Month long festival will kick off September 3 with a focus on digital animation and motion-art; events will also be available via live stream.
Denver Digerati has announced the 5th annual Supernova Digital Animation Festival. The month-long programming kicks off September 3rd with Night Lights Denver, Supernova artist animations that will light up the historic Daniels & Fisher Clock Tower every evening on the 16th Street Mall. On Saturday, September 19th, the community is invited to an open-air walking tour of the digital animation and motion-art featured on the Denver Theatre District’s singular LED screen infrastructure. Supernova is free to the public and adheres to all Colorado guidelines and mandates for outdoor social distancing & safety protocols to provide a unique opportunity for a safe and responsible visual art experience.
“If ever there was a time that society needs the gift of art to elevate the public, it is now,” commented Denver Digerati founder & creative director, Ivar Zeile. “The 2020 Supernova World on Fire theme offers a dynamic forum for artists to reflect on the many challenges facing society on a global scale, paving the way towards healing, and the desire for a much greater collective consciousness to take a firm hold.”
The event has been recrafted in 2020 as a month-long celebration of digital animation presenting the medium of creative, compelling motion-art by international artists to engage, entertain and teach audiences how advanced technology is being employed within art today. The Festival’s focus on digital tools and techniques shines a light on the multitude of pathways into art that are available to a new generation of artists. “World on Fire” is an apt theme, supporting the need for a much greater collective consciousness across all critical paths and intersections with humanity. Also taking place on a fully developed online platform, in addition to the unique public infrastructure of LED screens located in the heart of Denver, Supernova continues to be a leading example of where art is headed today.
With the opportunities and challenges posed by the global COVID 19 crisis, Supernova has expanded into month-long platform powered through a state-of-the-art streaming service supernova.video which exemplifies the merger of art and technology. Through World on Fire, the event is set to represent animation in a wide variety of genres, techniques, and mental spaces.
Program highlights are as follows:
- Night Lights Denver Supernova Artist commissions - Each evening throughout the month of September the iconic Daniels & Fisher Clocktower will light up with animations commissioned by Denver Digerati in conjunction with Supernova including animations by Raquel Meyers (Spain); Nicolas Sassoon / Rick Silva (US/Canada); Sean Capone (US); Heather Crank (US); Michael Edwards (US); Seishi Irimajiri (Japan); Chaerin Im (US); Brian Ng (US); Jenny He (US); and Gabriela Iljesku (US).
- Game On: Unity Education partnership, workshops & gaming focus - In the spirit of collaboration, Game On has been offered a programmatic structure dedicated to the intersection and influence of gaming and digital animation. Associate Curator, Barry Whittaker has honed his focus on game developers that are invested in the creation of games that incorporate experimental animation into the realm of user interaction through game play.
- Denver Digerati has also partnered with Unity, the world’s most widely used real-time engine, to offer three workshops that custom tailor the power of Unity with Denver Digerati’s dedication to the expression of art. The workshops will be taught by industry Unity’s industry veteran, Ben Radcliffe and include:
- Unleashing Unity for Storytellers - Employing an 80’s retro breakdancing theme to explore the concept of an end-to-end animation in one hour.
- Intro to Unity Bootcamp – The public can participate in a 6-session introduction for new users on how harness the power of this engine with educational content.
- An artist panel, moderated by Denver Digerati artist advisor, Ryan Wurst, will lead a conversation with artists using Unity in their practice. These workshops will be offered to the public at no cost.
All programs require advance registration and will fill due to limited capacity.
Additional information and a list of all programming is available here.
Source: Denver Digerati
