MARCH 2012 |
With little more than 3 weeks left until we all gather in Berlin for the world's largest celebration of contemporary character culture, it's about time for the ingredients to snap into place. Which is exactly what they are starting to do... The Festival kicks off on Wednesday the 11th of April - one day prior to the Conference - with the Character Walk, a collective stampede through numerous exhibitions, installations and group shows within the center of Berlin. Enjoy the elaborate craftsmanship and graphical boldness of Ben Newman's masks, expose yourself to the lovingly detailed oil paintings and murals of Jon Fox, get entangled in the Mesoamerican web of this year's artist in Residency Melissa Godoy Nieto, witness Billy and Low Bros collaboratively turning an abandoned gasoline station into an urban forrest and dive deep into the post-digital delights of Nina Braun, Nick Sheehy, Henning Wagenbreth or Jordan Metcalf... |
Printed Character Walk maps are awaiting you for your convenient navigation at all participating galleries - or simply go with the flow. However, on the evening of the 11th we expect you for the first Pictoplasma get-together in one of Berlin's most beautiful, classic ballrooms, including old-school table phones, ongoing balloon twisting with Will de Faria and the happy tunes of DJ Treu. But beware: the next morning sees the opening of an incredibly dense Conference program, which will pretty much keep you busy until Sunday morning - so please try to stock up on some sleep in advance. |
From April 12 - 14, with endless inspiration, eye-candy and visual virtuosity chasing each other on two stages during the corse of 3 days, this year's Conference promises to be the one event in 2012 you can not afford to miss. |
Additional input awaits you every afternoon at the nearby Character Lab, ranging from the art of hand built animation graphics with Lucas Zanotto; a behind the scenes of the pixel-bliss shooter app 'Ready Steady Bang' by Animade; in-depth micro-marketing tips and tricks by Etsy, on how artists can successfully build up and reach their specific audience; and the animistic joy of adding character creation to Kodachrome photography by Aaron Leighton. |
Besides the chance to rub shoulders with today's avant-garde talent during personal artist talks and presentations, the eye-widening feast of jewels-only animation screenings and the happy exhaustion of a city-wide exhibition marathon, this year is also, more than ever, all about getting your hands dirty with an extended offer of workshops and jam sessions. |
This it is your unique chance to collaborate with soft-sculpture specialist Joshua Ben Longo on the Biggest Felt Monsters ever, join the 8 headed art-collective Jeanspezial on their mission to infuse some contemporary cool into the craft of Linocut, or add your own creation to a growing crypto-zoological inventory during daily Sound Creatures live drawing classes with David Kamp and Miss LaLaVox. |
Mark Gmehling, indisputable master of contortionistic 3D illustration, sure knows how to tame the software without becoming its victim. In an exclusive, 2 hour class he will share his knowledge and lead 20 attendees through the process of creation, providing step by step advice on how to translate a plane 2D sketch into the imaginary third dimension. |
Want to join? Simple, if you act fast: All those who have managed to REGISTER ONLINE for the Pictoplasma Conference 2012 until the end of this month will receive a personal email on the 2nd of April, with details and exact instruction on where and how to sign up for the limited workshops. First come - first served! While we now plunge head first into the 3 last weeks of final preparations, you are left with slightly less time to make up your mind and snap into action: All of the above and more is yours if you head on over to pictoplasma.com - where your all-inclusive total character immersion ticket is awaiting you!
Counting the days, peter and lars |
Pictoplasma, Littenstr. 106 / 107, 10179 Berlin, Germany | pictoplasma | Facebook | Twitter |
This month's eye candy - from top to bottom: 1) main conference venue Babylon - we obviously photoshopped in the "2012" / 2) post-digital chickens by Nick Sheehy / 3) mural collab by Billy & Low Bros / 4) co-speaker Toby by Gary Baseman / 5) speaker Gemma Correll plus pets / 6) No eyes? Joshua Ben Longo! / 7) Insuries expected at workshop / 8) Mark Gmehling illuminating third dimension If you wish to be removed from the Pictoplasma newsletter, feel free to unsubscribe HERE or simply send us an email with "no more plasma" in the subject line and we'll respect your decision. |