The University of Wisconsin, Madison

When we arrived at Mark Nelson's Interior Design course at the University of Wisconsin Madison, it was a considerable shift from our project with the elementary school in Mount Vernon.

In Madison, Tiny Circus spent time with two classes in the Design Studies department creating animations. After some conversation about Tiny Circus, animation practices, and the storyboard process, the students got straight to work. In Mark’s class, they collaboratively brainstormed, storyboarded, and animated “A Day in the Life of an Interior Design Student.”

 

Jenny Angus’s class created short animations in small groups. The stories ranged from the love story of French bread and cheese to dancing Army men to a crafty spider (why spin a web, when a hammock is more enticing?).

 

 

On the last day of class we watched and discussed the completed animations. In the context of a design class, we discussed the value of listening to the reactions of people who are removed from the making process: do the animations communicate the stories we were aiming to tell?

      

The films premiered as a part of the Madison Children's Museum Halloween celebration. More on that to come.