Sabbatical Project Update 1: Animation Studio Art Course at MFA

My sabbatical doesn't officially start until September, but I'm getting a jump start on it this summer.  Last night was the second week of the Animation course I'm taking at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  The first week, we did some hand-drawn animation, and last night started cut-out animation.

Terry Gilliam of course is the master of that form, and because his failed attempt to make a film of Don Quixote features so prominently in my What Is Being? course, that is my primary association with his work, in addition to the animations in Monty Python.   Since 2010, every time I google Gilliam and Don Quixote, I find a relatively new mention of the film project.  Today's is http://www.avclub.com/article/amazon-sponsor-terry-gilliams-new-attempt-make-man-220689

Gilliam's choice to make a live action film of Quixote instead of an animation is interesting.  All of the problems that plagued his film production, from uncooperative weather to injured actors, don't exist in animation.   But the challenge for him is to make the live action film.

For me, animation is plenty quixotic.  As I embark on taking what has become easy for me to do digitally into puppetry, actual world installation, and now traditional animation, I am continually confronted by pesky physics, the lack of the undo function, and my limited abilities to manipulate physical materials.  But I'm curious to see what my bots from HouseSmarts will do as cut-outs and claymation figures.

Two of my bots, and an art deco person 

Cut-out animation character and background possibilities