience and E! Entertainment, among others. She teaches at Whitter College. Ian Hatcher is a text/sound artist and programmer living in New York.

(Source: Author's abstract)

This piece won the 2017 Turn on Literature Prize.

Nuit Noire is a creation by Dutey and Jane Sautiere (1997) published in alire 10. The work itself begins as what appears to be a dark night. The screen is completely black and dark. White text appears and falls slowly, and the words become clearer at the center of the page; then, the text disappears again. The text falls in groups, perhaps in strophes, but one must read the order of the lines, not the words, in reverse order because the work begins, in fact, with the last line of the poem and progresses towards the beginning. The second time, the poem begins at the bottom of the screen and moves up the screen rather than falling to the bottom. According to Philippe Bootz, the poem is a retrograde text. The work is also a metaphorical animation where the text moves, but the words themselves do not change. Here is the text (from the start to the end): Nuit noire, odeur de tubéreuses. Toussent les grenouilles toutes ensemble et toutes ensembles se taisent, pour de plus fluettes et de plus mystérieuses voix. Une radio qui chante l’opéra chinois peut-être, ou peut-être pas. Une palme métallique au-dessus de la tête fait osciller la moustiquaire laiteuse. Mais ni tangage ni roulis dans la jonque l'oreille dans l’oreiller trop mou entend crisser les insectes. Sur le mur bat le cœur du petit margouillat translucide et frais. The poem itself is a story that describes the details and elements of a dark night. The narrator perhaps is passing a dark night in nature and describing the sounds, the events, and his emotional experiences. The viewer sees the black screen and the white words in the work perhaps as a reflection of the night and of the light odor of the tubéreuses, which are white and fragrant flowers. The words appear crackled and unclear except for at the center of the screen, which could be a representation of the point of view of the narrator who is looking at the stars and the dark sky between branches of trees, making his view of the sky somewhat obstructed and crackled. Also, the center of the screen where the words are most clear could represent the moon that shines in the center of the stars. The poem describes the sounds of the frogs and a mysterious voice that is thought to be a radio. It mentions insects that chirp and the heart of the lizard that beats. It is the dark, black night that permits the accentuation of the other senses like hearing, touch, and smell. This work uses repetition and rhyme that suggest an erotic aspect. The vocabulary, however, is what suggests and truly defines the eroticism of a dark night.

This manga-inspired graphic novel app is about thirteen-year-old Tavs, who chooses his name (meaning “silent”) when he writes a declaration to his parents: “From now on I will be silent”. The story is about the loneliness and loss Tavs feels upon the death of his twin and his family’s move to Tokyo. TAVS is a fantasy narrative with gothic, humorous and boy-meets-girl elements and references to haiku and manga. The app mixes text, music, still images, sound effects and animation into an immersive aesthetic experience. For example, as we read of Tavs’ sorrow and frustration the words begin to fall down from the screen and the reader has to take an active part in the reading process by grabbing the sentences. The chapters show great variation, operating between expressive powerful animations and stills and black pages, between strong sound effects and silence and between spoken and written words, right up to the final fight between the twins; between life and death. (source: ELO 2015 catalog)