Students in Escola Massana participated in an animation workshop by Laboratorium destined to the realization of short pieces featuring dots and lines as ends in themselves.

Some of their works took part in our 2007 call for entries and six of them were selected for the official competition::

Iris Joval Granollers De Sindh a Bezoar 1’37’’ · color · scratch · 2007 · Barcelona·Spain

Iván Bayo Vigo Syclops 1’12’’ · b&w · op·art · 2007 · Barcelona·Spain

Nashla Abdelnour Glia 3’29’’ · color · scratch · 2007 · Barcelona·Spain

	Daniel Schulze tinto 1.0 1’40’’ · b&w · spotting · 2007 · Barcelona·Spain
	Dina Caball Olivet Punto y línea sobre el plano 1’31’’ · b&w · drawing · 2007 · Barcelona·Spain

Solange Morello Z. Drawn 0.0 1’02’’ · b&w· drawing· 2007 · Barcelona·Spain

Addressed to school children, this open workshop proposes the realization of one or various collective micro·films emulating the technique "direct·on·film animation" that was popularized in the mid·fifties by artists like Norman Mclaren, Len Lye or Stan Brakhage.
This technique requires 16 or 35mm film·strips which, once manipulated, can be edited and screened in situ. Due to the high costs of 35mm film and its projection technicalities, we will use paper strips instead.



Firstly, we’ll draw on cash register paper rolls -as if they were film strips- with markers, paint rollers and/or stamps. We’ll focus on the lengthwise treatment of the drawing, and not so much on the crosswise (frame-to-frame) treatment.

We’ll draw perpendicular lines to demarcate the frames. We’ll then scan or take pictures of these frames, which will be edited and finally, screened. The result will be an abstract free-style collective film playing with dots and lines in constant motion, expansion and transformation.

The workshop will be held in two four-hour sessions on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th of November 2009, from 11.00 AM to 3.00 PM.


: working material

matte paper rolls, markers, colored pens, acrylic paint, anilines, thin pencils, coloured ink, rulers, striker pins, magnifying glass, stickers, finger paints, gouache paint, paint rollers, foam balls, erasers, porex, sponges [to be used as rubber stamps] and some digital cameras.


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with the support of:

Addressed mainly to adults, this open workshop proposes to start out from the WHAT to reach the HOW. That is, contrary to most workshops –which focus on teaching how to use certain tools or techniques- the main issue here is our original concept (the story we want to tell with dots and lines). We’ll then think of the most appropriate tool to realize it.

This workshop call for participation, invites people to bring their own tools for the realization of a dotline short film. Firstly, we’ll do several analog and digital exercises to explore our capability of abstraction; then, we’ll talk about what "dot" and "line" mean for the workshop teachers (we’ll screen our own dotline material...), we’ll throw some starting points and ideas and then, we’ll get down to work! Attendants can use the tools they already had in mind or get acquainted with other tools brought by the teachers or other attendants. Ink on toilet paper, code programming, crayons and markers, colored lights, custom software... all tools and techniques are welcome :)

This workshop will be held in two four-hour sessions on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th of November 2009, from 11.00 AM to 3.00 PM.


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with the support of:

Addressed mainly to families, this open workshop was held within the context of our festival at La Casa Encendida [Madrid] on the 1rst and 2nd of September 2007.

It proposed the realisation of various collective micro·films emulating the technique "direct·on·film animation" that was popularised in the mid·fifties by artists like Norman Mclaren, Len Lye or Stan Brakhage.



This technique requires 16 or 35mm film·strips which, once manipulated, can be edited and screened in situ. Due to the high costs of 35mm film and its projection technicalities, we used instead S·8mm film and paper·strips.

The workshop was focused on moving, expanding and transforming dot·lines and their expressive possibilities, and was held during two consecutive days in four·hour sessions.

1. In the first session we worked directly on a super8mm film·strip, scraping or painting its surface. This quick and ituitive process generated a series of abstract films that helped us understand the basic principles of form and movement. We also gained a better knowledge of the possibilities and resources of diverse animation techniques on paper·rolls.

2. In the second session we made a collective animation drawing on many metres of film and on 80mm·wide register machine's paper [3 or 4 metres of film by person or group, bearing in mind that 3 metres of paper are equivalent to 45 photograms, that is to say, 45 drawings]. Working on an 8cm·wide surface allowed us to create mobile forms with higher precission than when dealing with 8mm·wide film·strips; therefore we could also work on a concept as the transformations took place on the paper·strips.


: working material

Markers, acrylic paint, anilines, thin pencils, colour ink, rulers, striker pins, magnifying glass, super8mm film, super8mm projector, animation table, 8cm·wide paper·rolls, paint rollers, foam balls, erasers, porex, sponges [to be used as rubber stamps].


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with the support of:

and the collaboration of: