Max's Blog

Trouble Bros.

2008-06-29T13:13:00.003+01:00

Here's a couple of crims up to no good on da streetz...
They're going to be on display with some more of my new characters in the bar at Greenwich Picturehouse throughout the whole of August.

Je suis Bob l'eponge

2008-04-15T18:34:00.006+01:00

I find it's always helpful to have a stupid phrase when travelling to non-English speaking countries. And I've discovered that 'I am Spongebob Squarepants' seems to be universally amusing so I'm making it my mission to learn it in as many languages as possible. So far I have:

French - Je suis Bob l'eponge
German - Ich bin Spongebob Schwammkopf
Spanish - Soy Bob Esponja
Korean - Na nun Sponge man
Japanese – watashiwa suponnji bobu desu (Thanks Erin)
Estonian – Mina olen Käsna-Kalle (Thanks Ing)

Can anyone help me learn some more?!
Let me know in the comments below and I'll add them to the list. We can build up a hugely useful resource for travellers.

By the way, you can't just use an internet translation tool as Spongebob has many different pseudonyms and I'm looking for what he's called on the telly box in your chosen country.

Double Trouble!

2008-03-03T19:17:00.001Z

I'm just back from Bristol where Screentest: The National Student Film Festival was held this weekend.
It was a great event and 'I am Ahab' picked up 2 awards! One for Best Animation and the other for Best Music Video. That's 2 years in a row that my knitimations have won best animation. whoop whoop. I guess knitting really is taking over the world. mwah hahaha. If you haven't seen Ahab in action yet then you can watch it here.

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Better late than never...

2008-02-01T17:43:00.000Z

Here's the show reel that I put together at the end of the 3 month animation course in Bristol in December. It was a fantastic course and I learnt plenty of animation skills which I'll be putting to good use in my next knitimation!

And here's some of the other students work that are on youtube. Lots of variety!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=biuJotTBo9Y

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X3xiWIfPmAs

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ_fRRDxWh8

Knitted animation gets serious

2007-11-25T15:17:00.000Z

I'm outsourcing my knitting to puppets now. They seem to be pretty good at it...

Learning to run

2007-11-01T21:00:00.000Z

This week I am mostly having difficulty learning to run and walk with 4 legs. But last week I think I did a reasonable job of walking with 2 legs, or at least an amusing job... See for yourself:

By the way, this is all because I'm at The Bristol School of Animation trying to improve my knitimation skillz before I use them to make a bid for world domination... or something like that.

Eyeball Workshops

2007-10-27T11:46:00.000+01:00

The Affordable Art Fair was last weekend and there was knitting and crochet mania. Eyeballs and blood went everywhere. It was all under the guise of workshops to coincide with National Knitting Week and create more gore for my Bear's cauldron in the sculpture 'A Job for a Bear'. Much fun was had by all and we converted many new people to the yarn arts. At the end of it all the bear was sold and has a lovely new home to continue working his cauldron magic in.

Here's a picture of my stand in the recent graduates section where you can see the crowds flocking around the knitted plinth to watch my animation 'I am Ahab'. The other is of me teaching a spot of knitting. And a big thank you goes to I Knit for providing yarn, knitting needles and crochet hooks to make the Horror Knitting workshops possible.

A Job for a Bear

2007-09-20T18:02:00.001+01:00

Here's a photo of my latest sculpture 'A Job for a Bear'. He's in charge of stirring the eyeball cauldron.

You'll be able to see him in real life at The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park from Thursday 18th - Sunday 21st October.
He'll be alongside Monster Head and I am Ahab in the Recent Graduates section. If you're around come and stare into the eyes of gore!

Crocheted Plastic Bag Laptop Sleeve

2007-06-22T22:49:00.000+01:00

Check out this laptop case I crocheted from plastic bags. It's made from the best colour! And I'm recycling and saving the world and all that blah. If you'd like to make your own just leave a comment and I'll post a tutorial for you.

In related news here's a tutorial about how to make your own plastic bag yarn. It's easy and fun, hurrah! Also have a look at this round up of all the ways to turn your plastic bags into cool stuff on Treehugger.

Camberwell Degree Show - Last Day!

2007-06-22T22:01:00.000+01:00

My knitimation 'I Am Ahab' has been showing at my degree show all week to rave reviews... If you haven't been to see it yet then tomorrow (Sat 23rd) is your last chance to marvel at it in it's knitted plinth housing. Here are some photos of the crowds enjoying themselves if you can't make it. It's on the 4th floor (Sculpture dept.) at Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Road. I'll be there in the afternoon invigilating/answering all your knitimation questions. See you there!

New Knitimation is finished!

2007-06-16T23:32:00.000+01:00

I've finished the video for 'I am Ahab' by Not-Too-Distant-Future. It's currently on display at my degree show at Camberwell College of Arts. You can go and see it in it's lovely knitted plinth from Tuesday 19th June to Saturday the 23rd. Or you can watch it now in all it's YouTube glory! Let me know what you think...

Cloud in a box

2007-06-04T15:21:00.000+01:00

I went to see the Anthony Gormley show Blind Light at The Hayward Gallery today. He made a cloud in a box! It was much fun and very spooky seeing people disappear right in front of you. I highly recommend visiting it before it closes on the 19th August and then you can take some spooky pictures like this one.

Knitted Animation Progress

2007-05-14T16:46:00.000+01:00

I Am Ahab is about a week away from completion and I know you're all waiting on tenterhooks for the big day... maybe. Anyway here's a sneaky shot of the whale to keep you going.

Woman's hour again...

2007-04-20T16:07:00.000+01:00

In Radio 4 news the woman's hour piece was broadcast this morning. If you missed it you can listen again. And for amusement purposes only you may like to hear our first outing on woman's hour in 2003 here. The photo is of Ron Fuller's Viking from the Cabaret show at Kinetica. Nicked from Chris O'Shea's Flickr photoset.

And on the knitimation side of things, normal service has resumed on the filming of I am Ahab after a short break. It will be finished in about 3 weeks because if it's not my degree show might look a bit empty...

Radio 4

2007-04-16T16:59:00.000+01:00

This morning I recorded an interview with my mum and gran for Women's hour on Radio 4. We were talking about the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre exhibition at Kinetica in Spitalfields market. It's going to be broadcast this Friday so make sure to listen in and be amused by whatever nonsense I was spouting in my seriously jetlagged state! In the meantime here's a picture of me in the most amazing tea shop in the world. It had tiny little birdies flying around inside! More on Day 6 of the seoul photos.

Jokes in Seoul

2007-04-11T12:47:00.000+01:00

Well here I am in South Korea setting up a Cabaret Mechanical Theatre exhibition at The Seongnam Arts Centre in Seoul. It opens tomorrow. Here's a picture of some automata that me and Steve made in a spare moment!
You can see more photo's of the trip so far here:

Day 6
Day 5
Day 4
Day 3
Day 2
Day 1

Fun stuff!

And the winner is...

2007-03-05T15:37:00.001Z

The Knitties! Hurrah! It won the award for Best Animation and was nominated for Best Music Video and Technical Expertise at The National Student Film Festival this weekend. I got a copy of Avid Xpress Pro and a bottle of King Cobra beer pictured here in the obligatory cheesy grin photo. I also got a smart little glass trophy! It was a really great event, all very professional and The Knitties was shown on a cinema size screen, which was, like, totally the greatest thing ever. The thank yous go to Thea for making me enter in the first place and The Stabilisers for having such an awesome song for me to make the video for. If you still haven't seen The Knitties you can watch it here or here.

Film festival action

2007-02-27T19:29:00.001Z

The National Student Film Festival is on in Bristol this weekend. Check out all the info on their website. If you're in the area come and see some awesome films! I'm going to be there having some jokes because The Knitties is being shown and perhaps I shouldn't mention this, not wanting to tempt fate etc... but it's been nominated for an award!

Check out the magnets

2007-02-02T12:02:00.000Z

Now I have floaty people. Which is good because the chairs I'm making are liable to collapse under any kind of weight...

RoboKnit

2007-01-25T23:59:00.000Z

I always knew that knitting had a life of it's own. Now I see that it's been the robots all along.
Erm... anyway, here's the armature in Ahab's girlfriend. It's yet to be proven to work though. I'll be conducting a series of tests and publishing a report shortly.

Setting up an animation studio

2007-01-20T16:36:00.000Z

Ta-Da!
Here are the beginnings of my awesome shed-based animation studio. Note the green screen, a new addition funded by a job in Singapore. And you'll also notice that Ahab now has a boat to carry him off across the seas to seek adventures and whales.

I am Ahab

2006-11-29T19:19:00.000Z

The dawn of a new knitimation is upon us. It will take the form of a music video to the song 'I am Ahab' by Not-Too-Distant-Future. Go and listen to them and jump up and down!
Months of knitting and moving things just a tiny bit at a time await me now... Woo Hoo!!!!

Yesterday on tinternets...

2006-11-15T18:29:00.000Z

I was innocently searching out how to do an alternate cable cast on for a knitted hat when I made a shocking discovery. As I watched the video of how to do this new cast on I thought to myself 'this knitting looks pretty strange, let me just watch the how to knit video'. To my horror it was not remotely like how I knit! When I was learning I sort of made it up from some confusing instructions and I've actually been using a method called combined knitting. Oh dear. So now I've been learning how to knit all over again, it's slow, but at least patterns make sense now!

New knitimation

2006-11-10T23:45:00.001Z

I've just finished a new knitted animation for Donna Wilson.
She made the wonderful bunnies, also known as Kate Hare and I animated them.
Have a look at it here.

Landmarks

2006-08-14T11:09:00.001+01:00

My knitted piece 'Severed Monster Head' is in a show called Landmarks. It opens this Wednesday so if you've never seen it go along and have a look before it gets sold for millions of pounds.....

It's at The Lethaby Gallery on Southampton Row, just up from Holborn station in the bottom of Central St. Martins college. It's open from the 16th-31st August daily from 9am - 6pm.