VC: Find & Share - ZEROING by Andrey Nepomnyaschey

ZEROING from andrey nepomnyaschev on Vimeo.

Andrey Nepomnyaschey or as he prefers Andrey Nep, is a motion graphics designer from Moscow, Russia. It might be a stretch for the find and share, but I felt that his "ZEROING" piece relates to our current line project in a variety of ways. I would highly recommend watching the video above, but if you decide not to, I've also posted some still images below. I couldn't find a description or background information about the project so my analysis of the piece will focus on my own interpretation of the visuals and how it relates to our line project. The video begins with the rotation of the planets around the sun, but the sun suddenly explodes and creates a black hole. In the remainder of the video the universe is being sucked into the black hole, but the manner in which Nep illustrates this process is quite interesting.

The universe is represented as a lined blanket with a hole in the center of in being pulled inwards. Nep uses a series of different line weights, thicknesses, and patterns throughout the video to describe the movement of the lines into the black hole. The majority of lines being used occur in either a regular or progressive pattern. Although the lines are spaced in a regular pattern, the perspective and the suction of perspective cause the regular lines to be perceived as progressive. While the blankets move towards the black hole, the blanket overlaps and the lines become more condensed as they move closer to the center. Because the lines are becoming more condensed, it creates the allusion of spatial progression. In addition, due to the nature of animation and video, Nep also uses progression of time. The lines are physically moving throughout the video sometimes slow and at other times fast.

We could compare the printed pages of our basic and complex line studies to Nep's blanket of the universe. At this point of the assignment we're beginning to use analogue methods to create curvilinear lines by physically scrunching the paper over the scanner/photocopier to create the illusion of a curved line, which is similar to Nep's effect of the black hole on the blanket. While the blanket is being pulled inwards, the once straight lines become warped and curvilinear in the process.

Another great reason for me to write about Andrey Nepomnyaschey is for his use of analog production. In the image of his posters below, Nep actually tears the paper to reinforce the content of the video. It goes to show that working in both a digital and analogue format can create different forms of communication as well as a richer experience than working solely in one or the other.

More info: http://www.anep.ru/