Simon Pummell - Animate Bodies & Mechanical Minds
Eye on Art: Simon Pummell - Animate Bodies & Mechanical Minds
Five short films by animated filmmaker/visual artist Simon Pummell, who teaches at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. Pummel will personally introduce his latest film Frankenstein’s Dream – which deals with the question of whether AI technology is a parasite, using humans as a host body.
British-Dutch artist Simon Pummell (Norwich, 1959) combines animation with other cinematic forms such as documentary, video art, transmedia and fiction.
Pummell frequently makes use of animation and VFX, resulting in unconventional forms of storytelling in a visual language all of his own. His work has screened at almost all major international film festivals and has won various awards, including a BAFTA for the found-footage production Bodysong (2003).
Pummell has also exhibited film installations at various arts organisations and museums, including TENT Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The filmmaker – who also heads the Piet Zwart Institute’s Lens-Based Media Design & Communication department – donated all of the short films he has made to Eye Filmmuseum. These animated films with a surreal touch have a dark undertone. The films – including Secret Joy of Fallen Angels (1991), Ray Gun Fun (1994) and Blinded by Light (2004) – were made during the period 1986-2025.
Programme
Secret Joy of Fallen Angels (1991, 11')
An eleven-minute re-telling of the story of the Annunciation, blurring the sacred and the profane. The film combines many optical film techniques with an exploration of drawings of the human body, in which Mickey Mouse meets Michelangelo.
Butcher's Hook (1995, 8')
A miniature horror film, exploring the imagery of medical and scientific experimentation to relate an animated baroque revenge drama: a settling of scores between a taxidermist and his animals. Written with the science fiction author Simon Ings.
Ray Gun Fun (1997, 10')
A little boy plays with a magical ray gun, and finds himself trapped in worlds within worlds. Digital VFX animation in a live action world. Written with the science fiction author M. John Harrison.
Blinded by Light (2000, 12')
A blind man receives corneal transplants. He is fifty years old. For the first time since he was ten months old, he has complete functional use of his eyes. A dramatic monologue with special effects, Blinded by Light takes us into the world of this newly sighted man as he struggles to learn to see.
Frankenstein's Dream (2025, 20') (theatrical premiere)
Frankenstein's Dream opens on strange satellites as they release spores over foraging humanoids. Infected, these creatures start to change and grow, struggling towards speech. But there’s a high price to pay: do we control Al technology and language, or are these parasites using us as a host body and breeding ground?
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Details
Production year
2026
Length
80 min.
Event language
English
Country
NL
Part of
Eye on Art
Eye on Art is a programme on the intersection between film and other arts. Eye on Art keeps up with current events, with presentations on contemporary artists and programmes that coincide with important exhibitions, manifestations and Eye activities.
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