identiconarts

Recently I got invited to a speak at a conference as part of a seminar at Maidstone Studios in Kent called ‘AniMaidstone – Exploring Cultural Identity in Animation, Documentary & the Visual Arts’. It was organised by the senior (animation) lecturer Pedro with the main sponsor being the Maidstone Housing Trust. Here’s what they said about it:

The festival is dedicated to the crossover between animation and documentary film-making, an area which is at the core of the UCA Animation Arts course. Speakers at the festival include Professor Paul Wells – the Director of Animation at The Animation Academy, Kim Hopkins – a documentary film maker and director with wide experience in foreign shoots and challenging environments , Jim Walker – Animation and Illustration Visual theory lecturer/researcher at UCA Maidstone, and The Artful Dodger (A. Dee) – a London-based Aerosol Writer who will be presenting his forth-coming project ‘IDENTICONS – Icons & Cultural Identity in 21st Century Western Culture’, in which teenagers will use creative writing, urban music and aerosol art to generate digital art and other forms of creative expression.

It featured a series of talks and screenings in which both local and international professionals from the world of animation, documentary filmmaking and visual arts. Despite the fact that most of us were coming from various points on a compass, we all seemed to meet at the same point in terms of some of our aims and what we were setting out to achieve with regards to educating and inspiring people and reaching a wider audience; and in a seemingly ‘stats, quota and target’-obsessed society, I found that very refreshing.

At first I was pretty nervous, and, not being an animator as such, felt a little like a third wheel as the other speakers there were internationally known animators, professors and filmmakers whereas although I’m a little known internationally, I don’t have the reps that these guys have. Plus, I was the only person representing the visual arts sector.

I don’t want to go too much into it here and now as I’d like a little time to reflect on the experience (Hmm, yes. I can see a few people using that one as an excuse as to why they’re late submitting their reports… remember where you saw it first!), but in time, I will.

I learnt a lot about the industry, from a highly creative and grass-roots perspective, and it was good to see what people with a love of the artform and a healthy social conscience are doing with their various projects, and it certainly gave me a lot to think about!

The event, I’m happy to say, was filmed, so it will only be a matter of time before I have a copy of some of the footage to maybe post here online. Watch this space.

In the evening was a screening at Maidstone’s Hazlitt Theatre, where we got to see a series of films from some of the day’s speakers as well as films by some of the university’s animation students.