David Tench Tonight

Posted by hil

Davidtench

I caught a little of the second episode of David Tench Tonight last night, and I’m quite intrigued. My impression on googling is that people disliked the first episode, but I wonder if it doesn’t have the same kind of sophistication and potential as Norman Gunston, and will take a bit of time to really get to appreciate.

David Tench is a larger-than-life cartoon talk show host, animated in real time using a sensor suit motion capture and digital enhancement technologies (like Peter Jackson’s Gollum). The character was conceived by Andrew Denton and technically designed by Australian visual effects company Animal Logic, whose Executive Producer Zareh Nalbandian says:

“Tench can break the rules of television at the same time as creating ones of his own. He is totally irreverent because he can be. This is a character and format that can surprise, challenge convention and constantly evolve. It’s the big advantage of the virtual character. Nothing is real, reality is what you make it and you can bend reality to any shape you want.”

Is it classed as puppetry? I don’t know, but my feeling is its so close it doesn’t matter, and animation and puppetry overlap in so many ways.

Of course you can already see Tench on YouTube. (don’t judge it only on the promo clip – the recording there has messed up the lip sync)
You can read more about David Tench at Wikipedia. Apparently the Wikipedia entry was part of the pre-show viral marketing. I haven’t decided if that was underhand or savvy – or maybe both.
The Herald Sun has an interview with Tench.
This behind the scenes article doesn’t spill much, but maybe it’s better than nothing!

Alas poor Daisy, I knew her well…

Posted by hil

It’s the local Australian Science Festival in Canberra, as well as National Science Week. In today’s Canberra Times there’s a picture of a CSIRO Double Helix Science Club educational demonstration in which a presenter is extracting methane from ‘a life-sized flatulent cow called Belching Buttercup’. I recognize the cow as my dear Daisy. Poor Daisy. She has been given makeshift ill-proportioned spotty hindquarters, and Double Helix stickers, and while it’s nice that she isn’t in storage and is kicking up her heels in a new life, I kind of wish she hadn’t become grist for the endless ‘kids will only get into science if they think its gee-whizz fun’ mill, and the tiresome and inaccurate ‘kids are only interested in fart jokes and icky smelly substances’ attitude:

“Belching Buttercup is a new edition (sic) to the show. The whole idea is to show kids climate change and greenhouse science in a fun way that they are going to remember. When you look at it, it may just be one long fart joke, but it is really a profound way for kids to remember about climate change and some of the ways they can solve it, and that is a really important message.”

So they should stop farting? Of course, there is nothing wrong with a good fart joke. But kids are generally wonderfully curious, interested in making sense of the world around them and how it works (maybe more than adults), and they make connections in novel ways because they are new to the world. I think it does them a disservice to expect that they will not be interested in anything unless it’s presented as a fart joke.

Smile on your bother: OneWebDay

Posted by hil

Face-1

OneWebDay, 22 September, is a global celebration of online life. I was hoping to make a couple of big puppets or sculptures for the day, but I have three current work projects that all culminate at exactly that time, so I am not sure if I will get anything together in time to use offline on the day. I do have some images (see below instead) up of what I have had in mind, and have been working on. This kind of brings together my appreciation of the blogging medium and Dave Winer‘s role in developing it, and the richness I feel from being able to see what friends, puppet builders, crafters, street artists and puppeteers are doing around the world. (Thanks to Amy for the post title – it’s perfect!)

Perhaps puppeteers could pick up the idea and put on a show in their town on the day? Perhaps something similar to Project Puppet‘s Glorified Sock Puppet Contest could be run in honour of OneWebDay? Perhaps Swazzle‘s Sean Johnson could encourage his peas to send a special greeting, or other puppeteers record a video message with their puppets? Perhaps, Kath, WhipUp could prompt crafters to become enthused in some way? It’s probably ripe ground for Extreme Crafters, too. And artist trading cards. And so on… Perhaps there are bloggers here in Canberra who have some ideas for the day?

OneWebDay

Updated links 2015

Calder’s Circus

Posted by hil

Calderx

(photo: Whitney Museum of American Art)

It’s funny how these things happen. Just the other day I was thinking about Alexander Calder‘s Circus, the film of which I saw a few years ago at the first national puppetry summit, and wondering if it might be on the net, and then yesterday Boing Boing linked to clips of it on YouTube, posted by sweetjuniper. There are four parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4), together making up the whole film made by Carlos Vilardebo in 1961.

The circus was made during the late 1920’s, a precursor to Calder’s mobiles. He made the puppets from bits and bobs: ‘wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps’.

‘Beginning in 1927, Calder performed the Circus in Paris, New York, and elsewhere. He would issue invitations to his guests, who would sit on makeshift bleachers munching peanuts, just like the real circus. With the crash of cymbals and music from an old gramophone, the circus would begin. It wasn’t the tricks or gimmicks of the circus that appealed to Calder, but the dynamic movement of bodies in space.’
— Adam Weinburg

I love the way the characters are caught so well by just a few outlines;

Calder

the mechanics;

Calder3

and Calder’s upfront presence throughout:

Calder2

I also really like how the tricks such as the trapeze artists actually work, but also have a randomness of success. There is also a great sense of humour driving it all.

The circus is now kept at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, but is too fragile to tour. However, it is on display there at the moment, until early September. Vilardebo’s film is available on DVD. There is apparently a second filmed version, Cirque de Calder, made in 1953 by Jean Painlevé.

New Australian puppetry blogs

Posted by hil

Naomi Guss has begun a new blog called Puppetry in Melbourne. Thanks for letting me know, Naomi.

Gabrielle Griffin, a puppeteer and performer from northern NSW, who works with Krinkl Theatre and also has a solo show, Sunshine, and cabaret duet, The Two Frocks, is presently travelling in Europe and blogging her adventures at Galloping Puppets. (via Sean Manners at Puppetry Australia)

Update: there was something wrong with the link to Naomi’s site previously, but it’s fixed now.

Julia Davis on Sunday Arts next Sunday

Posted by hil

Mcbeth

(photo by Dream Puppets: Lady MacBeth)

This next Sunday the ABC TV Sunday Arts program will be presenting a segment on the work of Julia
Davis’s Macbeth, and her involvement with Dream Puppets. The programme is aired nationally and starts at 4.00PM this Sunday, 6th of August.

Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience

Posted by hil

Small_eye

The Sydney Morning Herald today has the first glimpse on video that I have seen of a mighty puppet production that is going on in Melbourne at the moment: Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience. The creative team, with Sonny Tilders as Head of Creature Design, is making 12 life-size animatronic/puppet dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus-Rex, Brachiosaurus and the Flying Ornithoceirus ‘the largest creature to ever take wing… with a maximum wing-span of 12 metres (40 feet) and up to 3 metres tall
when standing on all fours’. The creatures will come to life at the world premiere on 10 Jan 2007 at the Acer Arena in Sydney, and will tour nationally before taking off around the world.

One of the producers, Malcolm C Cooke, has previously been involved with other puppetry productions including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the second production of The Hobbit in 2000.

Judging by the video, the puppets are simply amazing, and I hope I get to see them. I do wonder though, if there will be more to the production than sheer spectacle. I’ve wondered this about dinosaurs and realism before! Sometimes I start to crave subtlety and symbol and story.

Dinosaur

Update
Here are some newspaper reports today. The reports are similar, but different photos.
The Age: ‘We touched a dinosaur! Doyouthinkhesaurus’?
Sydney Morning Herald: OK, which of you kids called me fossil features?
The Australian:Kids get chance to walk back in time – best description of how the puppets are made and move
Courier Mail: For a stomping good time
Daily Telegraph: Dinosaurs roar back to life in arena – 3 photos

Update (8 Aug 06):
WireImage has a two-page listing of thumbnail images from the promotion the other day.

Update (22 Mar 07):
Workshop footage,
Walking with Dinosaurs: the Live Experience: new slideshow
Walking with Dinosaurs – The Live Experience: a review, and more links

L’objet fantastique: Cthulhu doll

Posted by hil

L’objet fantastique has an amazing Cthulhu doll made from leather. There are some more photos here. The internal skeleton is made from dense rubber, and I think this is the wing mechanism.

New blogs in the puppetry directory

Posted by hil

I’ve added some more blogs to the puppetry directory over in my sidebar there. It’s getting to be quite a list now, and I think I still have a few to add. You will also notice that, thanks to the guys at Grazr, you can now launch the program in a new window and expand it, so it becomes easier to read, and choose between the slider view or an outline view.