Dust to dust...

March 19, 2005 8:38 PM

A Japanese artist retells the creation myth with sand trickling through his hands. Amazing. (wmv, 19MB)
posted by BoringPostcards (27 comments total)

That is simply stunning. I love how fluid and artistic it was. Man that was amazing!
posted by riffola at 8:53 PM on March 19, 2005

That's by far the coolest thing I've seen in many days.
posted by Hildago at 9:00 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by nightchrome at 9:07 PM on March 19, 2005

Amazing.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:11 PM on March 19, 2005

Yeah that's Korean, not Japanese. Jesus. And this has been floating around the net for years.
posted by aerify at 9:11 PM on March 19, 2005

...

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.
posted by DaShiv at 9:13 PM on March 19, 2005

Fantastic. Thanks for posting this.
posted by Galvatron at 9:13 PM on March 19, 2005

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?
posted by nightchrome at 9:17 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by pelletierm at 9:21 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by BoringPostcards at 9:28 PM on March 19, 2005

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!!!!
posted by yhbc at 9:34 PM on March 19, 2005

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!
posted by TangerineGurl at 9:41 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by BoringPostcards at 9:53 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by BoringPostcards at 10:28 PM on March 19, 2005

[I have seen God.]
posted by SteelyDuran at 10:59 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by Democritus at 11:17 PM on March 19, 2005

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.
posted by subpixel at 11:44 PM on March 19, 2005

double post. then again, it's been two years and the original link isn't working...
posted by joedan at 1:03 AM on March 20, 2005

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.
posted by crayfish at 2:43 AM on March 20, 2005

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.
posted by juv3nal at 6:08 AM on March 20, 2005

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?
posted by mediareport at 9:20 AM on March 20, 2005

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.
posted by fungible at 10:24 AM on March 20, 2005

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. :)
posted by blacklite at 10:31 AM on March 20, 2005

(why did I capitalize Overhead Projectors?)
posted by blacklite at 10:31 AM on March 20, 2005

awesome.
posted by blendor at 11:10 AM on March 20, 2005

its a pity that the 19MB link probably put a few people off. That was amazing. And your first fpp too!
Thanks
posted by kenaman at 12:51 PM on March 20, 2005

That was stunning. Thanks for reposting.
posted by DakotaPaul at 4:51 PM on March 21, 2005