MOOZ – on moving images and audiovisual arts
Aviarium
Aviarium
Arne Münch
2008, 3:51 min.,16:9, color
2008, 3:51 min.,16:9, color
Direction, screenplay, animation, sound and music: Arne Münch
Advisors: Stéphanie Beaugrand, Prof. Raimund Krumme
Production: Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Birds live in dreamlike, surreal landscapes in a postindustrial world. They cross through places that are simultaneously delicate and raw, fantastic and cruel, seemingly in search of something that they already have within themselves.
Arne Münch does not use storyboards in his animations. Thus the visual composition is not determined by a sequence of events defined beforehand but instead unfolds gradually. For Avarium he at first had only an image in his mind: birds in an apocalyptic-seeming world that must find their place, in the process exuding loss as well as dignified strength. While developing the initial imagery he was also in search of other visual ideas in his direct surroundings, in his imagination, or in the half-dream state before falling asleep. The final version then came together in interplay with the music he composed and the sound design. In the editing process he moved material back and forth until it yielded a harmonious overall picture for him.
In Arne Münch’s animations naturally organic and technically mathematical elements are of constant influence. In Avarium the rapport between these elements plays an important role. On the one hand there is the bleak and threatening postindustrial world and on the other is the surreal and fantastical world of birds, plants, and fish in plastic bags. Both worlds appear to melt together. There is no distinction between them. Everything merges together and finds its place.
In his degree project Floating Point the interplay between organic and technical elements became the central theme. Here the movements of natural phenomena like wind, water, clouds, or smoke are recorded and then used to control digitally created objects. Arne Münch explains his fascination for this theme: “In each life form and every cell there are mathematical building blocks and structures. At the same time all things technical, mathematical, and digital ultimately consist of organic, natural materials and are conceived from a natural entity, the human mind. I wonder whether a distinction between the two can really be made?”
Text — Daniel Sondermann
Arne Münch was born in 1981 in Kiel. He lives in Cologne. In addition to his artistic work in the field of animation/sound he works freelance as a visualFX and motiongraphics designer. Undergraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, from 2005 to 2010, with a focus on computer animation, postproduction, compositing, flash design, sound design, and film music. His degree project was the experimental computer animation Floating Point.
© ARNE MÜNCH
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ABOUT MOOZ
MOOZ—on moving images and audiovisual arts—is a virtual place for artistic projects of the Academy of Media Arts, known also far beyond the KHM. The platform for close-up views of projects and productions of different time periods, works with the principle of reflection: MOOZ mirrors the complex sequences and formats, and reflects back into the virtual spaces what has not yet been perceived or what has just been produced. MOOZ also changes perspective: It's not just about looking at and in the predominantly short, audiovisual forms and discoveries about vlog, found footage, essay film, documentary and performative formats, abstract and experimental, installative arrangements, but with which lens, which focus, which zoom the moving image works look back on the equally different and polyphonic world of the users.
The reflection principle of MOOZ can also be understood programmatically: because each project is reflected by a different voice who thinks with the artistic work, directs a specific focus on it and stimulates the viewer to make their own projections.
