Comments on: Dust to dust...

Dust to dust...

BoringPostcards — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 20:38:32 -0800

A Japanese artist retells the creation myth with sand trickling through his hands. Amazing. (wmv, 19MB)

By: riffola

riffola — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 20:53:18 -0800

That is simply stunning. I love how fluid and artistic it was. Man that was amazing!

By: Hildago

Hildago — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:00:08 -0800

That's by far the coolest thing I've seen in many days.

By: nightchrome

nightchrome — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:07:20 -0800

I hate to be negative about such a fantastic post, but I have no choice. Not only was the initial text Korean, but the word "Seoul" was written clearly in English at least twice during the production. Also, the artist was so obviously European it wasn't funny. Come on guys, assuming "squiggly writing + cool thing = Japanese" is no good.

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:11:11 -0800

Amazing.

By: aerify

aerify — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:11:49 -0800

Yeah that's Korean, not Japanese. Jesus. And this has been floating around the net for years.

By: DaShiv

DaShiv — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:13:44 -0800

... Well, damn. Loved all the little details -- the catchlights in the eyes, the order in which he filled in the details, etc. Funny that the part he had most trouble with was writing out "Seoul" at the end, heh.

By: Galvatron

Galvatron — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:13:52 -0800

Fantastic. Thanks for posting this.

By: nightchrome

nightchrome — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:17:52 -0800

DaShiv, I admit to having forgotten precisely how overhead projectors work but wouldn't he have to write it either backwards or upside down or some such, to have it appear correctly?

By: pelletierm

pelletierm — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:21:33 -0800

Some background (thanks Google): This is one of the exhibitions from SICAF (Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival) 2003. The artist is Ferenc Cakó. See his site at http://www.cakostudio.hu/. He's Hungarian, not Japanese, and the festival is in Korea. The Japanese reference is incorrect.

By: BoringPostcards

BoringPostcards — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:28:21 -0800

He's Hungarian, not Japanese[...] The Japanese reference is incorrect. Oh, yikes. I am VERY sorry about that. Kudos to pelletierm for catching that. He has also found the artist's home page, which I wasn't able to.. very cool.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:34:49 -0800

Well, I see I'm late to the debunking, but you can read all about Ferenc Cako and his amazing sand paintings at (that link I just threw up there). Of course, he was a featured presenter at the SICAF 2003 (Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival). Oh, and he's Hungarian, apparently. Still, great post!!!!

By: TangerineGurl

TangerineGurl — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:41:29 -0800

I have had this movie on my computer for about a year now. I just love to watch it! Thank you pelletierm for the info on the artists site. I am a Hungarian-American so I was thrilled to learn his nationality! I was actually suprised this link had not been posted before! I hoped it lead to more info on Cako!

By: BoringPostcards

BoringPostcards — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:53:53 -0800

Maybe I can salvage some respect by pointing out that Hungary is famous for great animators, like the often-imitated Jan Svankmajer, one of my artistic heroes. The Brothers Quay presented the most eastern European version of reality that a couple of guys from Pennsylvania ever could, I think. Svankmejer's retelling of "Alice in Wonderland" is one of my most favorite films ever, BTW.

By: BoringPostcards

BoringPostcards — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 22:28:34 -0800

Come on guys, assuming "squiggly writing + cool thing = Japanese" is no good. posted by nightchrome at 12:07 AM EST on March 20 And BTW, thank you for assuming that I assumed. The person who sent me this is usually reliable, but was mistaken in this case. I fall on my non-Japanese sword.

By: SteelyDuran

SteelyDuran — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 22:59:22 -0800

[I have seen God.]

By: Democritus

Democritus — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:17:12 -0800

Also, if you liked the music, it is by Kitaro. I've been listening to it since I was in high school. Great music to chill out to.

By: subpixel

subpixel — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:44:58 -0800

well, maybe we should have checked out the "blogging vs. journalism" panel at SXSW... here is a post about a japanese artist who turns out to be hungarian, like jan svankmajer, except that jan svankmajer turns out to be czech. all i know is this link is awesome - everything else is unverified.

By: joedan

joedan — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 01:03:23 -0800

double post. then again, it's been two years and the original link isn't working...

By: crayfish

crayfish — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 02:43:14 -0800

nightchrome wrote: I admit to having forgotten precisely how overhead projectors work but wouldn't he have to write it either backwards or upside down or some such, to have it appear correctly? It's a lightbox, not an OHP. There's a camera pointing down on it which is connected to a standard video projector, so he would just have to write normally.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 06:08:54 -0800

It's a lightbox, not an OHP. Unless the thing I think of as an overhead projector is actually a lightbox, you'd still be writing normally with an overhead projector. My profs call the machine thingy they use in class an overhead projector...and I'm pretty sure they don't know how to write backwards.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:20:42 -0800

Here's a fascinating 2001 interview with Cako, in which he discusses his career, technique, use of narrative, changes in the medium and today's students, among lots of other things. I liked this: The strange thing is what we can see at today's festivals is that the profession is slowly transforming into nonsense and only laughs at every film. Films which point at problems and deal with philosophical issues start to disappear. Films tend to turn towards the form, while everybody beats the keyboard...The same software produces the same form. Watching the clips from his non-sand films, I realized I'd seen some of his work in "Best of Animation" collections, but I'm having a hard time finding any of it for sale. Can anyone help?

By: fungible

fungible — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:24:16 -0800

Well I hadn't seen it, and my 3 year old had a lot of fun calling out the names of things as he drew them. So IMO, it rocked. thanks.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:31:11 -0800

I think the lenses in Overhead Projectors flip it so it appears correctly. Or something like that. Anyway, that was pretty good. Thanks for the link, even if it was a two-year-old repost. Although, from the description, I was expecting a venerable old Japanese man kneeling on a beach, talking to the camera, with sand running through his fingers, telling us about ancient Japanese creation myths. Oh well. :)

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:31:34 -0800

(why did I capitalize Overhead Projectors?)

By: blendor

blendor — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:10:40 -0800

awesome.

By: kenaman

kenaman — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:51:12 -0800

its a pity that the 19MB link probably put a few people off. That was amazing. And your first fpp too! Thanks

By: DakotaPaul

DakotaPaul — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 16:51:40 -0800

That was stunning. Thanks for reposting.