The Black Bag

BBMC is very pleased to announce that The Chromatose Anymation Festival will take place in St. John's, Newfoundland from April 30 to May 2, 2010. The Chromatose Anymation Festival celebrates the work of independent artists pioneering new approaches to animation. The term "anymation" was coined by Croatian animation artist Tom Jantol and means:
"Quite simply, Anymation is the embracing of any and all available tools in order to create a digital expression. The spirit of Anymation is not a rejection of any one of the tool-centric genres, nor is it a desire to reform them. Rather, Anymation is a conscious decision to be LESS CONSCIOUS of the barriers typically seen between the different types of digital expression, coupled with a "renaissance man" kind of willingness to harness ANY available tool or method to create that expression.
from Tom Jantol's Anymation Manifesto.

The Chromatose Anymation Festival happens at the Ship in downtown St. John's. The festival will be a fusion of new animation, performance art and live music events. We are still accepting submissions and are looking for handmade, DIY, cross platform and/or experimental machinima and animation from independent artists. We are also interested in seeing how independent musicians are working in animation, incorporating new media and technologies into their art form.

To propose a screening of your work send us a link to your animation in an email to theblackbags@yahoo.ca with the heading CHROMATOSE ANYMATION FESTIVAL. Please include any biographical and press information you think relevant. If we program your animation we will contact you for a high resolution DVD copy.

If your work is not online and you need to send us a hard copy please Email us for mailing details.
There are no fees to enter your work. Multiple entries are welcomed.

Deadline to send animations is April 15, 2010. For more information contact us

To give you an idea of the kinds of work we are looking for - here are some examples of animation work the Black Bag Media Collective has screened in the past. These artists will be screening new work at this year's Chromatose Anymation Festival.

Glenn Gear/Volatile Works Media Collective - Montreal, Quebec

From Glenn's YouTube page:

"Glenn Gear is a multi-media artist who is passionate about experimental, low-budget animation and digital video. His short animations, which often employ a range of traditional and experimental techniques, have been screened widely across Canada and the world. Originally studying as a photographer and later as an installation artist, he has carried the knowledge of these various mediums into his current work and process."

Glenn Gear was featured as a guest speaker at the Fourth Annual Rock Can Roll Conference in 2008. We screened these two videos below at Eastern Edge Gallery during the 2008 Conference. Please see more videos by Glenn on his YouTube page: Glenn Gear on YouTube

Glenn is also a member of the Volatile Works Media Collective. Volatile Works have also contributed videos to our screenings, events and annual Festival.

Tom Jantol - Croatia

Tom Jantol is a world renowned animation artist or "anymator". He presented a live artist's talk via the online virtual world of Second Life at the Fourth Annual Rock Can Roll Conference in 2008. We screened four of his videos during the Conference. Here is one of the pieces we screened in 2008 - please view full screen:

Wizard of OS: The Fish Incident from Tom Jantol on Vimeo.

Please follow this link to view other short animated pieces by Tom Jantol.

Tom Jantol on Vimeo

About Machinima

Definition: "Machinima"
Machinima is the use of real-time three-dimensional (3-D) graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation. The term also refers to works that incorporate this animation technique. Machinima-based artists, sometimes called machinimists or machinimators, often use graphics engines from video games to produce video pieces.

Liz Solo/The Second Front/The Third Faction - International

Liz Solo

Here is an example of an early machinima by Black Bag Collective artist Liz Solo, made in the Chouchou Region of the virtual environments of Second Life. Environment created by juliet Heberle and the artists of Chouchou. Music by Chouchou - juliet Herberle and arabedque Choche. See Liz Solo on Live Stream

Second Front

The Second Front Performance Arts Collective have appeared at numerous Rock Can Roll events both as online performers/presenters and through screenings of their machinima. Second Front is the first performance art group in the online virtual world of Second Life. Founded in 2006, Second Front quickly grew to its current seven-member troupe that includes Gazira Babeli (Italy), Yael Gilks (London), Bibbe Hansen (New York), Doug Jarvis (Victoria), Scott Kildall (San Francisco), Patrick Lichty (Chicago) and Liz Solo (St. Johns).

Second Front has performed extensively both in-world and in galleries and museums. Though the artists perform remotely their performances have been shown live in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Brussels, Berlin, Vancouver and many other cities. The group has been written about in publications including ArtForum, Art in America, Realtime Arts (Australia), Exibart (Italy) and Digital Art, Second Edition (by Christiane Paul).

Artist's Statement
Second Front creates score-based performances and interventions that challenge notions of traditional performance, virtual embodiment and the culture of immateriality.
Find our more on the Second Front Homepage

Second Front document their performance work and release it as machinima. The following piece is an example - a machinima documenting a performance created by Second Front for Patrick Lichty's gallery installation "The Summer of Love 2.0" that took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in the Summer of 2009.

Third Faction - the /hug project
This is another example of "machinima" - this time created using the online MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer ONline Role-Playing Game) World of Warcraft. This video was created by the /hug collective. /hug is a project of The Third Faction Collective. The Third Faction is an affiliation of geographically dispersed entities with a collective interest in exposing binary systems in synthetic environments via in-world performances, the collective operates simultaneously across various platforms including World of Warcraft and Second Life.

This video instructs newbies on how to spread peace and non-violence in World of Warcraft. Find out more: www.thirdfaction.org