Mathematica (マテマテカ, 1999)

I had the rare delight recently of seeing Takashi Sawa’s experimental short Mathematica (マテマテカ, 1999).  Sawa (澤隆志, b. 1971) is perhaps best known for his work as program director at Image Forum, but along with Takashi Nakajima, Takashi Ito, Takashi Makino and Takashi Ishida, he is also one of the five great “Takeshis” of experimental filmmaking.

With his film Mathematica, Sawa trains his 8mm camera on the fine details of the world that we often take for granted.  Using the techniques of poetic montage, stop motion animation, and 3D frottage (taking a rubbing of a textured surface), Sawa explores the structures, spaces, and subtle changes over time that occur in the natural world.

In an e-mail to me, Sawa explained that he was interested in exploring the translation between timeline and depth, between 50 seconds and 2500mm, and between film and lath.  The average person usually thinks about mathematics in terms of numbers, but in actuality mathematics is study of the art and science of abstraction.  It examines how the world around us is made up of not only quantity but also structure, space, and change.   In fact, Sir Isaac Newton famously called it the language in which the universe is written (Opticks, 1704).

In Mathematica, this is expressed through a montage of images that demonstrate these mathematical concerns.  Skin making itself smooth again after an imprint of the title of the film has been pressed into it, the patterns of wrinkles and lines on the skin, the rings of a tree, the mane of a sorrel horse, a pencil frottage of the cross-section of a tree, the netting covering a scaffolding, and film deteriorating.  The stop motion sequences of the tree-rings were for me the most fascinating.  The movement of the rings created by the stop motion causes the close-ups of the tree-rings to resemble other patterns of nature that have also been the subject of mathematical conjecture: the waves of the ocean or the formation of patterns on the sands of the desert.  These sequences also draw attention not only to patterns, structure, and space, but also to the concept of time. 

In the catalogue of the Holland Animation Film Festival 2002, Sawa wrote about how the pleasure of animation is in the way that it “breathes life in between frame and frame” and how “it is precisely the continuous playback by means of intermittent movement of these gaps and flickers that captivates both the makers and the audience of animation.  In works of experimental animation, which are made outside the system of film as industry, the question is how far we can extend the magic of these gaps and afterimages.” (p. 14).  With Mathematica, Sawa shows us how these gaps and afterimages can be used to focus our awareness on the extraordinary aspects of the commonplace in the world around us.

Takashi Sawa's work regularly screens at international festivals around the world.  You can circle him on Google Plus.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011

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Dreams: A Memorial Tribute for Nobuhiro Aihara

DREAMS 追悼 相原信洋

Image Forum Cinematheque, Shibuya

December 10 - 15

Image Forum in Tokyo is holding a memorial tribute for the artist and experimental animator Nobuhiro Aihara (相原信洋, 1944-2011) who passed away suddenly this spring.  As I reported at the time, Aihara began his career in television animation in the 1960s and started producing his own independent animation in 1965.  His aesthetic is distinctive for his use of flowing lines, highly complex drawings, and his love of psychedelic colours.  He was a prolific artist who often produced several animated shorts a year either on his own or in collaboration with his friend and fellow artist the Keiichi Tanaami (田名網 敬一, b. 1936).  At the time of his death, he left behind 85 animated works.  In addition to his work as an artist, Aihara taught animation at the Kyoto University of Art and Design.   

The Image Forum screenings will feature Aihara’s representative works including his groundbreaking experimental work Stone (1975), his animated correspondence films with Keiichi Tanaami, and many films that were discovered posthumously.  In addition to the film screenings, many of the leading figures of Japanese experimental film and animation will be giving film talks.  Special guests include Takashi Ishida, Yasunori Ikunishi, Mirai Mizue, Takashi Nakajima, Nobuaki Doi, and Keiichi Tanaami. 

See below for times and dates, or consult the Image Forum website (JP only).

Program A:  1970s-1980s

December 10 and 13

1971   Poisonous Snake 『やまかがし』

1972   The Last Bee Season『みつばちの季節は去って』

1972   White Snake『おしろい羽根』

1973   Aisanka Hana『逢仙花』

1973   Shoshun Kitsune-iro『初春狐色』

1974   Bōdō『妄動』

1975 『STONE』

1977   Karma『カルマ』

1980   Shelter『シェルター』

1985   Twilight『逢魔が時』

1986 『PRIVATE』

1987   Image (Shadow)『映像（かげ）』

Program B: 1980s-2000s

December 12 and 15

1988   Dragonfly『とんぼ』

1989 『GAVORA』

1990 『LINE』

1991 『MASK』

1994   Air Power『気動』

1996 『RAIN』

1997 『MEMORY OF CLOUD』

1999 『THE THIRD EYE』

2000 『WIND』

2004 『MEMORY OF RED』

2006 『BLACK FISH』

2006 『YELLOW SNAKE』

2007 『LOTUS』

2008 『ZAP CAT』

Program C:  Nobuhiro Aihara + Keiichi Tanaami

December 11 and 14

2001    Breath of Wind『風の呼吸』

2002  『SCRAP DIARY』

2002  『WALKING MAN』

2003  『FETISH DOLL』

2004  『LANDSCAPE』

2004    Ten Nights of Dreams『夢10夜』

2005  『Trip』

2005    Madonna no Yūwaku『マドンナの誘惑』

2006    Noise『ノイズ』

2007    Inch High Samurai『一寸法師』

2008  『CHIRICO』

2008  『眼の楽園・PARADISE FOR EYES』

2009  『SHUNGA』

2010    The Heart Sutra『般若心経』

2011  『DREAMS』

Program D:  Early Works + Recent Works + Long Film Talk

December 10 and 11

1969 『STOP！』

1970   Sakura『サクラ』

1973   Short Track Runner『短距離ランナー』

1978   Hikari『光』

2009 『BLUE MOON』

2009 『FLOWER』

2009 『TEA TIME』

2009 『IF』

2009 『AMMONTIE』

2009 『8PM』

2010 『TOMATO』

2010 『DOT』

2010 『SEED』

2010 『CCBB』

2011 『30℃』

2011 『GIGI-GAGA』

1981   My Shelter - Director's commentary on his work『マイ・シェルター（作者解説映像付）』

2006   Making of Black Fish『BLACK FISH（メイキング映像付）』

Film Talks

December 10 – following Program D

 2011年12月10日（土）プログラムD上映後

Guests:

Takashi Ishida 石田尚志（画家、映像作家 / painter, experimental filmmaker）

Yasunori Ikunishi 生西康典（演出家、美術家 / experimental filmmaker, artist）

December 10 – preceding Program A

2011年12月10日（土）プログラムA上映前

Guest:

Mirai Mizue  水江未来（アニメーション作家 / independent animator）

December 11 – following Program D

2011年12月11日（日）プログラムD上映後

Guests:

Takashi Nakajima 中島崇（映像作家/experimental filmmaker）

Nobuaki Doi 土居伸彰（アニメーション研究・評論 / animation scholar, film critic）

December 11 – preceding Program C

2011年12月11日（日）プログラムC上映前

Guest:

Keiichi Tanaami 田名網敬一（映像作家、アーティスト/ experimental filmmaker, artist）

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Coffee Break (コーヒー・ブレイク, 1977)

Coffee falls into the stomach … ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop … the shafts of wit start up like sharp-shooters, similes arise, the paper is covered with ink …

-          Honoré de Balzac (オノレ・ド・バルザック, 1799-1850)

Mornings are the most productive time for me.  I usually wake with a fresh perspective on whatever project I am working on and as soon as the kids are off to school, I begin to write.  By mid-morning; however, my brain clouds over and things that seemed so clear when I first woke jumble together and lose focus.  The remedy to this situation is coffee.  Coffee has the remarkable ability to bring order to the chaos of the mind, and to stimulate the imagination when one’s imagination is ready to curl up and take a catnap.

Taku Furukawa encapsulates the ability of coffee to inspire a weary mind in his 1977 animated short Coffee Break (コーヒー・ブレイク).  In the film, a man sits working busily away at his desk – typing into his typewriter, comically scratching his behind, talking on the phone, having a smoke, leafing through a book.  It is a minimalistic line drawing scene with just the man and his desk and door drawn in thin black lines on white paper.  The man - likely a caricature of the animator himself - then makes himself a cup of coffee and as the cup approaches his mouth we hear the sound of a countdown to a rocket launch.  As the coffee pours into the man’s mouth, the screen explodes into a colourful multi-layered image of food floating in the air like debris in outer space.  The floating objects transform from food into animals, then into vehicles, buildings, and people until the sound of the rocket ship is replaced by the wail of an electronic guitar that brings home the nirvana of the experience of drinking a good cuppa Java.

In just three short minutes, Coffee Break demonstrates all the qualities that make Furukawa such a genius of his craft: his ability to transform a simple concept into a thought-provoking work of art, his playful nature, and his limitless imagination.  Earlier this year, in celebration of Furukawa’s 70^th birthday, two of his former students, Tomoyoshi Joko and Hiroco Ichinose, created an homage to Coffee Break entitled Coffee Tadaiku (コーヒータダイク, 2011).  The newly married animation team of Joko and Ichinose studied animation under Furukawa at Tokyo Polytechnic University and work under the name Decovocal – a name that was suggested to them by Furukawa (see JMAF 2010 Symposia Report). 

Joko and Ichinose emulate Furukawa in their use of simple line drawing animation to create highly imaginative works.  Coffee Tadaiku mimics the original Coffee Break right down to the style of the opening credits.  “Tadaiku” refers to Furukawa’s given name Furukawa Tadaiku 古川肇郁 – a name which only appears in the credits of his mentor Yoji Kuri’s films.  When the international version of Kuri's Au Fou! (殺人狂時代) was released in 1967, Furukawa’s given name was shortened to just one kanji 古川肇 in the credits and by the time he left Kuri’s studio he had adopted his katakana nickname  古川タクas his official nom de plume.

In this updated version of Coffee Break, Furukawa is depicted typing away at a computer instead of a typewriter – but he still pauses comically to scratch his bottom.  Joko and Ichinose then depict a series of images that they associate with their sensei: a bespectacled Furukawa working with a pencil on an animation table, Furukawa as a baseball fan enthusiastically watching the game on a tablet computer, filing his nails at his desk, watching one of his wind-up toys on the floor (Furukawa is a collector of White Knob wind-up toys), and so on.  Instead of a closed door, Coffee Tadaiku features an open door to a staircase with a small dog quietly sitting in front of it.  When the caricature of Furukawa drinks the coffee, the scene explodes into a sky full of floating objects associated with celebration: cake / champagne / red snapper / onigiri / flowers.  The electric guitar comes in much sooner in this tribute to the animation master ushering in an image of Furukawa drinking coffee as the numbers 7 and 0 float around him followed by Happy Birthday wishes.  


A brilliant tribute for a brilliant animator. 

Watch it for yourself on Youtube.

Coffee Break appears on Takun Films (1998) which can be ordered from Anido.

Catherine Munroe Hotes 2011