Axel Rudolph ‘Knowledge’

Through the website Motionographer I found this very interesting moving image/motion graphics piece. The piece is entitled ‘Knowledge’ and the creator ‘Axel Rudolph’ takes the tricky area of the dispute and conflict in middle into an easy digestible 5 minute educational animation.

Axel explains on Motionographer that one of his goals was “to show that education and learning may also have a cool look. This new look often reminds the viewer more of a tv music video than that of a matter-of-fact history lesson.’

He then moves on to say the piece “took about 3 1/2 months to research this project, write the story book, and prepare the animation graphics.”

I found the piece really interesting due to the strong underpinning theory of the middle eastern history. It took me two full viewing of the piece to take in the story (english subtitles) and then a second viewing to analyze the imagery/motion graphics. Overall the piece it well constructed and continues a balanced colour scheme and effective transitions and effects. (pixelating images and zooming in and out of pixels to reveal the next stage of the animation). I think the power and punch of the piece comes from the connection between the narrative and the visuals both matched perfectly. Overall a well structured and relevant piece and I think Axel has achieved his goal of making education in this instance, have a very “cool look”.