Aardman Animation is embarking on a unique collaboration project in India, inspiring everyone to embrace their creativity.
The British Council sought out Aardman as the perfect partner to create a digital arts project as part of a UK/ India 2017 collaboration, together they’re calling it Saptan Stories.
Keen to find out more, we caught up with Aardman’s Saptan Stories Creative Director, Neil Pymer, who explains UK/ India 2017 is: “a year-long celebration of modern-day India and its 70-year relationship with the UK”.
“The project is being taken into schools and libraries across India as an educational resource; seeing young people’s unbounded creativity always humbles and inspires me”
He enjoyed coming up with a solution to the British Council’s request: “For this brief, it was the simplest of these ideas that stood out, which was to base it around the game consequences, where the previous line of a story influences the next.”
Artists then recreate the literature into a visual art form; Gav Strange (who created the art pictured right) and Tom Mead are the two Bristol artists working on the project.
You can read the story so far, submit and vote on the next line on the Saptan Stories website.
India’s inner artist
Such vast collaborative projects can have a multitude of positive outcomes, with Saptan Stories, the team really want to encourage everyone to get as creative as they can.
Neil tells us Aardman wants to start a distinctive conversation: “The overall aim is to inspire creative writing, thinking and participation through a giant game of consequences played out over all of India.”
“When you see people come together to make something creative from opposite sides of the globe, it’s clear why it’s worth undertaking projects like this”
The collaboration between UK artists and the Indian public is already producing something special, “This really intrigues me about the process; how the artist’s representations of the line might, in turn, affect how people choose to write the following line, creating a cyclical process of words inspiring art and then art inspiring words.”
Saptan Stories is spreading all over India. “One of the most fulfilling aspects for me personally, is how the project is being taken into schools and libraries across India as an educational resource; seeing young people’s unbounded creativity always humbles and inspires me,” says Neil.
Worldwide storytelling
The project is now halfway through, Neil says it’s been an unforgettable journey so far: “I can’t relay how exciting it is to see the artist’s work arrive in my inbox, it’s like a Birthday every week!
“Receiving the public’s submissions is also rather intriguing – witnessing the breadth, diversity and creativity of their responses – it’s so hard to choose just three to be voted on. The scariest/ most exciting part for me though was writing the first line. From testing the concept early in development, we knew how instrumental the first line would be, and a good deal of thought went into writing just 200 characters.”
Aardman is renowned for bringing joy to people of all ages and backgrounds through their delightful animations, something that has been no different throughout Saptan Stories.
Neil is immensely proud to be leading the team: “We’re visual storytellers; storytelling is at the heart of everything we do here at Aardman and we’re very proud that creative writing is at the heart of Saptan Stories.”
He adds, “Running collaborative projects on this scale can be pretty daunting, especially when you don’t know what the outcome will be or even if people will take part.
“The artists have to react to an evolving story which is a real challenge, as they don’t know what’s coming next and have a very short time to respond. However, when you see people come together to make something creative from opposite sides of the globe, it’s clear why it’s worth undertaking projects like this.”
Thanks to Neil for taking the time to talk to us. Check out the progress of Saptan Stories so far on its website and to keep up to date with Aardman Animation’s latest news, follow them on Twitter here: @aardman.
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