Recently, research for a special knitting project (still under wraps) has uncovered all sorts of spectacular finds, including some fiber-related short films and animations, some of which must be shared. I’ve already posted about animated shorts most of us are familiar with by now: “The Last Knit” (Spring Fever: knitting addiction), and Tricot Machine’s knitted music video (Knitting Machine). Thanks to the generosity of those who have shared their work online, it will be possible – as my needles click away during the next few weeks, to bring many others I’ve found together in a miniature fiber film & animation “festival”!
First on the program: “Ball of Wool” (1968), an animated short film made in 1968 by Russian artist and filmmaker Nikolai Serebryakov (1928-2005) (more information about this remarkable animator is available from this obituary). “Ball of Wool” is a knitted fable, rather like “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg”.
So I’m thinking, if animation is “the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision” (source), then mightn’t the use of fiber and related fiber arts (knitting, crochet, weaving, etc) to create the illusion be called a(k)ni(t)mation.
More aknitmation tomorrow!
Thanks so much for sharing this. It was delightful to watch, even though a sad ending.
Leslie, Once again you’ve offered us out here a remarkable visual experience. “Ball of Wool” moved me very much. I see myself as the old woman, her story a metaphor for aspects of my life.
Thanks for the inclusion of the artist’s obit…fascinating review of the past 70 years in Russia and, by extension, the world.
yours, naomi…about to leave this coast for the other