Post-UNPLAY Post

Alas, I am back from NYC where I had the very wonderful opportunity to be part of Conrad Tao's UNPLAY Festival, which in my words was an exploration of the classically-trained musician's (or any artist, I like to think) role in the modern world of technology and mainstream ideals. The music was awe-inspiring and I was happy to be surrounded by the people I love the most: young nerdy artists with the most insane ambitions.

I performed June 11th, which was the first day of the three-night festival, Conrad's 19th (yeah, I know) birthday and the release day of his first full-length album "Voyages." There were some technical scares along the way (as always), but it all turned out rather nicely and my extreme gratitude goes out to Conrad and his crew for the opportunity. Here are some records and reviews of the night:

"When Mr. Tao opened with “iridescence,” a bubbly piece for piano and iPad included on “Voyages,” his performance was accompanied with an abstract video by Isabela Dos Santos...Sriracha closed with “i,” a winsome jazz-pop ballad by Kate Davis. Ms. Dos Santos, shadowy behind a translucent screen, danced along with her projected animations..." - Steve Smith, NY Times

The Galerie Project also reviewed that night of the show and said some very nice things about everyone's work, along with providing a couple of Vine clips.

"One of my favorite performances of the night. Isabela Dos Santos performed a live interpretive dance in cooperation with her short animated film, “i.” At moments, Dos Santos seemed to blend into the animated figure she was mimicking." - Dan Ragan

YoungArts also very graciously provided live streaming of that night of the festival, which is now available online for the world to see!

My work was featured in the opening number "iridescence," an experimental animation compiled on VDMX (with the technological support of Matt Broach), which was hooked up to Conrad's equipment so he was the one triggering the images through his piano and iPad. And around the 48-minute mark is my performance of "i" although it's a bit difficult to see me through the scrim on this recording. Conrad rearranged Kate Davis' song and Erika Thompson provided the lovely Beach House-y vocals. I danced.

The rest of the show is even more fantastic, so whenever you're sitting around and want some good music and performance, you should watch it allllllllll. I particularly recommend the second number, "leaves," with Caleb Teicher on percussive dance, and then the one with the trio of toy pianos. It's a cute one.

And finally, thanks to everyone who attended live or online! Hopefully some more exciting things are on the way for this summer, but for now, let's all enjoy the sunshine.

I met a robot at a ballet once, but I can't tell you about it just yet.

Hello from Florida!

It's humid here.

I finally managed to render out an internet-friendly copy of my new animation "I met a robot at a ballet once." but I can't share it with you just yet. Real soon, though, I promise (maybe)! For now, here is a last-line spoiler still from my film (oops):

Does this make you cuuuuurious?

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Also, just a reminder, I'll be flying out to New York City in one week! I'll be there June 6th-14th, and on June 11th for Conrad Tao's UNPLAY Festival I'll be performing my dance/animation creation "i" live (with live music, too!) and also projecting some interactive animation things for Conrad's new original song "iridescence."

Hope to see you there!

News and Things

Hello!

It's time for a more factual update:

First of all, I'm super excited to share that a few weeks ago I received notice that my dance/animation film from last year, "i" was chosen as a Regional Finalist for the Student Academy Awards. COOL. I was very happy to find out, and a little less happy to then hear I did not make it to the final rounds the following week. But I'm so honored to have been a regional finalist that I keep forgetting I didn't win. Because, yay, they like my film!

And more about "i"--

I'll actually be performing it live in New York for Conrad Tao's UNPLAY music festival! Check out more info at this here link here, and also here's a cute photo of me with my projected monster friend from "i" back when we performed it live at CalArts last semester:

I'll also have as part of the festival a new experimental animation to be projected during the performance of Conrad's new original composition, "Iridescence." It's colorful and hypnotic. So, if you're in the area, go to the festival! There's great talent involved, and you get to see me dance.

In other news,

I wrote an extended monologue about time travel that was accepted into the Digital Arts Expo that will be happening at CalArts this Thursday, May 9th! It's my writing debut, I suppose. It'll be fun.

I'm also working on exporting the animation I made as my designated yearly short and it's just a little something along the lines of an animated storybook poem about an existential crisis, entitled "I met a robot at a ballet once."  It'll be screened at the Bijou Festival at CalArts on Monday, May 13th at 10am (good morning!), and also Thursday, May 16th at midnight at the Cinefamily Theater in LA.

Currently,

I am fighting my way through the war zone that is the end of the semester, waiting to hear back from LAIKA about a summer internship, and soon I'll have to pack to head back home to Florida for the summer. Really I'm just ready for some cheesecake and/or raspberries and to lay in bed catching up on RuPaul's Drag Race and sleep.

And to end on something silly and entertaining, here's my semester's project for my motion capture class, with fellow YoungArts alum Kyreeana Alexander's tap dancing turned into bunnies. Cute funny bunnies.

Mini Bunny Cabaret Show from Isabela Dos Santos on Vimeo.

P.S. Do you like how I bolded things that are extra important?

Do the Bunny Hop

I'm not big on violence...

...but our assignment in Stephen Chiodo's class this week was to knock over our character somehow.

Direction/Performance for Stop Motion class assignment: Getting Knocked Over from Isabela Dos Santos on Vimeo.

My apologies, little Isabela.

New Reel for 2013!

How exciting! I made a new reel. In other words: Portfolio Day at CalArts is near. 

I've included a lot of new footage that hasn't previously been pushed around the interent, so, enjoy the new-ness:

2013 Animation Reel from Isabela Dos Santos on Vimeo.

I also suspect some updates to this blog design soon... Hope y'all are having a good month of March!

Life Things

I appreciate that this article doesn't just say, "It'll all be better soon!" but rather that you never know what will happen, that you have to figure out what it is that will keep you happy when you inevitably face those shitty spans of life. I don't know if I know what that is for me yet, but this article made me feel good about the uncertainty of life:

http://jeffjlin.com/2013/02/23/ang-lee-and-the-uncertainty-of-success/