Direct Animation on Film

This evening’s program will feature eight short films produced in the Direct Animation & Cameraless Filmmaking Materials Lab Workshops this spring. The workshops were offered in conjunction with our current special exhibition, Inventur—Art in Germany, 1943–55, on view through June 3, 2018.

In the spirit of the hand-drawn animations of Ernst Wilhelm Nay that appeared in Herbert Seggelke’s 1955 film Eine Melodie—vier Maler, the workshops encouraged participants to experiment with cameraless animation techniques on 16mm film. Participants explored the material properties of film using scratching, puncturing, painting, and the chemical alteration of emulsion.

Spliced into a collaborative film sequence, these creations showcase the breadth and depth of creativity inspired by the medium. All of the animations produced in the workshops will be screened this evening, with musical accompaniment.

Jessica Bardsley, who led the workshops and edited the film segments together, will introduce the program; she is a filmmaker, Ph.D. candidate in film and visual studies at Harvard, and a graduate intern in the Materials Lab for the spring semester. She will be joined by Grant Hamming, the Inga Maren Otto Curatorial Fellow in the museums’ Division of Academic and Public Programs, who will offer an overview of the historical context of such experimental films.

This program was developed with the assistance of the AgX Film Collective, an artist-run film lab and collective for moving image artists in the Boston area.

The screening will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway. Doors will open at 5:30pm.

Free admission, but seating is limited and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

After the screening, the Inventur exhibition will remain open until 8pm.

Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

Support for this program is provided by the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund.
 
Major support for the Inventur exhibition and related programming is provided by the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum (Verein der Freunde des Busch-Reisinger Museums), the Daimler Curatorship of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Fund, the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, and the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund. In addition, modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.