Bunraku is a traditional japanese puppet theatre. Original puppets are rather huge – c.a. ⅓rd of human height, and are handheld: directly animated by animators, who are visible to the audience.
Bunraku theatre became a major inspiration to a projection mapping challenge, designed especially for final year MA studies at New Media Art Department. Series of animations were created to be watched at the PJAIT’s man building’s facade.
Animation material used in this project is not common: students were to animate living humans, live captured by themselves, for further digital development. The act of animating is perceived here as not only moving or drawing scrapes or drawings, but as intensively modifying live footage or whichever time-based visual data medium.
It is well known, that animators often use their own body’s movement as a reference for animation. The Bunraku project is an occasion for students to observe and study the dynamics of human body movement. Registered movements were further composed in space and time: multiplied, arranged, echoed, to achieve the final choreography.
Art + tech guidance and instructing: Olga Wroniewicz
2017, PJAIT