During this project Mimi and I have been collecting a set of multi-media sources that we both have found inspiring or relational to ourselves and this project. We have been doing this through Instagram, sending videos back and forth that have motivated our styles. This has been a very useful tool for communicating our ideas and designs as we are able to understand where certain concepts have developed from and where we want to take the project aesthetically.
One thing I have noticed as of recently, that a lot of my artistic inspiration is coming more so from social media, specifically Instagram, than any other form of media. Through our communication, I know this to be the case with other people like Mimi too. Although inspiration is all around and I find myself constantly noticing things the everyday ‘mundane’ that motivate me, the element of inspiration that is other artists and practitioners, comes mostly from Instagram.
Links to some of the shared collected videos:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUTNbkpjO0m/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzPnZrkN4xS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVBlJrSDhmk/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXg4cnokV8u/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
This is one thing I think social media is really great for as it makes you aware of a plethora of practices and practitioners that otherwise you would never know. It has broadened my awareness of my own practice and why I find myself being inspired by certain styles. However, I will say that the constant speed in which Instagram moves means that whilst I do get shown a wide scale of work, I often don’t dig deeper into the artist themselves. The scrolling structure of social media leaves you wanting more and so instead of slowing down and admiring a practitioners full collection, I commonly just move onto the next. Noticing that Instagram is my main source, and being aware of this lack of depth to my media intake, I want to try and change this. I aim to dig deeper into specific artists and understand their work more, sourcing a greater insight of knowledge about particular practices.
Therefore I have tried to develop this action for this project:
Julia Fernandez
https://juliafernandez.me/animation-1
Julia Fernandez is a multidisciplinary artist exploring the relationships between motion, rest, and the physical object. Her practice involves the interaction of ceramics with animation, making for some rather beautiful work.
Fernandez’s work includes a lot of looping, repeating the cyclical motion of animation, however it doesn’t come across as too simple or basic, there is still clearly a lot of work and thought put into the final movements and motion. She uses quite natural colours in a lot of her work which I really like as it pairs with the material of ceramic well, it accompanies the slower pace of the media too. I know that Mimi resonated with this aspect of Fernandez’s as the colours and materials are similar to that used in Mimis practice of natural dying.
Both my sister and I found Fernandez’s work from instagram and were immediately inspired and attracted to her art. The use of different mediums throughout her practice is similar to both Mimi and I’s practice, specifically for this project. We aim to create a series of multi-media animations, and so this area of motion has been important to research and find varied examples of.
I see links between her work and previous animation work I have done, specifically the zoetrope project, as a lot of Fernandez’s work runs, as I said, in this cyclical loop, similar to the patterns of a zoetrope. This relation feels relevant to my practice as there is a clear reason as to why I find her work inspiring and how I can continue to grow and develop previous ideas/works with new ones.
It was the ‘West Elm X Emma Chamberlain’ 2026 hand-made ceramic tile animation that inspired Mimi to create her moving quilted boarder. – https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWy-_Jyjsld/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Whilst I really like the sound design of this tile animation, Fernandez’s work is definitely more of a visual inspiration, connecting mine and Mimi’s shared interests of animation together. She has been a great source to reference in terms of an interdisciplinary practice. However, when it comes to the sonic aspect of this project, it is something that feels more personal to me, rather than a shared interest. Although Mimi is aware of the importance of sound in a work, she focuses heavily on the visual aesthetics rather than the audio, therefore we have not communicated much shared sonic media.
Sonic inspiration:
Here are a few examples of practices I have found separately to Mimi.
This is a short animation I came across on Vimeo, which I found to be audibly inspiring, although this work is centred more around a musical sonic design, I still found it to be relevant to my practice. As I have previously mentioned, for this project I want to compose a track that involves the use of field recordings and foley as well as music, and so having found previous works of field recordings, which I intend to use, I wanted to find some examples of more musical work to reference.
I liked the fluidity of the music in this animation, it allows you to get lost in the world of the video, and when the beat then comes in, it almost wakes you up from it and places you in a new reality. I thought the sound represented the visuals well in this piece, the use of colour and shapes reflects the noises created through the audio, and vice versa. From researching a range of short animations that all contain very different elements of sound, I have come to understand how sound artists & designers establish a relationship between the audio and the narrative of the visuals, whether it be an immediate awareness of a relationship or one that grows as the piece moves through.
This understanding is knowledge that I intend to reference to and use throughout the final production of the audio. I want to acknowledge how the visual work initially translates itself to me without sound and then try to produce the sonic elements with this emotional and environmental communication in mind.
Midnight Gospel – An animation series that originated from a podcast, Midnight Gospel contains a dense sound design that accompanies the visuals in establishing the very surreal environment that the characters inhabit.
Visually and sonically Midnight Gospel has always inspired me, the creative freedom in the series is so obvious, alongside the serious reality of the conversations, it makes for a truly immersive watch. The show didn’t rely on just one lead sound designer, instead it had a dedicated post production audio team which involved: sound editors Hunter Curra and Jeff Halbert, working alongside lead re-recording mixer James A Moore, crafting the show’s signature psychedelic soundscapes.
I found myself to be motivated through the sound design of this show for a number of reasons; the interweaving of synthetic and realistic sounds creates this ideal contrast that represents the duality of reality in the show. The sound arguably is the most essential aspect of the work, not only because it revolves around the original audio from the podcast, but without sound the worlds in which the characters explore would seem empty and too far from reality to engross the watcher.
Through the combination of foley, music and synthetic computer made sounds, the motion of the visuals is smooth, relying on the sound to transition into the next frame. This relationship between the audio and the visuals is something I aim to create, not only in this project, but in the future work I would like to do with film. I think establishing this kind of dynamic through sound makes for a uniquely smooth and intriguing watch. With the visuals that Mimi has, and is still creating, I want to use a wide range of music, foley and sound effects (using the Radio Aporee recordings) to create a diverse sound design for this work.
There are a few accounts I have come across on online that add sound design to videos found in their everyday feed, making a very short but detailed piece of sound work that turns the original video into something entirely different. I came across these videos about a year ago and it was their surreal uniqueness that immediately inspired me, it gave me a new perspective on how to design sound for non- animated visuals in a creative way. I thought of them for this project as the final video that I will be creating the sound for is only about a minute long, and so I want to be able to display a stimulating piece of sonic work in a small amount of time, which is exactly what these artists do.
Bennet Gauthier –
Website : https://dippr.us
Francis Peters –
Overall, I feel I have a wide range of works that have provided inspiration for both Mimi and I throughout the production of this project. Through sharing our individual inspirations we have been able to communicate creative concepts in a relational format, making for an easier understanding of each others ideas. As well, I feel I have gained an understanding in creating atmosphere through sound when supplied with completely silent visuals. Building the audio from the ground up is something I have done before, having made a mixed media animation myself, however it is something I am not hugely familiar with as my work for the last 2 years has been centred more around purely sonic elements rather than with visuals. I aim to implement the knowledge built from this research in growing my confidence and ability to create the soundtrack for this project.