Check out Nina Paley's "Embroidermation," a new, amazingly labor-intensive form of Animation
(Republished with translation from: OPEN CULTURE, “Watch Nina Paley's 'Embroidermation', a New, Stunningly Labor-Intensive Form of Animation“, by Colin Marshall, in Animation, August 7th, 2015)
THRONE – 'THARSIS SLEEPS' (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Vimeo video, duration 00:04:33
by Nicos Livesey
Created by: Nicos Livesey
Director: Nicos Livesey & Tom Bunker
Production Manager: Harry Hill
Producers: Posy Dixon, Dan Keefe, Nicos Livesey
2D Animation Supervisor: Blanca Martinez De Rituerto
2D Animation: Tom Bunker, Elisa Ciocca, Anne-Lou Erambert, Duncan Gist, Dan Hamman, Nicos Livesey, James Martin, Azusa Nakagawa, Nuno Neves, Joe Sparkes, Joe Sparrow, James Turzynski
3D Animation & Modeling: Luke Howell, Sam Munnings
Stepper Camera Operators: Stefan Iyapah, Michalis Livesey, Theo Nunn
Embroidery Department: Liz Barlow, Rosy Maddison, Julia Owen, Victor Jakalfabet
Head of Embroidery: Jen Newman
Assistants: Daniela Alvarez, Daniel Matczak, Annalotta Pauly, Polina Sologub, Anna Streit, Lynn Yun, Jennifer Zheng
Sound Design: Alex Pieroni
Song: “Tharsis Sleeps” by Throne
Graphics: Toby Evans
Digitization: Tim Gomersall, Nicos Livesey
Supported by: Brother Sewing UK
A Lucky Features production in association with Channel 4 & Dazed Digital
Special thanks to: Steve Bliss, Martina Bramkamp, Amy Leverton, Ebru Oz, Clapham Road Studio, Kickstarter and all our supporters.
Sponsored by: Bosh, Madeira Threads, Mother, Orta Anadolu, Wilcom Embroidery
facebook.com/thronemusic
nicoslivesey.com
tombunker.tumblr.com
facebook.com/BrotherSewingUK
facebook.com/wilcom
facebook.com/madeirauk
If you keep up with the animations we occasionally feature in our posts here at OPEN CULTURE, you’ll know that we have a particularly strong fascination with techniques that require seemingly inhuman levels of dedication to their creation. Some early examples of these include the pinscreen animations by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker that were used to inspire Nikolai Gogol’s “ The Nose ” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “ Night on Bald Mountain .” More recent practitioners of such seriously labor-intensive animation include Nina Paley , the self-taught animator who created the entirely hand-drawn “ Sita Sings the Blues ,” a feature-length, stunning jazz adaptation of the classic Indian myth that we featured in 2009.
CHAD GADYA
Vimeo video, duration 00:02:54
by Nina Paley
The most ridiculously labor-intensive cartoons we've ever made!
A traditional Passover folk song rendered in embroidermation by Nina Paley and Theodore Gray.
The exact same embroidered matzoh covers are available for purchase here: palegraylabs.com/chad-gadya/
Music: Chad Gadya is sung by Moishe Oysher with the Abraham Nadel Chorus (circa 1955?), in Aramaic and Hebrew
Since then, Paley has significantly upgraded her skills in a form she calls “embroidermation.” It looks just like it sounds: with squares of fabric embroidered in a sequence that brings it to life. You can get a sense of the process on Paley’s blog. She created this project under the banner of PaleGray Labs, “a textile collaboration between Nina Paley and Theodore Gray” (whose motto is “put the NERD in quiltiNg and EmbRoiDery”). They used it to make the music video for Throne’s “Tharsis Sleeps” (which we posted at the beginning of the article) and then to make Chad Gadya, a three-minute rendition of a traditional Easter folk song.
PaleGray Labs calls Chad Gadya “the most ridiculously labor-intensive cartoons we’ve ever made,” which means they must also be the most ridiculously labor-intensive cartoons we’ve ever featured here at Open Culture. Their creation requires not only formidable embroidery skills, but also a deft hand with the industrial-strength number-crunching software Mathematica to create the processes that allow the embroidered elements to animate with smooth transitions and movement. If the results have captured your imagination, know that you can buy the original physical materials: “Each unique, approximately 16-inch-wide, unbleached cotton matzoh cover contains 6 frames of the cartoons and is signed by the artists, PaleGray’s website assures us.” Maybe you would like to consider starting your gift collection for next Easter now...
Related Content:
- Nikolai Gogol's Classic Story, “The Nose,” Animated With the Astonishing Pinscreen Technique (1963)
- Night on Bald Mountain: An Eery, Avant-Garde Pinscreen Animation Based on Mussorgsky's Masterpiece (1933)
- Sita Sings the Blues
Colin Marshall writes about cities, language, Asia, and men's style. He is currently working on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer , and the television series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.
