Programming Animation to Programming Animators:
the changing relationship between computers and animation over the last 30 years

Heliocentrum (1995) by Richard Wright and Jason Wight

Richard Wright is an artist whose work includes many pioneering digital animations and interactive pieces. Heliocentrum’ (1995), an animation about Louis XIV, was described by writer Hari Kunzru as ‘…an amazingly effective way of showing how a sovereign manipulated power’. His online screensaver “The Bank of Time” was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2001. From 2004 to 2009 he collaborated with Graham Harwood and Matsuko Yokokoji, their final project “Tantalum Memorial” winning the transmediale.09 award in Berlin. In 2016 he was artist-in-residence at the British Library where he built “The Elastic System”, a digital portrait of the C19th library innovator Thomas Watts.

Richard will be using examples from his work and research to show how the relationship between animation and computer programming has changed over the last 25 years. We will be looking at ways in which coding has altered the language of animation, from computer animated effects and graphic narratives to database cinema and software art. Including some rare experiments and never-before-seen work