Events Calendar

PIKA PIKA: Light-Animation Workshop

Admission is free and open to USC students, staff and faculty and their guests ONLY. Guests must check in with their USC participant. Valid USC ID required.

Check-in will begin at 6:15 p.m. in the SCA Courtyard at 900 W. 34th St. Please arrive by 6:45 p.m. The workshop will begin promptly at 7 p.m. Reservations are not necessary and participants will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that the reception will be for workshop participants only.

Join us for a fun and low-tech light-animation workshop dubbed “PIKA PIKA” by the Japanese artists who created it. Artists Kazue Monno and Takeshi Nagata, known collectively as TOCHKA, have propelled this exciting new art form into a global phenomenon. Using simple flashlights, TOCHKA will guide participants to “paint” colorful animations with light in an outdoor setting. TOCHKA’s goal is to bring joy and inspire people to work together across cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences. Flashlights will be provided.

A reception will follow featuring projections of PIKA PIKA animations, including those created during the workshop.

About the Artists

Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno, a.k.a. TOCHKA, have been creating music videos, short animated films and comics for about ten years. After graduating from the Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2000, their artistic collaboration began with works of frame-by-frame clay animation and hand-drawn short animated movies. From there the duo shifted toward an experimental approach to computer graphics–based imagery. They are best known for their light-animation projects. Using simple flashlights, LEDs and long exposures with a digital still camera at night, they create colorful, playful doodle animations. They have received numerous awards and have screened their work at major animation festivals, including the Mostra-Mundo Festival in Brazil, the Annecy International Animation Festival in France, the New York Film Festival, the Platform International Animation Festival in the United States and the Japan Media Arts Festival.

Organized by Lisa Mann, Trixy Sweetvittles and Richard Weinberg (Animation & Digital Arts).

For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu

Location: School Of Cinematic Arts (SCA) -

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Daria Yudacufski