nik

I’m really excited to announce my animated anthology film, Witness! This short film is comprised of various organima studies that I’ve made so far, and it will be premiering at festivals throughout the year. Working on these experimental micro shorts over the last 2 years was an extremely fulfilling and eye opening experience. I owe a big infinite thanks to all of the friends who helped bring the sounds, materials, design, and life to this project. Together we engraved stone, built a paper brick, carved through wood, removed and reapplied a leaf’s flesh, dropped water drops, and bent light into beings. The film strings together these animated studies with an additional narrative. It will be available for online viewing after it is done in festivals. Official Selections: May 06-11 @anifilmfestival (Liberec, Czech Republic) May 26-31 @sommetsducinemadanimation (Montreal, Canada) Jun 19-22 @fest_anca (Žilina, Slovakia) Jun 24-29 @utahartsfest Fear No Film (Salt Lake City, Utah)

For our recent brand film, we brought in Nik Arthur to bring the spark to life. "I had the chance to do some animations for the new Cosmos brand film. The film is about inspiration, about holding onto this fickle and elusive sensation that feels increasingly more difficult to find in the first place. I thought about the very first human spark ever, and the materials and phenomena around fire: stone, charcoal, wood, and reaction. I used charcoal from an old campfire, drawing on a rock to depict stones smacking together. I used the real chemical reaction from igniting steel wool to create those sparks. To depict fire, I drew burn marks onto maple wood with a torch, so that fire really depicted itself. I spent 6 weeks with Kayli waiting for a pathos vine to wither away, and did indeed give myself a paper cut, then projected it onto my wall a bunch of times. This project was really fun. I actually, truly, felt that fabled spark again while trying these ideas. Another way of keeping that spark alive is sharing it with others. Thank you so much to Kayli for the support during this project, especially in babysitting the vine as it took an astonishing amount of time to dry up. And to Aidan and Andy for giving me the freedom to explore." Words and animation by @nikarthur

🛎️ Animation for @kotn with some of the materials for @beitkotn thanks @bynkmedia and shoutout @spacon.studio for their beautiful work

Titles + credits for @realcoleworld Two Six @nikarthur had discovered this ignition process earlier this summer. We started with the letterforms and material tests. After I passed Nik the type, Nik + Kayli shaped steel wool into our numerals-careful to maintain equal density within the form so that it would burn correctly. The sculpted wool was ignited using the exposed end of an alkaline battery. The credit typography was textured with a print + mist process [water], and both tactile worlds were composited in post together for the end credit sequence. a beautiful marriage 💒 thank you to our animation assistant @kaylikoonar artist manager @ploeg_arts creative director @simonchasalow + post producer @ap.mov

hey. Earlier this year I had the chance to make some animated support material for the annual @rearc.institute conference on sustainable architecture. My idea was to treat found natural objects as microcosms, considering the way water would naturally flow through them as rivers. So I basically watched water drying on rocks for a couple of weeks, and ended up with this. 🌑 I got to work alongside @emi.taka.hashi and @michelllekuan who managed the creative direction and design for the conference. I really like the design system they put together for this. Additional images by @felipemazzucatto

Animated logo for @noschtstudios & my brother @kostakolev that i made with gallium a while ago. I had fun playing with sound design for it recently (there is a purring cat somewhere in there).

Some fabric animations and support inserts for @oddli directed by @kimsauce and @sadierwilking .. i also played with some sound design I forgot to take bts on this one so imagine me pouring a can of beans onto my scanner. 🫘🪡✌️

Recently I was asked to animate with a sunflower for a @girlinred tour visual. During my research and experimenting I realized that the fibonacci sequence, which governs the pattern of the sunflower’s florets, makes for a perfect phenakistoscope. As I time-lapsed the flower wilting, I spun it around and the result was this natural evolving floret animation. Kayli and I added some sound design using noises from the 🌻 Big thanks to @kaylikoonar for the help, to @humanprsn for the opportunity, and @isakuzumaki . And to the 8 sunflowers that populated my studio and scanner bed.

hellloooo instagram. updates: we got into @edfilmfest ! and some other cool new ones. Here is a poster (anyone want one?). Also dom redid my studio, her and jeff did dinner on the roof, im working on a film about splashes. also pictured: inflatables, ducks, cakes, car, and more. its summer- hope you’re well! Thanks so much to the best emi and anna for helping design and print the poster 🪨📃🖨️ Sep 08-14 - Viborg Animation Festival (Viborg, Denmark) Aug 14-20 - Edinburgh International Film Festival (Edinburgh, United Kingdom) Aug 06-10 - Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (Portland, United States) Jun 19-22 - Utah Arts Festival Fear No Film (Salt Lake City, United States) Jun 24-29 - Fest Anča International Animation Festival (Žilina, Slovakia) May 26-31 - Les Sommets du cinéma d’animation (Montreal, Canada) May 06-11- Anifilm International Festival of Animated Film (Liberec, Czech Republic)

SZInsect 📢🪲 A couple months ago I was asked to make some bug-like animations for @sza ’s GNX tour. I found some different patterns bugs make on different natural materials, like bark eating beetles and leaf miners. To recreate these marks, I became the bug, and worked away at these shapes little by little. I also mimicked the wing veins of winged insects using a leaf skeleton. It was a good time. Unfortunately, most of this didn’t get used, but that’s how these things go! I reformatted it for fun and added some sounds. Thanks to the team, and to Emi for putting me onto the beautiful patterns of bark eating beetles. ✌️

At the beginning of the year I had the opportunity to turn into an ice cube while shooting and animating this music video for @helena_deland ‘s song Silver and Red. I stayed at @portwilliamsound for a few days and tried to ‘respond to the land’, which ended up being following the interesting bubbles and ice formations of a nearby frozen over creek. I wrote a lot about this experience on my substack, where you can also see the full video, if you care to know more 🧊✌️🧊 also the insane title at the end is the work of @annac_chandler

Out now on our Liner Notes blog: an extensive interview with close friends and collaborators @emi.taka.hashi and @nikarthur , who work in lockstep with nature and music to conjure new art forms and stories. Read the full article on notes [dot] catalog [dot] works. Written by @siberspaceee 📓 Like many others, we’ve been in awe of Emi’s and Nik’s work for years. They enlist leaves, UV, vines, fungi, stone, streams, and gifted musicians (@hinakoomori , @ghostorchard , @ouri.riou , @sax.inthecity , @will.miller , @jonah____________ ) to honor the life force in everything around us. Featured work, in order of appearance: Slide 1: Supercut of Emi & Nik’s work by Siber; score by Ghost Orchard. Slide 2: Excerpt from “Leaf Galls” (Organima 3) by Emi & Nik; score by Hinako Omori. Slide 3: Excerpt from Ksha-sha (Organima 7) by Emi & Nik with Masumi Rodriguez @_masu and Elena Kirby; score by Ivy Boxall. Slide 4: Excerpt from Ghost Orchard’s “Jessamine” video by Emi & Nik. Slide 5: Excerpt from Dodeda (Organima 4) by Nik; score by Will Miller. Slide 6: Excerpt from Hinako Omori’s “A Journey” video by Emi. Slide 7: Excerpt from Nik’s physarum polycephalum research for Dominic Fike’s “Slime”; creative direction by Jack Begert and Reed Bennet; additional contributions by Toko and Enoch of Moneyphone. Thank you for reading, watching, listening.