Herding Cats to Infinity

This paper outlines and contextualises some current findings of an on-going investigation begun in 2009 at the Visual Effects Research Lab (VERL). The three-year project links the worlds of film, art, technology and computer science. In sharing methodologies and promoting cross-, transand inter-disciplinary understanding the project is beginning to challenge established notions of visual thought. The paper explores the issues surrounding the creation of four new high resolution [1] moving image works by contemporary artists. Working in collaboration with VERL the artists were invited to push the lab’s state of the art visual effects facilities and team to their limits. The projects proposed envisioned: impossible ornithological stunts, buildings rising from burning embers, real and imagined robots and visceral fantasy worlds. Towards some initial conclusions the paper explores three questions: 1. In conceiving the works would any coherent themes emerge? 2. Would working with the Lab allow greater flexibility for the artists to create and experiment? 3. Would the potentially oppositional paradigms of film and art be challenged?