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Tender Bodies

James Duesing

2003 00:08:12 United StatesEnglishColorStereo16:9Video

Description

Tender Bodies is a 3-D computer animation that uses the logic of computer games to collapse and reconstruct narrative space. Narrative scenes are connected through a constantly shifting environment of bridges and tunnels. The inhabitants of this landscape are genetically or cosmetically altered. They like to eat and go to parties and experiment on things they don’t understand.

The narrative in the animation involves a number of characters. Kisser is a carnivore that enjoys the act of seduction and consumption. Other is a stranger that is chased down and sold for experimentation since it is too unusual to eat. Faun is a botched genetic experiment, a gene spliced attempt to make a unicorn that resulted in a world-weary solitary figure. These characters live in a wordless environment. They have limited interaction with each other and try to avoid interaction completely. However sometimes the three-dimensional space collapses upon itself and they find themselves face to face.

Tender Bodies was produced using Maya 3D software.

About James Duesing

James Duesing has worked in many forms of animation, from traditional hand drawn and early digital work to 3D and motion capture projects. He has explored animation individually and collaboratively in film and digital forms along with its integration into installation, web eBook and print.

In his book HYPERANIMATION DIGITAL IMAGES AND VIRTUAL WORLDS, animation historian Robert Russett describes Duesing’s work this way: “Characteristically composed of dark fantasy worlds and strange hybrids of animals and humans, Duesing’s digital animation offers comical and eccentric reflections on human interactions and desires in an increasingly violent and polluted world. On one level his imagery is composed of entertaining cartoon-like characters in various kinds of richly rendered environments. On another level his work probes serious sociological issues in a way that is at once provocative and disturbing.”