Animate Projects invites expressions of interest from early career animation artists to take part in our new programme, MORTAL.

Taking inspiration from the Death Positive Movement, we are seeking to support artists to produce new work that reflects on how death and dying can be rethought, and how matters such as end of life care and planning, handling grief, and funerary practices can be better approached. Artists might consider exploring:

• those who are working to ignite conversation such as organisers of Death Cafes
• advocates for honouring LGBTQ+ identity in end of life care and death
• people who enable us to consider new ways to honour our dead, such as advocates of more ecologically friendly natural burials or water cremations
• individuals who provide support in caregiving and rituals such as death doulas

Following on from our 2023 call PLANTING, we are again looking to commission three early career artists. Each artist will undertake a period of research and development, engaging broadly with the subject and taking inspiration from our partner, social anthropologist Dr Hannah Rumble.

They will then produce a short, animated, single-screen film for presentation online. We encourage experimentation, learning, and creative risk-taking with these projects.

We expect the films to have a running time of up to three minutes including credits. The films will be shown at a public event, online and on Instagram.

There is a £4,000 fee for each artist to cover all production costs and fees. Some additional travel expenses will be covered.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for artists who make visually strong, experimental animation, are interested in engaging with the theme and with our partner.

We want to commission distinct and varied approaches. We’re interested in digital, analogue, and/or hybrid animation techniques. Whilst the work might have a documentary element, we are not looking for straightforward documentaries, explainers, or promotional films.

We ask that you consider sustainability in your production process. Check out Cardiff Animation Festival’s Planet Positive initiative, with information and resources about what the animation industry can do to fight the climate crisis.

There’ll be curatorial and practical support from the Animate team with regular online meetings. We’ll ask artists to document their development and process, and share their experience with each other, and to take part in a public presentation of the project.

Timeline

• 3 June 2024 - call goes live
• 4 July 2024, noon - submission deadline for expressions of interest
• 24 July 2024 - artists selected; applicants notified
• 2 August 2024 - initial online meeting with team, specialist and artists
• August - September 2024 - research and development, treatments submitted
• October - December 2024 - pre-production
• January - May 2025 - production
• May 2025 - online public sharing event as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week
• June 2025 - post, delivery
• July 2025 - films exhibited online
• Summer 2025 - live public event with Q&A with the artists, team and specialist
• September 2025 - evaluation

Throughout the project period, we will schedule online individual mentoring meetings with each artist, and group peer review sessions.

Eligibility

This opportunity is open to early career artists who:

• have experience of making experimental animation
• an interest in exploring the theme of ‘MORTAL'
• are interested in engaging with the partner, and in being part of the project community and sharing their experience in person and online 

Artists must be residents and able to work in the UK. Students in any formal education are not eligible.

You may apply for this opportunity if you previously applied to PLANTING and were unsuccessful. We are unlikely to consider applications from artists that we have previously commissioned.

This opportunity is for early career artists at a critical moment in developing their artistic practice, with curatorial and practical support from the Animate team.

Animate defines “early career”, as artists who have gone some way to establishing their practice, and who have some had some public showcasing experience, but who are still in the early stages of a career.

We recognise that an artist who has been practising for several years, with breaks for personal reasons, may still be considered early career

To apply

Please read these guidelines. Submit your expression of interest through CuratorSpace.

We ask you to provide: 

• Brief statements either written or as a video/audio file:
  • About your artistic practice and relevant experience
  • Telling us why you are interested in MORTAL and what approach you would take to participating in the programme. Please mention any thoughts you have on engaging with the partner or other communities or individuals in its making
  • A short statement on how you would consider sustainability in participating in this programme
• A short CV (two sides of A4)
• Links to relevant examples of previous work (maximum of three previous works).

We are not asking for a fully developed treatment at this stage.

Please complete an equality monitoring form - the data will be anonymised and is used for monitoring purposes only.

The deadline is noon, Thursday 4 July 2024. 

If you have any questions, please contact us through CuratorSpace.

We expect to inform applicants of our decision by 24 July 2024. We regret that we are unable to offer feedback.

We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, and particularly encourage applications from individuals from low-income backgrounds, those who are ethnically diverse or disabled, and anyone else who considers themselves under-represented within the visual arts.

If you have any access needs, or barriers to access that you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to let us know either before applying or as part of your application.

MORTAL partner: Dr Hannah Rumble

Dr Hannah Rumble has 17 years experience as an academic, social anthropologist specialising in death, dying and disposal, both human and the more-than-human. Her research has addressed funeral poverty, the natural burial movement, direct cremation, the lived experiences of bereaved people in coroners’ courts and social care settings, as well as young people's creative responses to death and places of disposal and memory.

She has conducted numerous participatory projects with community-based and charity partners in the heritage sector, adult social care and bereavement support services. Her most recent research as a Co-Investigator with the Institute of Crime and Justice Policy Research, Voicing Loss, focused on better supporting bereaved people in Coronial investigations and at inquest hearings. 

Hannah has co-produced films, art exhibitions and immersive installations with community arts partners, digital designers and filmmakers. Until very recently, she was on the Editorial Board of Mortality journal, was formerly the Early Career Researchers Representative for the Association for the Study of Death and Society and remains a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, and an Associate of the Centre for Death and Life Studies at Durham University.

https://drhannahrumble.com

Animate Projects

Animate champions experiment in animation. Our mission is to engage the public with the creativity and craft of the artform. We do this through developing new work, supporting artists to create thought provoking projects, engaging with audiences across digital and physical contexts, and promoting critical debate.

https://animateprojects.org/