Jordan Antonowicz-Behnan

In 2016 Jordan Antonowicz-Behnan graduated from Middlesex University with a personal animated short film Boiled Up. Boiled Up screened at Holland Animation Film Festival and won the High-Risk award at Middlesex University.

After some time travelling and working on experiments in his home in East Sussex, Behnan then found himself making social documentaries in Barcelona. These documentaries all tackled issues relating to social exclusion and bringing a voice to the unheard. Many of these indie productions have been published on news and media platforms. Behnan has returned to making more personal, artistic and self-lead films at the Royal College of Art. Behnan’s studies are supported by the Reuben BAFTA scholarship.

I tend to work in both cultural and social themes, although in my solo work there is more room to explore abstract themes. I like to work through multiple disciplines both digital and analogue. My animation style is very direct, I do not spend much time cleaning my animation, and I feel that working in this manner keeps my ideas fresh. I enjoy playing with cameras and hardware.

My disciplines include animation, art, drawing, installation and documentary. I have been developing my own film language during my time at the Royal College of Art, although I am on the Narrative Pathway on my course, I am employing elements from experimental, documentary and narrative to blend my own form that is appropriate for my current subject matter.

A Taster For Music (Teaser) – This is the teaser/first quarter of my graduation film.

My graduation film is a personal project inspired by my memories and the record collection of my late father.

I have reinvented a traditional animation style by animating on paper and recycled record sleeves thus creating my own film language that works as an emotional tool that has a flickering effect and plays with continuity.

Likewise much of the sound-design in this piece has been assembled by sampling old records in which I have layered my own narration over these samples and recreated new meanings to these old vinyl records.

Medium:

Film, Animation

Size:

16:9

A Taste For Music (stills), Drawings, collage, Animation Frames

I have chosen to show a portion of stills from my graduation film, some of these frames have been selected for the aesthetic appeal or technique and others have a significant meaning to my dad.

I've decided not to crop the frames which differs from the film. This is because I want to show how the film was crafted. There is an immediacy and imperfection to each of the frames selected here.

In these frames you can see how I have composited the images, I decided to do most of the compositing of layers through a scanner and placing the wax crayon, charcoal or photograph directly onto or into each record sleeve to give the viewer an authentic understanding of the materials that were used.

When working with these old sleeves I am removing part of the composition an emotional feeling of emptiness is conveyed here. The sleeves can also act as gateways into past lives and experiences.

Some of the sleeves have markings and titles of tracks written on them. For example, "The Jackson Sisters - I Believe in Miracles" is written on a sleeve that is included in my film. There is a distinction to this, because it not only says something about my dad's taste in music but also acts as a key into dance-floors that exists in past lives.

Medium:

Drawings, collage, Animation Frames

Animated Archive Documentary drawings Experimental film collage Film Photography Music Paper personal Re-made Social Causes

One part of my initial research was looking through my dad's magazine archive collection, previously I hadn't really dived into this magazine collection. I noticed that he had adverts in many of these magazines. Advertising his music releases from his label and his mail order record shop.

Archive Archives Music Newspaper Printing

Jordan Antonowicz-Behnan

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The BAFTA Reuben Scholarship

Social

About

Royal College of Art