“A line is a dot that went for a walk…” is a quote by Paul Klee, which I recall time and again in my design journey as an educator and an artist. When I was a frail dot in a family of bigger dots, I was connected with cartoon books and movies. So, my dotted-lined journey started with those worlds of motion. I always used to get fascinated by them. How do things move?! How cartoons jump, squash, blob, swoosh, etc. I wanted to be a joker; I wanted to practice laughter as the best medicine. I wanted to be an animator. So, I started reading comics, more comics, watching animations, more animation and capturing anything and everything coming my way in my sketchbook! Yes, I am talking about arrested movements, a term which I got enlightened by Norman McLaren, another immortal guru of moving image. This search to know more about moving images drove me deeper into the realm of this once-often-ignored artform…moving image.
In 1992, while studying animation film design at NID, Ahmedabad, my idea of moving image was only ‘Disney’. Then, I discovered the unexplored world of alternatives and the parallel universe of animation storytelling. So, while trying to make my drawings move in our day-to-day assignments and courses, self-study became more intoxicating, where I discovered the world of Zagreb School, NFB of Norman McLaren or brilliant Dutch animation masters like Paul Driessen, Gerrit Van Djik, Puppet Trick masters like Jiri Trinka or Jan Svankmajer or Polish experimental cinema. The list is never-ending.
In 1996, my student days got over, and it was time to find a place in the big wild world where I had to pitch my ideas of non-academic funny drawings to earn a living. Well, the initial hiccups of not having a portfolio like Disney or Marvel woke me up to the reality that there is a yawning gap between progressive education and industry. Micky was more popular than the local Mouse! While working for outsourced industry odd jobs for around 8 years, I was convinced that I needed to go back to design education. It could be a fertile ground to create original content which will celebrate animation as the pure form of cinema.
I quote my guru McLaren , “Animation is a pure form of cinema, but which are drawn”. So, in 2002, I started my full-time stint with animation education. While unlearning from batches of bright students, I also reminded them about past unsung magicians like Raman Lal Mistry , Sudarshan Khanna , Kumar Vyas, Siddhartha Ghosh and Chandi Lahiri, to name a few. To me, they all are masters of movement with the tools they embraced, be it drawings or puppets or types or materials.
So, in 2007, a few like-minded folks came together and started to celebrate a copyleft storytelling event named Chitrakatha. This eventually became a biennial carnival of design storytelling, celebrating the power of moving image. This gave confidence to many young, moving “imagicians” to believe in themselves. They became ‘designprenuers’ to animated storytelling. This platform gave room to all as we believed – unless we work together, ideas will die in isolation.
After around 21 years with a national institute, I am now associated with Anant National University, nurturing and shaping a fantastic baby department named ‘Moving Image’ under the School of Design. The time is ripe for us to know the unsung and unheard stories of this mighty nation, where on every corner, there are amazing unsung solutionaries working silently.
When we are heading for 100 years of independence, perhaps in the truest sense, 2023 indicated better bread for moving image community. AVCG Industry was acknowledged by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as an important factor in nations growth in creative economy. There is a proposal to set up a nationwide AVCG centre of excellence. After enthralling the world of Cinema, winning the confidence in international coproduction, and leading the various technology fronts, India is now becoming a global hub for Moving Image.
If Leonardo drew the flying machine, it was a flying bird which triggered his imagination. Then, after Right Brothers did it right, the flight mapper is crazy busy today!! When Lumiere Brothers, Melies and more triggered the cinematic experience, almost at the same time Harishchandrachi Factory was brewing moving image culture from this side of the world. Anant’s Moving Image is also a part of this exciting storytelling time of the nation and the world. Our students are encouraged to discover their roots while practising with both analogue and digital tools to tell their tales with all the cinematic grammar. Their project, both in the classroom and field/industry, gives them the confidence to dive into the ocean of the growing 33-million-dollar moving image industry. They get equipped with survival kits, skills and an understanding of the fact that at the end, everything moves and each dot connects.
The Moving Image department is evolving as a multidisciplinary Centre of Moving Image (CMI) – a space for all to study, contribute, practice and collaborate through the medium of movement. From pre-primary to post-retirement – CMI will offer training, academic, production, events, seminars, incubation, research and archiving, to name a few.
Viva Moving Image…
