I was too busy scrambling to finish my interactive installation of Montague Terrace for the Digital Media Arts 2010 final year degree show to post up any advance publicity and now the show, course and work is all over, but it was a great 2 year experience and a great show from all involved. Anyone who missed out though, can still see my contribution when it travels up to the Pump House gallery in Battersea Park, London, from August 11 to September 26 as part of the Hyper Comics exhibition curated by Paul Gravett.
Film
Paul Gregory, Saturday Night
Another sneak peek at my final interactive animation project featuring the notorious P.I.G. (Paul Ian Gregory) himself, aprés take away, sans culotte, JD neat, Scott on the decks and Vincent Price on the tely.
Just in case you didn’t know, Pauly often tweets off the bog to the uncaring stratosphere. You can be his friend/mocking observer or voyeuristic surveillance agent at twitter.com/gregorypig, or just catch up with the epic that is his life in the Montague Twits column to your right.
Montague Terrace, the Movie
Not having posted anything for a while, I thought I should pull my finger out to reveal to the world, er, the dozen or so people who come across this site by complete accident, what I’ve been hard at work on in recent months. Not only have I been toiling on a graphic novel version of Montague Terrace, co-scripted with brother Gary (more on this soon), but I’ve been creating the interactive animations for my MA degree show highlighting the hidden lives of four selected characters from that very same series.
Despite a few thousand technical issues and an extremely steep learning curve using Flash properly for the first time, things are going well.
The plan involves an interactive, wired-up multiple entry system that triggers off a related animation, telling one of 4 stories. Films featured will be of the ex-60s pop grump, Paul Gregory, the not so sweet and innocent former SOE agent Babushka, the magical, mystical double act, Marty and Marvo the Magic Bunny, as well as everyone’s favourite Eastern European megalomaniac, The Puppeteer.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been writing my dissertation discussing the effects of digital and online technologies on the visual language of comics and graphic fiction and the potential repercussions for the medium’s future.
As well as all that, I’m restructuring my website at last and working on design ideas for the degree show. So, just in case anyone was wondering why there hasn’t been a post up for yonks, there you go.
The Act-i-vate Experience
Here’s a link to the new documentary The Act-i-vate Experience via the Newsarama site, featuring many of the key peeps involved in Act-i-vate’s crucial web comix community. Not me this time, unfortunately (hair appointment clash with filming), but don’t let that stop you checking out the words of wisdom and insight as to what makes these talented artists and writers “click”.
Waltz with Bashir
Probably the best film I saw last year. Brilliantly realised, haunting and poignant and, considering what’s been happening in Gaza recently, pretty darn relevant to anyone with a morsel of humanity left in them.
The Brothers Quay
And on the subject of puppeteers, an excellent exhibition by my favourite animators right on our own doorstep at Brighton University, Grand Parade. Here’s a link to the various film showings as part of Cinecity’s current programme.
http://www.cine-city.co.uk/2008/quay-brothers/
