LAUREN HOUSEGO

INANITION

Media: Stop-motion animation

Time: 2 minutes 19 seconds

A stop-motion animation inspired by the absurdist play The Zoo Story by Edward Albee.

The themes of the play include isolation, compartmentalisation and failed communication. The play is based in New York and involves a conversation between the working-class Jerry and upper-middle class Peter that ends in violence.

Jerry lives in a high-rise apartment block, has no friends, and doesn’t know anybody in his building, highlighting the loneliness and isolation in modern existence, despite our physical proximity living in cities.

The animation encompasses the themes of the play, dealing with the emotional distance between people in modern society contrasted against our physical proximity, this emotional deprivation is embodied in the emaciated appearance of the characters.

The minimalist aesthetic communicates their isolation, and having just two characters highlights the disconnection between them; they co-exist but do not interact. The animation plays on the idea of cycles and suggests the characters are trapped by their environment and their own behaviour.