A selection of animations, please allow a couple of minutes for them to load.
All animation and original music by Gustav Sparr. To see full videography, scroll to the bottom.





Phosphene Graphics Excerpt: Holodeck • Gustav Sparr © 2016 • 1:40 min • After Effects animation

SYNOPSIS:
In a room that paraphrases Star Treks "Holodeck", a sequence of sceneries, are simulated. The title and end screens of the film seems to be projected in the simulation as well, along with video distortions, a star speckled black void and television white noise.






Phosphene Graphics Excerpt: Super 8 • Gustav Sparr © 2015 • 3:15 min • After Effects animation

SYNOPSIS:
In an office there is a Super 8 reel player that shows a collaged sequence of animated graphics. The images blend into each other, and in various ways all relate to themes of light, reflection and projections, as well as to the theme of rotation. The animation is part of a larger series of intertwined works, begun in 2013.





(X POSER) SPHINX • Gustav Sparr © 2013 • 1:45 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
The title of the animation gradually fades in. When it zooms out it reveals itself to be a developing photographic print in a trow of developing fluid. A figure, standing in a darkroom, picks up another finished print depicting an identical scene: a figure holding a photographic print of a figure holding a photographic print. As we zoom in and out of image layers and scenes, there is a slight blurring in the perception of location and time. The figure uses an enlarger to print more copies. In the developing trays they seem to be overexposed, fading from blank to black . The film ends when a printed copy of the end-titles overdevelops into darkness.





ALEPH • Gustav Sparr © 2011 • 2:49 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure in front of a dartboard discovers a hidden brick room with no doors. A grey T-shirt on a coat hanger is suspended from the ceiling. The T-shirt is decorated with a print that seems to contain a crystalline point. The point shows a vortex of places and figures from all animations and prints. The figure throws a dart through the dartboard and strikes a bull’s-eye at the central point of the T-Shirt. Time freezes and the scenes of the animation start to rotate like the crystalline point, revealing an alternative sequence: the figure uses the dart to draw a stylised Golem by dipping its point in a tear drop of blood.





CELL LINE • Gustav Sparr © 2010 • 7:10 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure is drawing lines on coloured papers, tracing his silhouette and adding layers of celluloid to fill the contours. The lines transform into eyes, sound waves, strips of film, and flash timelines. The papers and pencil are traded for an Etch-A-Sketch. By drawing linear letters, it spells out the text quotation:

“...the reason all electrons are alike is that there is really only one electron, careening back and forth from the ends of time, weaving the fabric of the physical universe by crossing its own path innumerable times”.

Inspired by the famous La Linea by Cavandoli, the animator changes between scenes, removing layers of papers. The title “Cell Line” refers to sequences of DNA used for cloning, but also to the very act of animation: to bring something to life with a line.





FRIEZE FRAME • Gustav Sparr © 2008 • 2:49 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure is feeding Polaroids of the graphic series CGAT into a machine that investigates the elements of the images. A symbolic narrative is constructed by the analysis of image elements: the details depict documents and signs relating DNA to artistic practices. Inspired by a scene in Blade Runner, the animation is a compact semantic artefact that circles around themes of cloning, information, and communication. After the images are scrutinised, the machine spits out a Ziploc bag with a single scale of a serpent’s skin. The clone stamp tool from Photoshop appears and makes a copy of the figure's eye. Then a multitude of clone stamps descend like a curtain, painting the end titles of the animation.





II=T=)( POSER • Gustav Sparr © 2008 • 0:56 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure is making a “Time Out” sign with his hands. A computer cursor appears and clicks on the image surface of the film itself, summoning the interface of a video player. The movie is PAUSED. While being paused, the animation becomes more agitated, lapsing into distortions, disturbances, and flickering states. When PLAY is resumed, the quite lethargic regular film continues and ends.





KNOBS: TYPOGRAPHY • Gustav Sparr © 2008 • 1:15 min. • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure fiddles with a device resembling an effect box. By tweaking its knobs, he manipulates the design of the title and end titles of the animation itself, changing typography, colours, and even the words. The figure manipulates the container of his own universe from within while still being completely trapped and defined by it.





CAMERADERIE: DOUBLE EXPOSURE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY • Gustav Sparr © 2008 • 2:45 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure stands in front of a mirror photographing himself with a digital camera. The distinction between original and copy becomes somewhat blurred. A thumbnail printout of the camera’s flash memory contains a summary of the movie in still images. This sheet of paper, which contains a picture of a figure holding the very same sheet of paper, points to a blocked paradox in the animation program Flash: a symbol cannot contain itself. By zooming in on the paper, a classic sequence of infinite regress ensues, revealing pictures within pictures. The boundaries and layers of the film seem uncertain and schizophrenic.





SET I • Gustav Sparr © 2008 • 1:01 min • Flash animation.

SYNOPSIS:
A figure is filling a brown paper bag with his breath; he smashes it. The bang results in a total collapse of the man himself, separated into a rain of tiny fragments. A magnifying tool clicks and zooms out: the events are taking place on the stage within the Flash animation program. The timeline marker is drawn backward, then forward again, creating a breath-like pumping of explosion and implosion. The man once again breaks into small parts as flash symbols quickly fill the window of the program’s library.





DISCOURSE R.E.M.IX: ZOO/TROUPE • Gustav Sparr © 2006 • 2:43 min. • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure plays a record on a turntable, scratching it backwards and forwards. The record is replaced by a zoetrope that is decorated on the inside with ring dancing and T-shirt labelled clones. The DJ increases the speed and the clones are blurred into a flashing spectral super identity. The linear division of separate persons in the ring seems to be superimposed into a schizophrenic “now”. A View-Master disc at the bottom of the zoetrope spins off and cuts the top of the DJ’s head. His brain turns out to be a bundle of multi-coloured T-shirts.






STAR(T): DISCOVERY • Gustav Sparr © 2006 • 2:42 min • Flash animation

SYNOPSIS:
A figure is holding a chocolate bar and a homemade phone constructed from empty paper coffee cups. Through the paper cup device, he listens to vibrations coming from the chocolate bar. After breaking the chocolate into smaller pieces, he builds a pixel image that looks like the signal sent out into space by the Arecibo telescope. By using a sceptre made from a paper astronaut attached to a drinking straw, he makes an image of a “Milky Way” bar and rubs the image until it changes into a spiral galaxy. By tapping it, he changes the image into a constellation that looks like a phonograph. From its horn a golden “Discovery” record is summoned, floating out of the sheet of paper.



GUSTAV SPARR VIDEOGRAPHY:
2003 Beatifictitious 2:59 min. (earlier version 15.00 min.)
2003 Ovary 0:41 min.
2003 Pool Loop 1:04 min.
2003 I Con Coin Icon 1:28 min.
2004 Discourse 0:23 min.
2004 Crystal Method: Con-Quest 1:06 min.
2004 Antenna 0:46 min.
2004 Amissio: Be / Begone 1:17 min.
2004 Batter(y): Surf-Ace 1.00 min.
2005 Copy 1:42 min.
2005 Scroll: Rock & Roll 0:38 min.
2005 It Seems To Be Seams To Be 1:50 min.
2005 Crop 1:51 min.
2005 Tele-O-logic: Channeling 15:00 min.
2006 Slide Projector: I.D. / Roles Project 26:42 min.
2006 Star (T): Discovery 2:42 min.
2006 Discourse R.E.M.I.X: Zoo/Troupe 2:43 min.
2007 MC Librarian 32:54 min.
2008 Knobs: Typography 1:15 min.
2008 Pool Loop (2=II): Worm Whole In One 1:39 min.
2008 Set I 1:01 min.
2008 Cameraderie - Double Exposure Flash Photography 2:45 min.
2008 II=T=)( Poser 0:56 min.
2008 Frieze Frame 2:49 min.
2010 Cell Line 7:10 min.
2011 Aleph 3:07 min.
2013 (X Poser) Sphinx 1:45 min.
2015 Phosphene Graphics Excerpt: Super 8 3:15 min