Out of three animations by Miwa Matreyek, 'The circus, The factory and Digitopia'; the animation digitopia is the one chosen. It contains a lot of different factors and scenes, each portraying something different, but when it is put together it represents something as a whole. It is something, something unique; the way Miwa has created the animation conveys a special message, each person interprets it differently, but that is the way art should be.
Miwa Matreyek created the animation Digitopia in 2005. The animation mainly focuses on hands and eyes, but objects such as mountains, people and the head of a person are also included. It also contains cities, hands with sticks in them and technology such as microwaves, stereos, and computers. Hands with Palmistry and acupuncture points, as well as teeth, crowns and a science kit containing a microscope, DNA, a needle, the circulatory system and some test tubes are also included in the animation. When the animation was first seen, the viewer doesn’t understand what is going on, this is because there is a lot going on in each scene the viewer cannot absorb that much information at once. The main colours in the animation are black, white and blue; the black and white colours are usually the objects that are moving while the light blue is used for the sky. The time of day cannot be determined by the animation, as for all of the outdoor scenes the sky is always a light blue, signalling that it is always day. The overall mood of the animation gives the viewer the first time they watch it a creepy feeling as they don’t fully understand the animation, and what it is suggesting.
The black and white colours could be used as a metaphor, ‘everything is black and white,’ this can be seen as suggesting that the animation is black and white, that what you see is what there is. The blue of the sky then could be the grey area, so to the audience that view this animation on a shallower level it would be that everything is black and white; however, to the audience that view this on a deeper level can see that the blue represents the grey area. The colour blue can also represent hope and peace; however, it can also convey sadness and sorrow. By using the colour blue, the animator produces many different meanings. The artist was making a statement in her work, she was suggesting that not everything is always how it first seems. To the viewer the animation can be seen as representing something that is not Utopia, that Miwa has used the song in a sarcastic way, as everything in that world is more of a dystopia. The eye in the first scene shows that whatever you do someone is always watching, the data collected by the eye in the first scene is submitted into the brain of the person in the second scene. The person then transmits the signals to the hands, which transmits the signals to other hands in the city. Everything is black and white, showing that it is quite a boring place. The next scene, you see people in hands, this shows that they are like troops, continuously moving around and making sure everyone is doing the right thing. The person in the next scene has her arm changing into a sort of screw, representing that not everything is always as it seems, as people can change. The overall animation relates to everyone’s life as it is suggesting that not everything is as it seems, and what may seem in the beginning perfect, is often not the case. The hand with the palmistry and acupuncture points suggest that the hands are alive. The animator chose this type of animation, as it allows her to involve many different techniques and have lots of things going in one scene.
The work as a whole uses clever animation skills and conveys an important message to society. It has a lot of meaning and conveys numerous ideas. Although all the scenes together create a beautiful animation, feelings about it differ from person to person. As the animation contains many ideas, it is a very controversial piece of work.
Here is the video for digitopia by Miwa Matreyek:
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