Eric Bass and Sandglass Theater have been appealing for support on Kickstarter for their theatre project D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks. It will be full-length theatre piece based on stories written by groups of people with late-stage dementia, exploring the surprising creative potential of people living with dementia. There is a short but interesting making video included. The appeal has been successful, but I dare say they wouldn’t say no to further pledges!
Mécaniques Discursives
These are two videos of a cool audiovisual installation, Mécaniques Discursives, being developed by Yannick Jacquet (aka Legoman) and Fred Penelle. It’s an intiguing mixture of shadows and shadow puppets, unlikely contraptions, projection mapping, and edgy music.
Royal de Luxe’s Sea Odyssey
Four years ago La Machine debuted their giant spider, La Princesse in Liverpool. This year, as one of the cities directly connected with the Titanic which sank on 15 April 1912, it’s marking the centenary with numerous events, the highlight of which will be the Sea Odyssey Giant Spectacle by the associated company, Royal de Luxe, on 20 – 22 April. It’ll feature the Little Giantess and her uncle, the deep sea diver, in a story adapted for the occasion. A number of cool promo ads in which the Little Giantess is wandering the city and peeping into different famous places have been released.
Search my blog for La Machine and Royal de Luxe if you are interested in more links – I’ve posted a lot about them and their influence over the years!
Perpetual Ocean
Here’s a lovely NASA visualization showing ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through Decmeber 2007. You can read details of how it was done and download higher resolution versions at this NASA page.
(via @davpope, Canberra’s great cartoonist, who by the way, every now and then slips puppets into his cartoons. Today’s is a good example)
Update: This wind map of the US with close to real-time data is also really cool!
Cool animation: Of Monsters and Men’s Little Talks
A lovely music video animation for the song Little Talks by the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men.
Five sky-sailors discover a crystal meteor containing a lost mythical female creature. An epic journey through fantastical worlds ensues as the sailors struggle to return her to her people.
The animation was directed by WeWereMonkeys, who have an interesting article and photos of how it was made.
White butterflies
The two white butterflies body suits that I was working on last week are finished. Last Sunday one of the butterflies was out and about at the Canberra Airport Open Day. You can see more photos taken on the day at The Fool Factory’s gallery.
A Bird, A Tree, The Moon
A Bird, A Tree, The Moon is the most recent production by Melbourne visual theatre company Peepshow Inc. The pesky skeleton bird puppet is a lovely! Directed by Melinda Hetzel and performed by Nick Barlow and Angela Orrego, the show played to passers-by outdoors at night in City Square. Alison Croggon has a great review.
It sounds as if the inaugural Tarrengower Puppetfest was very succesful. The Tarrengower Times has a gallery of photos from the weekend taken by Andrew Hobbs.
The National Theatre and Global Creatures are seeking performers /puppeteers for its upcoming production of War Horse, which will open at the Arts Centre in Melbourne, January 2013. Their casting brief (pdf) gives details and who to contact if you are interested.
The puppets in Aardman’s new Pirates Movie
Aardman’s latest movie The Pirates! – In An Adventure With Scientists is released on 28 March, and looks like it will be lots of fun. Here are three videos that give a look at the stop motion puppets and the making process.
David Sztypuljak’s video has some great footage of the sets, workshops and puppets. He also has an accompanying arcticle:
Andrew Bloxham talks about the complex process of creating the Pirate Captain’s luxurious beard:
And Caroline Hague, puppet and maintenance coordinator, talks about looking after the puppets.
Happy World Puppetry Day!
Happy World Puppetry Day to everyone out there! This year’s WPD message (pdf) is by the great Catalan multidisciplinary artist, Joan Baixas.
Above, my puppeteer friend Gary Friedman is interviewed by Con Quest about how WPD is celebrated, and he tells how he has chosen today to launch his new more expanded website, Puppetry News, which will include web-based puppetry courses down the track.
