Tokyo-Montreal Animation Collaboration

 

Animation workshop series
In collaboration with Dawson Community Centre and Midorigaoka Kindergarten (Tokyo)
May 2009

In May 2009 articule invited artist Kentaro Chiba and curator Emma Ota from Tokyo to hold a series of workshops at Dawson Community Centre, Montreal. These workshops took the form of an unique collaboration enabling children in both Montreal and Tokyo to communicate and work with each other, despite the great geographic distance and language gap between them. The project aimed at introducing basic understanding of animation techniques while at the same time engaging the children in cross cultural dialogue.

 

The main focus of the project was to realize a joint animation between the two groups of children. Each child began their animation with the simple image of a black ball. Their first task was to transform this black ball into something else, an image of their choice. This created the first part of each child's animation. Then this new image was taken and exchanged between Tokyo and Montreal. Children in Montreal received an image drawn by children in Tokyo and vice versa. Using this new image, they then began to change it back into a black ball, again through a series of hand drawn animation frames. This completes the second part of the animation. Two children effectively collaborate on any one animation sequence, furthermore, all of these sequences are put together (being joined by the repeated image of the back ball) to form one long continuous animation, created from the contributions of all of the children.

 

This is part of a wider project initiated by Kentaro Chiba that has been ongoing for over 10 years now. Working with children of all ages, (from 3-18), Kentaro began the project in Japan but rapidly realized its potential as a communication tool for children in different parts of the world. The project then progressed to include collaboration with children in the UK, and now Montreal. There is also further plan to collaborate with groups in Indonesia and Pakistan as of this year. It can be seen as a never-ending animation.

 

To further the relationship between the two groups of children and strengthen the idea of connection and collaboration between them, interaction was encouraged by exchanging hand drawn picture messages and also video messages between the groups. The participants from Dawson Community Centre also undertook a photography project. Each child was given a disposable camera and requested to take pictures of their everyday lives such as the people they are close to, the things they like to do, favourite places etc. These were then developed and copies were returned not only to each child, but also sent to Tokyo, allowing the Japanese children to gain a further insight into the everyday lives of children in Montreal.

After completing their hand drawn animations the children explored other animation techniques by using their own bodies to create a stop motion animation. Having already grasped the concept of animation well, the children proved very adept at controlling their movements, changing their positions slightly for each take and creating very entertaining sequences.

 

After three days of hard work and lots of creative activity we all celebrated by feasting on Japanese snacks!

For more information about this project please visit:
www.inter-play.org
www.inter-play.org/montreal

 

inter-play is an informal organization initiated by Emma Ota and Kentaro Chiba for the promotion of creative international exchange amongst children and young people. We are based in the Tokyo/Kanagawa region of Japan but working with many organizations and groups in different parts of the world. Through various artistic projects we strive to connect children in different cities across the globe, fostering cross-cultural communication and understanding, challenging preconceived notions and building relationships which allow a unique insight into the contexts in which children in other countries carry out their daily lives.

 

Kentaro Chiba is an artist of distinct vision, with a tireless dedication to a project 'Life Scroll', which he began in 1992, every day adding to the scroll so that it has already achieved 11 meters in length and documents and expresses the personal transitions which he has experienced over the years. Chiba has exhibited widely and his works have been included in the Liverpool Biennale among other international festivals and exhibitions.
Chiba is also an art teacher who researches and encourages creative educational project planning, as well as an art director at the Gallery Ginza Art Lab where he plans exhibitions and supporting international art projects.

 

Emma Ota is a curator and researcher based in Tokyo. Her practices focus upon media arts and international exchange. She has worked for the media arts organization Trampoline, based in Germany and the UK and co-curated the Radiator Festival for Art and Technology in 2005. Also in this year she initiated Traversing Territories, an annual project fostering collaboration between students and young artists in Japan and the UK. In 2006 she established the project Dislocate for art, technology and locality which brings together international artists and experts in the discussion and debate of the role of new media in relation to our surrounding environment. www.dis-locate.net
Ota is guest curator at Ginza Art Lab, an independent artist run space and was also co-curator of Space Rabi Adesso, Koenji in 2008. Ota is highly concerned with promoting international cross-cultural communication between children and is co-founder of Inter-play.