a short presentation comparing and contrasting artists Don Hertzfeldt and Thorne Brandt

1. DON HERTZFELDT
&
THORNE BRANDT
PRESENTATION BY NOEL JOHNSON

2. DON HERTZFELDT
• Don Hertzfeldt is an award winning animator
born in California. He is best known for his stick-
figure animation style and dark, slapstick, and
absurd subject matter. He usually utilizes what
can be considered more analog techniques to
execute his animations by photographing his
drawings with 35-mm film cameras and creating
effects solely using outside light sources and
experimental photography. However, he has
delved into the use of digital animation in his
most recent short film “World of Tomorrow”.

3. THORNE BRANDT
• Thorne Brandt is a Chicago-based multimedia
artist who is known for is collage style and use
of more modern mediums, such as gifs. One
such example is his Tumblr page, the gif
connoisseur
(http://thegifconnoisseur.tumblr.com/).

4. COMMON MOTIFS
• Uncertainty
• Subjective Perception of Time and Reality
• Ontological Actuality

5. AGOD
https://vimeo.com/43162372
Summary:
• The title of this piece is an acronym for Animated Gif Of the Day. In this five minute video Thorne
Brandt layers animated gifs on top of one another. However, this was not done in one go. Brandt, each
day, layers a new gif into the video. He considers this work organic in the sense that it never reaches a
point of total completion since a new layer is added and the piece is ever changing, even slightly. The
piece began in 2012, and as far as observation can tell, is still ongoing today.
Analysis:
• Touches on subjects of: Uncertainty, Entropy, and Subjective Perception

6. WORLD OF TOMORROW
Summary:
• “World of Tomorrow” is a short film spanning 16 minutes following the story of
Emily, or more so the stories that Emily shows to herself. A third-generation
clone of Emily from 227 years into the future from when this film is set travels
through time in order to show what is known as “Emily prime” her memories as
a clone as well as what she knows as modern societal norms. However, when
retrieved “Emily prime” is incredibly young and is shown as having an inability
to understand what is truly happening. They cover several memories such as
clone Emily’s love stories, jobs, and the inevitable end of the world.
Analysis:
• Several scenes and concepts cover the motifs mentioned as well as the idea of
a struggle between true existence through body or through mind.
• Particular scenes and concepts include: The times “Emily prime” mistakes clone
Emily’s memories as her own, The consciousness cubes and their respective
scenes, The moon robots and their depressed poetry, and clone Emily’s love
story.
Backup link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWeGcWDmnIQ

7. RESOURCE LINKS
• https://thedissolve.com/features/interview/980-animator-don-hertzfeldt-on-not-trusting-happy-peop/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hertzfeldt
• http://www.fountainheadresidency.com/thorne-brandt/
• http://pizzadog.org/