Image courtesy of Ian Gouldstone

Ian W. Gouldstone: In May 2009, I became animator-in-residence at Newport University with the simple goal of playing with animation for a month.  This was in direct response to my own (and sometimes others’) obsession with the finished product, that I sometimes forget to be spontaneous and have fun.  So, with ‘To Whom It May Concern’, I chucked all those anxieties about finished product out the window and built rules that forced me and the students to embrace spontaneity.

The key idea was that over the course of the residency, the students and I would ‘write’ each other short animated letters every day.  On day one, I ‘wrote’ the first letter which the students then ‘read’ on the morning of day two.  Working as individuals and in small groups, they then spent that whole day animating letters of their own in response.  The next morning, we screened those letters to the group, and the students all voted for the one letter they wanted to send back to me, which I had a day to respond to in turn.  After following this process for a month, we were all completely exhausted, but so profoundly inspired by the experience that we stuck all the ‘letters’ together for others to see, too.

Indeed, I was so affected by this process that I expect there will be another project based on this process coming very soon.

Credits
A concept by Ian W. Gouldstone
Directors: Ian W. Gouldstone, The students of Newport School of Art, Media & Design

The Newport University Animator in Residence scheme is funded by Skillset Screen Academy Wales