Life Cycle

.mov file is better quality, but the timing is a little off because it compressed many frames when I converted it...  but for the most part, it works.

The timing is better on this AVI file, but the quality is poor and it still loses most of its "animated" elements due to the compression.

I enjoy bringing elements of the sciences into art. I think that science and art are more similar than people give them credit for, and at the same time, a creative perspective on biological themes can provide some necessary contrast.

This work is about food chains, but instead of thinking about the food chain in a traditional way (from prey to predator, consumed to consumer), I reversed the perspective and began breaking down complex organisms into organisms that are farther down the biological "hierarchy." To a certain degree, complex organisms are made up of pieces of smaller ones, but it's interesting to invert this relationship and think about pieces of complex organisms disassembling as many complete smaller animals or plants.

I also really enjoyed the juxtaposition of very technical and somewhat disturbing elements (like the frog dissections) against the use of the archetypal frog prince story and the tongue-and-cheek coffee cup at the end.

I didn't expect this to come out as "animated" as it did, but I was suprised at how well powerpoint lent itself to small spurts of animation, like the falling seed pod or the leaping frog. I like the jumpy or disjointed effect it gave the animation.  Also, this was my first time working with computers and photoshop to create an artwork, so it was a really good learning experience for me.