Looping Linocut Animation “Cycle”, 2024

paper, printing ink, linoleum

While studying at Pallas University of Applied Sciences, I discovered two passions – animation and printmaking. Because of this, I decided to combine them in my final project. The cycle theme came from the fact that a four-year cycle at Pallas was ending. As I thought about the topic, I figured I wanted to illustrate the feeling/my perspective of being stuck in a cycle. Therefore, I created a looping linocut animation titled “Cycle”, where each frame is hand-carved and printed in two colours.

To create “Cycle”, I first produced the digital animation and exported all the frames. Then I printed all the frames, copied them onto the lino plates, carved them and started printing. In total, I had to prepare 84 10×10 cm linoleum plates for printing. As a result, I produced 82 signed linocut prints that I photographed and edited into an animation. I also designed a calm but anxious soundscape to create the desired atmosphere. “

“Cycle” had many objectives. Firstly, I combined animation and printmaking to create a looping animation. Secondly, I illustrated my outlook on being stuck in a cycle but still left room for the viewer to create their own emotional connections with the work. My idea behind “Cycle” is that breaking habits is difficult, and despite your efforts, if you don’t fully invest in changing your mindset, you will continue to attract and relive similar experiences. Thirdly, by using repetition and a pause in my animation, I played with the viewer’s attention and expectations. Additionally, using printmaking to create the frames made it so that there are irregularities in every frame which means the viewer can notice something different during every viewing and thus get caught in the cycle. The duration of one “Cycle” loop is 48 seconds, which is the length of the audio cycle. However, one full loop consists of two animated cycles, as the fish and the seaweed loop lasts 24 seconds. My supervisors were Svetlana Bogomolova and Vahram Muradyan.

The diploma work participates in the “Exhibition of the Class of 2024” at Gallery Pallas. At the exhibition, I presented prints alongside the completed animation to illustrate the concept of being stuck in a cycle and to highlight the labour-intensive process of creating frame-by-frame animations, as the general public usually doesn’t grasp the full workload.