Idea of the Week: Figures of Speech
February 24th 2025 | Animation
Dearest Being,
The Idea of the Week is live:
Figures of Speech (1999)
by Flat Black Films
IDEA | ANIMATION
How much of our soul resides in our voice?
This animated short-film is part of a series called Figures of Speech made by Bob Sabiston and his animation software company Flat Black Films.
The technology used to create the film was invented by Sabiston himself and is known as interpolated rotoscoping. The process involves many different artists drawing over frames of the same video before Sabiston’s software connects their unique styles by morphing the frames in-between.
You may or may not recognise this look from Richard Linklater’s 2001 film Waking Life, the first feature length piece to be made with this technique.
What always captivates me about this form of animation is how it manages to display a complete human soul through abstract minimalism. Although the character’s appearance keeps shifting, we are never left to wonder if it’s the same person talking. There’s somehow a grounded documentary realism to the piece despite it’s acid trip visuals. And I believe this stems from the honest and improvisational nature of Katy’s voice — Qualities that are so difficult to achieve when it comes to an intricate medium like animation.
Every time I hear her humanity through the imaginative artwork my mind poses a question: How much of our innate Being resides solely within our voice?
To claim that the voice is the soul doesn’t feel entirely right. Look at infants and animals for example. No speech ability and yet undeniably soulful.
Still, there’s no denying that the voice captures an essence unlike anything else we can consciously project. There’s some distinct part of our Being laid bare in our voice. And I’m guessing this is why we’ve come to refer to the artist’s unique style as Their Voice. Because no matter the logic of their work, whether it be real or dreamlike, it is the invisible humanity speaking out to our senses that keeps us from believing it’s all just nonsense.
Roadhead (1998)
by Flat Black Films
LECTURE | BOB SABISTON, POPTECH
Insightful and inspiring story of Sabiston’s creative journey.
Bob Sabiston
Bob Sabiston showcases the human soul through abstract art.
Absorb more experimental art like this on the Flat Black Films website:
NS Channels
Nothing Serious Channels is a cosmic television provider. Tune in to its various stations and absorb visual ideas in the form of films, lectures, seminars, comedy sketches, interviews…
The aim with NS Channels, much like NS Radio, is to offer Beings a place of curated media. There and then gone. The magic anticipation and randomness of turning on the television and absorbing something new and unexpected.
This girl cracks me up