The Simulation of Time

By Nicole Chaput

[spacer height=”20px”]

Youtube: home of everything ranging from cat videos to makeup tutorials to how to factor a hyperbola. In this infinite library of time, there is a video for almost anything, artworks included.

Animations allow to not only look at something, but to see it breathe and exist by seeing how it floats in time. Animation is a medium that has been part of most TV watchers from a very early age. TV allowed for a catalogue of aesthetics, themes and tones. But as a child watching a cartoon, one never stopped to question how these shows and movies were crafted and could not even anticipate the amount of work and time that need to be invested to make a fluid animation.

The standard fluid animation has 24 frames per second, where each frame requires a resolved sense of space and time that will inform what is being manifested. Watching a short film or animation is like looking at millions of temporary paintings that were created to exist for less than a second. For each new frame, the placement of the previous frame needs to be considered so that when played, each frame is melted into the other in a fashion that will imitate movement. The notion of movement is handcrafted for its simulation where each individual second is constructed by the artist.

Simulated movement happens in a given time and space: each animation is a tangent space for a time we are yet to uncover; even though they all exist somewhere. These are a few alternatives that exist in our paralyzed clocks. These simulated worlds are unlike ours; they never seek to go counterclockwise.

An animation engages the viewer not only by thematic and aesthetic components, but by having the artwork interact with their real time, where the time of the viewer can suddenly be measured in terms of frames in a simulated world.

[spacer height=”20px”]

1. Meat Love by Jan Svankmajer (1989)

The truth about the dangers of attraction, impulse and vanity, all grilled in a blunt stop motion. Love kills slowly.

Watch ☞ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSDpssHE0R4

[spacer height=”20px”]

2. Bobby Yeah by Robert Morgan (2011)

Aside from this being the weirdest thing ever, watching this BAFTA nominated short film will make you terrified of red buttons. I never thought a bunny or a carrot would make me so anxious. Enjoy the STD aesthetic.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thxuug3Fyhs

[spacer height=”20px”]

3. Mound by Allison Schulnik (2011)

The artist spent about eight months completing this ultra detailed stop motion where about 100 clay figures were altered for each frame. When wind blows, each individual hair on the clay puppet’s head moves as well. Every single element in this animation dresses up in intricate fashion to simulate movement in its most sharp and focused form.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtdWM6ISCFs

[spacer height=”20px”]

Oh and, cat videos are not artworks.