title: Animalia
duration: 15 min.

description:
Animalia is an inter-species fairytale about a girl who is disenchanted with the world and wishes she could fly. She joins the circus only to discover it is a secret military operation. She then runs away to the woods and falls under the spell of a mystical deer. When she becomes an antlered deer-creature, she finally achieves flying powers and enters an ethereal world of hybrid creatures.

Animalia began as a multi-media performance created by inter-diciplinary artist C. Ryder Cooley. Now the story has come to life as a unique animation and printed book. Collaborator Bart Woodstrup is working with Ryder, animating her hand drawn illustrations. The Animation will be available as a digital download and screened alongside Animalia performances. It will also be available as a limited edition DVD with the printed Animalia Book.

PROJECT BACKGROUND
In 2008, Animalia debuted as a multi-media performance at Proctors Mainstage Theater in Schenectady, NY. The performance combines live music (accordion, banjo, singing saw and upright bass) with movement, video projection and aerial-trapeze. Animalia was translated from stage to paper by Ryder during a residency at the MacDowell Colony in 2009.

The illustrations were digitized for animation, and then composed into a book. The animation soundtrack combines music from live performances with recordings by Ryder, Bart and the band Fall Harbor (Todd Chandler & Ryder). Offering metaphors of flight in response to environmental collapse, gender dysphoria and warfare, Animalia is a story about hybridity and transformation. Humans become deer, bees become keepers, circus becomes war. By inserting the masculine power symbol of the buck “rack” onto a feminine character, Animalia blurs the divisions between masculine/feminine identities and human/animal forms.

Animalia has been developed thus far with the support of the Robert Wilson Watermill Center, MacDowell, Yaddo, Experimental Television Center, Rensselaer Polytechic Institute (iEAR), Time Arts (NIU) and NY Foundation for the Arts. The Animalia show has been performed in numerous venues including Skybox in Brooklyn, Mass College of Liberal Arts, Los Solos Festival in Baltimore, Mission Creek Festival in San Francisco and Proctors Mainstage Theater in Schenectady, NY.


collaborators:
C.Ryder Cooley (illustration, narrative, and music)

price: N/A
format: HD video

exhibitions:

2011 The West Virginia Mountaineer Film Festival, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

2011 Out Film Fest, Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Covington, KY

2011 XMALIA (featuring a screening of Animalia), Proctors Theater, Schenectady, NY

2011 Sycamore FIlm Fest, Sycamore, IL

2011 TvFILM, WMHT, Troy, NY

2011 New Kingston Film Festival, New Kingston, NY