The Making of Flux

My interest to make moving images came from watching as a child, 16mm films, especially the Canadian animated films. Then later on, in art school I was able to take part in a film making workshop using simple materials and methods, just drawing on a single sheet of thick paper. This involved several students, each of us improvising a sequence of drawings in front of a video camera. From this point I began to create very simple drawn films, first using one piece of paper and pastels then later on making thousands of drawings and paintings. From 1981 - 1983 I interpreted a piece of choral music by Bach with a spiral motion around a cathedral called Cathedral Forms. However, making the drawings synchronise 1/24th of a second to the sound track restricted the spontaneity of the drawing. So after 3 years in the making of this film I steered away from film, but with a gut feeling I would return.

Being awarded the Dobell Prize for Drawing in 2007 allowed me to focus on a series of drawings based on water and oyster farms on the Hawkesbury estuary. I had studied Chinese calligraphy - Shu Fa, under Young Ming. The synthesis of line and motion in Chinese calligraphy had always fascinated me.The idea to explore the dynamics of line with animation seeded the making Flux . Compared to Cathedral Forms, the drawings for Flux began before the sound track.

Ana Pollak - The Making of 'Flux'

Preparations for Flux started with charcoal on paper.This covered both camera and computer very quickly in charcoal dust, so I switched to an oil medium using bits of found objects such as bristle, sponges, rubber balls and thongs to make a range of textures. While trailing mark making tools and ideas over a year, the multimedia artist, Mark Boliton taught me how to use a computer and animation program.

During the making of Flux, I would start the day listening to music and let the abstract qualities of sound suggest visual ideas. The tempo and spacings in the opening drawings for Flux were suggested by the spaces between the single notes played on piano in Arvo Part’s “ Lamentate”. The changes between each drawing determined the pace and character of the lines. The state of mind I worked in influenced the quality of my drawing - a focused and relaxed mind always produced the best outcomes

Each day in my dark studio I would draw under spot lights - feeling very disconnected from the outside world. The changes between each drawing could take between 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Over 1000 drawings were made for Flux. Every drawing was photographed on a stills camera and automatically stored on computer. Then at the end of each day all the drawings were edited into a moving sequence on the computer.

I hoped that Flux would one day have a soundtrack composed for it with no idea what it would be. When the drawings for Flux were edited into film, its minimal and calm quality suggested a similar treatment for its sound track. By chance I heard a soundscape by Micheal Harding which had a mood similar to Flux. We met up and discussed the properties of the film and after listening to previous soundscapes by Micheal we selected one that he then reshaped into a soundtrack to complement the film.