Pablo Enrique Monterrubio-Benet

This course is designed for students who wish to use both digital and traditional/analog media to create moving images. Students learn animation principles while discovering many different techniques, including stop-motion, frame-by-frame, and more. Digital tools may be used in conjunction with sketchbook work and traditional processes to reflect contemporary artistic hybrid methods. This course can be repeated for continued skill building.

Discover the exciting world of animation as you bring your drawings and ideas to life. In this course, you'll explore traditional and digital animation techniques, such as frame-by-frame and stop-motion. Get ready to work on various cool projects that let you express your imagination through motion studies, character and environment design, and captivating storytelling. You'll learn cinematic techniques, including composition, set design, and prop creation, while developing a final project that reflects your unique goals and interests. To enhance your experience, enjoy artist presentations, take inspiring trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and engage in dynamic group discussions.

In this course, students will immerse themselves in the transformative power of storytelling across various mediums. Storytelling Alchemy invites students to explore and push the limits of narrative through hybrid forms and interdisciplinary techniques. We will delve into how storytelling serves as a powerful vehicle for personal expression, enabling artists to investigate and communicate personal identities, emotions, and experiences, as well as for cultural exploration, allowing the examination of histories, social dynamics, and collective memory. Additionally, we will look into how storytelling acts as a portal to speculative futures, offering possibilities for imagining new worlds, alternative realities, and future trajectories. Drawing inspiration from the surreal worlds of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jan Svankmajer, and Frida Kahlo, the dreamlike atmospheres of Maya Deren and David Lynch, and the poetic essay films of Chris Marker and Agnes Varda, students will encounter pioneering artists who have expanded the boundaries of storytelling. Students will be inspired to make work that challenges conventions, creating transformative experiences that captivate, disrupt, and ignite new ways of seeing and understanding the world. Throughout the course, students will develop their own narrative approaches, creating work that reflects their unique voice and vision. Students will work on 3 class assignments and one final project.