Tom Dunn

Gates of Hell Animation. An Improvised Animation Project. (ongoing)

Gates of Hell (Remix) is an experimental animation project inspired by Auguste Rodin's monumental bronze sculpture, Gates of Hell (1880-1917).  Through a process of improvised drawing based on the sculpture, I create hypnotic animated sequences that morph and evolve.

I began the project by taking a series of photos panning around the Gates of Hell sculpture at Stanford’s Rodin Sculpture Garden.  These sequences of photos serve as the foundation for my improvised digital drawing where I distort figures in the original sculpture and create new ones.  The resulting animation loops show the ongoing transformation and evolution of the figures.

Rather than seeking a precise representation of Rodin's sculpture or the text of Dante’s Inferno that the original sculpture was based on, I embrace the surrealistic concept of projecting imagery from my subconscious. The figures in Rodin’s sculpture function like the ink blots of a Rorschach test, becoming a canvas on which I project imagery from my imagination.  By cross-dissolving frames into each other, I encourage pareidolia—a phenomenon where viewers perceive recognizable patterns in random stimuli.  I play with these transitional shots and elaborate on the figures I see emerging.

Drawing inspiration from the earliest form of animation—the Zoetrope—I experiment with a unique approach.  I assemble a sequence of 49 frames into a large composite image. (like pasting the images of a flick book side by side, making a larger image)  This zoetrope consists of 7x7 frames, the first image in the sequence is in the top right corner, and it runs backward, ending in the bottom left corner.

I then digitally draw on this zoetrope so the figures flow seamlessly across the picture frame, an entanglement of sculptural figures spilling from one frame into the next.  This method borrows from the surrealists' "exquisite corpse" technique, generating chance occurrences that inspire fresh relationships and new figures.  Frames within the zoetrope not only interact with frames on either side but also above and below.  Cropping the finished zoetrope into frame sizes other than the original 7x7 creates new compositions that I then continue working on.

My focus lies on the imagery that emerges from the "in-between" spaces—both in how still images interact with their neighboring images on the zoetrope and how they transition into each other in a linear sequence.  I play with the animation concept of "tweening,” but instead of making ‘in-between’ frames to smooth transitions between keyframes, I make morphed and distorted frames combining elements of both.  The animation loops will become denser and more detailed with the addition of new in-between frames; this process is like an image-based feedback loop that increases with intensity.

The process moves between chaos and order; improvised digital drawing in conjunction with systematic ways of sequencing the frames.  As well as being a time-based animation set to music, I also envision transforming the images into a navigable 3D virtual sculpture that I can continue to build in a virtual space.  Building Gates of Hell (Remix) as a computer-generated 3D model would open the possibilities for viewer engagement with the virtual sculpture, and new animation sequences could be generated from it. (or 3D VR animation sequences?)

I hope one day to use technology that will allow me to keep expanding Gates of Hell (Remix) using only my mind. I’m interested in drawing on images generated by AI trained only my Gates of Hell drawings and a 3d model of August Rodin’s sculpture, a collaborative feedback loop. Rather than creating an infinitely expanding sculpture, I envision an inwardly expanding vortex, a digital Gates of Hell Black Hole. 

All scenes from this video are from the zoetrope above. (Some frames are mirror imaged).