For the past 26 days, an animation a day has appeared in my inbox, as animator Mirai Mizue has uploaded a short animation every day through the path of the alphabet. The works are musical animated poems of sorts, brilliant expressions of the connection between motion and sound, music and movement.
A brief bio:
Mirai Mizue is a representative figure of the new generation of abstract animation in Japan. His films have been shown in more than 100 festivals in about 20 countries. His strong obsession towards cells forces him to draw every frame with surprising density. His rhythmical animation overwhelms viewers. Recently he has been trying to step into new territory: minimalistic abstract animation using linear figures.
(You can wrap your head around being a “representative figure of the abstract”!)
Indeed, these are almost musical compositions, not only because they’re abstract but in the way in which pattern and gesture are arranged in the space of the visuals. One can also imagine the world’s oddest musical sequencer interface.
I love that X has a reversed background:
It’s well worth watching the entire series on Vimeo:
MIRAI MIZUE Presents [Timbre A to Z]
Mizue’s work, along with other talented independent Japanese filmmakers, is available on the new indie visual label CALF:
http://calf.jp/
Bonus video, not in this series:
The idea of JAM was conceived while I was attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2008.After returning to Japan, I soon began making the film and completed it in four months.This film is based on a very simple idea: the increasingly varied the sounds, the greater is the number of creatures. I wanted to rid myself of the frustrating experience of making Devour Dinner, which was highly unsatisfactory from the viewpoint of the movement in the film. My intention in this film was to fill the screen with chaotic movements.
This film won Artistic Achievement in Animanima 2009, was nominated at Zagreb 2010, Hiroshima 2010, Screened out of competition at Annecy 2009.