STATEMENT

Synesthesia has few boundaries between the senses. Animation has fewer boundaries and limitations than other media. Blending the two seems a perfect way to experiment, to fuse the visual with the auditory, synchronizing patterns and colors with music. The space within animation is also boundless. Zooming in magnifies telling and intimate details while zooming out reveals the environment in which characters exist. Freed from a singular point in time or space, the possibilities seem endless. Of course, animation and digital media have their own limitations imposed by labor-intensive processes, ever-changing technology and duration. While imagery in any medium can be realistic or abstract, animated characters act and move convincingly in worlds that emulate reality or defy logic or both. The capacity to invent a being that moves, even in a fictive world, is exhilarating and gratifying. Two artists who have influenced and inspired my animations are Satoshi Kon and Norman McLaren. Kon’s animated worlds are realistic but with a certain psychological twist. Amazing transitions between scenes make viewers wonder what is happening to the characters in each moment — can they distinguish dream from reality or past from present? In Millennium Actress, Kon’s main character tells the story of her life through all the films she has starred in. The transitions between fact and fiction and shifting time periods are so fluid that the line between her actual life and her dramatic roles is blurred. McLaren’s Spook Sport appeals to me through the synchronization of music with his characters’ movements. Even though his spooks are basically abstract shapes, he endows them with personalities so distinct that you enjoy their company, as if you could dance around with them all night long. Synesthetic experience is often abstract and sometimes I attempt to overcome its resistance to narrative, particularly within short animations. My animations thus far are trying to express musical pieces, sometimes within and through visual music that has no accompanying soundtrack. They consist of visual interpretations of song notes being played. Another animation no longer depended on a particular song, but experimented with colors and patterns to elicit a variety of reactions from people who each heard things differently. The character in my current work is a little girl interacting with her surrounding world. She is a foreigner to our world and reality, so most of her first encounters and experiences involve simple forms and activities like dancing, eating, and computers conveyed through basic shapes. Most of her interactions don’t correspond with our reality; her experiences with objects reveal a quirky personality. I am folding in synesthetic approaches to enrich both the sensual and narrative experience. Each animation is a small episode of this character’s life with no pretense of being life changing. Together, they are opportunities for us to revisit and temporarily transcend the boundaries of our daily encounters and mundane activities, offering momentary pleasures.