Project Description

Turf is an interactive experience, with the stop-motion video animated by Barnaby Dixon, and the audio and programming done by Bazyli Brzóska. The project explores the nature of borders with an unlikely coupling of stop-motion and interactivity. Turf pays an aesthetic homage to platform games of the 90’s whiles metaphorically tackling real world issues, such as political geography and residual animalistic traits in humans.

The Concept

The concept for our project was born when we were having a talk about the borders, and the constructed nature of them. We were interested by territoriality, both in the anthropological sense and within nonverbal communication. How territorial layouts are, in part a geological phenomenon due to natural divisions of sea and land. But also borders represent quite an animalistic and primitive trait that humans retain, a desire to divide, identify, and own. However invisible borders may often be, they signify something that is from a political perspective very real.

The element of interaction in our piece is in the form of spectator controlled panning. The viewer can scroll around a map of stop-motion creatures and territories, in a similar way that one can on the “Google Maps” site. Whichever area the spectator chooses to observe, there will be a unique sound arrangement to fit the location and give the spectator a sense of where they are within this space. Through such choices, we aim to highlight the connection that this animated reality has with our physical, global reality.

This film is a result of a collaboration incorporating both of our final year projects at the University of Wales, Newport.