SV SHOWCASE: Caffeine by Patricia Luna & Danae Diaz
The animated film / music video, Caffeine, by Patricia Luna and Danae Diaz is one of the three artworks screening as part of our SV Showcase series this month, curated by Think Tank Gallery. The SV Showcase program aims to present the work of emerging and established artists in a site-specific month long exhibition turned installation on the #SVLA1 screen in Downtown Los Angeles.
https://vimeo.com/20461921
Caffeine is a visual metaphor for Brandt Brauer Frick’s music: Acoustic sounds are combined electronically as hand drawn images are animated by traditional and computer media. Patricia Luna and Danae Diaz have created visual parallels to the music using analogue drawing combined with mechanical aesthetics and rhythms. The result is work that is both intriguing and suspenseful.
The creators employed a meticulous and systematic approach in making the video by using traditional hand-drawn animation combined with 2D computer software for the compositing and editing. The illustrations of the backgrounds and figures were drawn with pencil on paper, then colored digitally. In order to portray a cold and distant atmosphere, the artwork and compositing were then projected isometrically, drawing 
From the artists: “Inspired by the album’s (ref. Brandt Brauer Frick) artwork, we created the story by adapting an older script we had about a man that lived in a world of shadows. We wanted to use iconic places of the urban landscape, places everyone would recognize and directly associate with the first years of twentieth century modern imagery. We also wanted to create suspense and a surprise at the end, something that would lead the story to a new beginning.”
Inspired by George Orwell, Oskar Nerlinger, and Jacques Tati, the creators wrote a short narration to coincide with the piece. It reads: “In a mechanical world of men, a mass of identical people start their day with coffee. At a certain point of a typical working day, one of them wants a break from his routine.”
Caffeine has screened at film festivals internationally, receiving numerous accolades including Best Animation Short at MAGMA in Italy and FIB Cortos in Spain.
Danae Diaz is a Berlin based animator/illustrator. She combines her animation work for 2D animation projects and studios, with her Illustration work for newspapers such as The Guardian, Spiegel or Die Zeit and magazines like Wallpaper* or Wired, as well as for advertising agencies, feature film productions, publishing houses, and institutions.Patricia Luna is an LA based artist that works in Drawing, Print and 2-D animation. She studied Fine Arts and Social Anthropology in the University of Barcelona and earned an MFA in Experimental Animation from California Institute of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and her short films have been screened and awarded in International Festivals such as Animafest Zagreb , Animac, MIAFF, Tricky Women and Festanka among others.https://vimeo.com/185736465Caffeine plays on the SVLA1 screen during the SV Showcase programming from 9pm - midnight Thursday - Sunday