OCAD U and Belgian students unveil artistic collaboration at international festival

Six French-speaking students from OCAD University’s Experimental Animation program are headed to Belgium to co-present a large-scale, video-mapped animated projection at an international light festival – the result of a partnership with the Belgian art school, ARTS².

The collaborative project, Transatlantic Connections in Experimental Animation and Digital Arts, is providing students from both institutions with hands-on, professional international experience in creating an innovative artistic projection to be showcased at the Mons de Lumières festival from January 22 to 25.

This initiative is supported by the Government of Ontario through an agreement between the Ministry of Francophone Affairs and the Wallonie-Bruxelles region in Belgium.

The goal of this agreement is to encourage and promote cultural, educational and economic exchanges between the two French-speaking regions based on their shared Francophone and Francophile connections, while fostering a long-term vision for international cultural partnerships. The Ontario Arts Council is providing project management support.

“We’re proud to be partnering on this innovative project, which achieves several important and interconnected outcomes,” says Ontario Arts Council Chair Simon Foster. “Hands-on professional development and networking for student artists – the future of Ontario’s professional arts sector. Bridging Francophone communities to expand new opportunities for collaboration – key for us as an organization that invests more than $4 million each year in Francophone arts. And fostering a long-term vision for international cultural partnerships in which the work of artists and arts organizations is central — as now more than ever, Ontario arts can build Ontario’s global reputation and contribute to diplomatic relations.” 

Since last fall, the participating students at OCAD U have been working virtually with students from ARTS² to create a video-mapping projection – an artistic practice that has surged in recent years as an engaging and immersive visual art form that blends cutting-edge technology with storytelling, urban engagement and cultural programming. 

“This initiative underscores the value of international collaborations in providing students with enriched training and skills-building opportunities that will support them in contributing to the creative economies of their respective countries. It also amplifies the cultural impact of their shared creations,” says Interim Dean of OCAD U’s Faculty of Art Philippe Blanchard, who is co-leading the project with ARTS² professors Martin Waroux and Cédric Sabato.

The collaboration between the 30 students in Experimental Animation, Digital Media and Music Composition from the two schools has resulted in A Particle’s Travel Diary (Carnet de voyage d’une particle), a seven-minute looped video-mapped animation for outdoor projection on large buildings. Below is an image from the animated projection.

This is one of 15 large-scale projections that will transform the city of Mons in Wallonie-Bruxelles, Belgium into a vast luminous place where architectural heritage, culture and imagination intersect under the theme, “Entering the Light: A Need to Illuminate the World.”

A Particle’s Travel Diary, which features an original soundtrack, shows a first-person journey of a light particle from its genesis in the sun to its transformation to oxygen via photosynthesis by an underwater plant.

During its journey, the particle travels through different spaces, interacting with animal and plant life as well as debris left by humans. It flies through the galaxy, the Earth’s atmosphere, the Arctic, the deep ocean and the inside the cells of algae. 

Between pure energy and living matter, A Particle’s Travel Journey invites the viewer to follow its luminous odyssey – an immersive and sensory ballet of matter, where each burst reveals the invisible link between energy, nature and existence.

A VALUABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

“The skills and industry-relevant knowledge that I acquired in my collaboration with the ARTS² school has bolstered my progress not only as a student but also as an artist,” says Zahrah Khurram, one of the six OCAD U students involved with the project. The remaining five are Laura Barbi, Jae Despi, Shannon Halliday, Sophia Poaps, and Aklesiya Yared. 

Each student worked closely with their Belgian peers on different aspects of the project – all in French. For example, Halliday worked with a 3D animation student and a music student from ARTS² to create a scene depicting the deepest parts of the ocean.

“I definitely improved my 2D animation skills, even though I see myself more as a stop-motion animator. It was great practice for that and it was also great practice drawing fish. I think I’ve drawn more fish in the past three months than I have my entire life,” explains Halliday.

For Barbi, the experience of working with an international team will be valuable towards advancing a career in the animation industry and in navigating client relationships and understanding client expectations. She worked with a Belgian student on the Aurora Borealis scene, creating the textures and closing scene as the 2D animator and artist.

“This project involved a mix of 2D and 3D animation, which was my first time trying to combine the two. It was hard but with a bit of brainstorming and advice, we figured out a way to make it look good without destroying any cohesiveness. I want to explore this medium further in future projects to really push my skills to the next level,” says Barbi.

Khurram contributed ideas to the overall brainstorming and stylistic development process. She worked closely and remotely with two Belgian students, contributing drawings and fully rendered style frames to the storyboard as well as 3D textures and 2D animated assets for the final output.

“Often, our team had to go back and rework some elements based on the feedback we received,” says Khurram. “Through trial and error, we were able to find ways to streamline and organize the animation process to adhere to necessary revisions. It is through this process that I gained the technical experience for organizing and improving my workflow to be more flexible and diligent.”

ENHANCING FRENCH-LANGUAGE SKILLS

Barbi, who grew up in Saskatchewan and attended French immersion high school, found speaking French with her Belgian peers easy and all of her learning from high school kicked in and she enjoyed the experience.

For Halliday, working in French has made her more comfortable in using her French-language skills.

Khurram says “through the bilingual approach and remote collaboration, my practice has greatly benefitted from being able to share animation strategies, software knowledge and have professional conversations in French.”

All of the students are excited about festival and meeting their Belgian peers in person to install the projection along with the original soundtrack.

“There is a huge difference between seeing the animated projection on a computer screen and seeing it scaled-up on a large canvas at the festival in person. The auditory and lighting effects, combined with months of visual work, are exciting to present to an audience as much as it will be to experience it myself. The cultural and artistic context of the projection will be most resonant at the festival amongst the other works of art and I am overjoyed to be able to experience it firsthand,” says Khurram.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS

OCAD University

Located in downtown Toronto, OCAD University is Canada’s largest and oldest art and design university. It is a world-famous hub for art, design, digital media, research, innovation and creativity. Students benefit from hands-on practice-based learning and have access to state-of-the-art shops and studios for both traditional and digital creation. Alongside a diverse and supportive team of instructors and peers, students gain employable skills. Graduates work in different sectors such as urban planning, environmental design, gaming, film, animation, publishing, illustration, graphic design, visual arts and arts administration.

ARTS²

ARTS² is an Academy of Arts directly supported by the Ministry of College Education of Belgium’s French community. Its mission is to train interpretive and creative artists in its three fields of expertise: Visual Arts, Music and Theatre. The Academy is guided by two fundamental principles: acquiring mastery of techniques, the intellectual knowledge and the knowhow and interpersonal skills related to the domain chosen by the student; and event-driven artistic practice embedding the training program in a continuous way by means of projects related to the cultural world/sphere.

Ontario Arts Council 

The mandate of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), the province’s primary funding body for the arts, is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Since 1963, the Council has helped artists and arts organizations to realize their creative visions, build careers and audiences, and bring arts activity to communities of all sizes across Ontario. The OAC leads the way for all Ontarians to access and embrace the arts as vital to life, the economy and community. 

Government of Ontario

The Government of Ontario is supporting this project as it falls under the scope of the agreement signed between the Ministry of Francophone Affairs and the Wallonie-Bruxelles region in Belgium.