Interview: Cyriak Harris
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Cyriak Harris is from 100 years into the future, where he has been exhumed and sent backwards in time via cyberspace in order to welcome you to the unabridged contents of his brain-damaged imagination. He lives now as a British freelance animator and is known for his surreal and often disturbing short web animations. In November 2011 he won Best Budget Dance Video at the UK Music Video Awards as director for "We Got More" by Eskmo.
_ Hi Cyriak, how are you today?
I'm very well thanks for asking.
_ What are you working on right now?
I'm between projects at the moment, so this is what I call my 'inspiration development period' where I try and think of new ideas while being distracted by the internet and endless cups of tea.
_ Would you mind sharing a picture of your work area with us?
My current work area is in a chaos that I would rather not share, but I would describe it as a battlefield in a war between biscuits and crisps.
_ What kind of education do you have, or are you a self-taught?
I studied animation in art college, although they mainly taught us how to make storyboards which I hardly ever use for my own films. As far as animating goes, I learned most of what I know through trial and error, experimentation and observation.
_ Which tools do you use to create your animations?
I mainly use Adobe After Effects, which is like photoshop for videos.
_ Your work is very weird, individual and rich in detail. Do you have some kind of philosophy behind your concepts?
The main goal behind most of my films is to take something familiar and twist it into something alien. For this reason I like to work with photos and video footage, as it gives a realness to the imagery that can then be perverted.
_ What (or who) inspires you?
I take a great deal of inspiration from things I find strangely disturbing or inexplicably hilarious, usually things fall into both categories at once. I also like to explore mathematical principals such as repetition, tessellation and fractal geometry.
_ When does a project get interesting for you?
The most interesting commissions are the ones that give me an open brief to do whatever I want. In the case of music videos it also helps if I like the music, given that I will have to listen to it all day every day for a month.
_ How do personal projects contribute to your artistic development? My personal projects are where I am free to experiment with ideas and techniques, so it is important to keep doing them even if they don't make me as much money as paid work. It also means I can concentrate more on making what I want to see, without worrying about people liking it. Although it is always a bonus if they do like it!
_ You use all kinds of animals in your work. Why? I grew up in the countryside surrounded by all kinds of animals, there is something about their tragic stupidity that makes them perfect cartoon characters. That and the fact you don't need to ask their permission to film them.
_ Do you have animals at home? I don't have any animals myself, apart from the spiders that lurk in the dark corners of my room. I do live near a lot of farms though, so I have plenty of access to cows.
_ You are not only doing animations, but also compose (electronic) music yourself. How important is music for you? I've been messing around with music-making for many years, long before I started making animation. I've never considered it to be anything more than a hobby, but its personal to me so it makes sense to use it for my animations. Its all about getting stuff out of my head and into other people's, whether they like it or not.
_ Last question: How will the future be? Like the present, only with more stuff and less space to put it all.
Intervju: Astrid Feldner, Bleed.