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White clouds or clouds of any kind, Lauren Howie, 2020, Digital Animation, 2:35

White clouds or clouds of any kind, is the first of a series of animations whose aesthetics and 'mood' are taken from definitions found in Qur'anic root dictionaries. White clouds or clouds of any kind comes from a word with the root م ، ز ، ن , Meem-Zay-Nun. Animation, texturing, rigging and rendering was completed in Blender. All compositing and editing was completed in Adobe Premiere. 

A place where water stagnates, Lauren Howie, 2020, Digital Animation, 1:34

With this animation, I continue my interest in small, everyday movements and the extraction and transport of natural material. The title comes from the root  ب ، ح ، ر​​​​​​​ , Ba-Ha-Ra.

A wide tract of land​​​​​​​​​​​​​​, Lauren Howie, 2020, Digital Animation, 0:51

A wide tract of land is taken from the definition of a word with the root ب ، ح ، ر​​​​​​​ , Ba-Ha-Ra. The animation features a solitary figure I imagine to be setting up a small potters shop. They are awaiting deliveries from the next town over.  

Fashioner, Lauren Howie, 2020-2021, Digital Animation, 0:37,

The Fashioner, is taken from a word with the root ب ، ر، ا  Ba-Ra-Alif. I created this animation as I tracked the movement of leaves transported in White clouds or clouds of any kind. In this animation they have arrived at a processing plant, and are being fashioned into a product.​​​​​​​


The above series of animations is set in a fantastical world that does not have a name yet. I use the characters in these scenes to explore performances of gender through their labor, fashion, and veiling practices. 
I began this series to develop a setting for an interactive piece, the setting began as a list of words and phrases taken from Quranic root dictionaries, dictionaries of Hindu architecture and rap lyrics. These vignettes began to help me visualize a world I planned to make explore-able with the Unity Game Engine. The characters in the videos are equivalent to NPCs the player may encounter while traversing the world.  I began depicting these little workers awkwardly cultivating land, maintaining homes, communicating with trade partners and extracting resources from their environments, progressing without the player's presence. I am interested in exploring questions about identity, belonging and community storytelling in these works. when and how land become "owned" in this world and when and how one become native? How does information travel or how are investor-state dispute settlement agreements reached? The Aesthetics and movement of the world are pulled from some real world sources. The regalia is inspired by hijabi fashionistas, Egungun masqueraders and 90s hip hop. The camera movement in the videos is reminiscent of side scroller video games. The environments are inspired by mixes of imagined West African countrysides and The American South, famous ancient ‘worlds’ such as The Indian Ocean World, and trade routes such as The Silk Road. These elements coalesce into short looped videos and stills focused on characters movements in response to their surroundings.​​​​​​​
Regalia I, Lauren Howie, Digital Animation, 2021
Regalia II, Lauren Howie, Digital Animation, 2020
Rig Documentation, Lauren Howie, Digital Animation, 2020
Regalia I and II are animated loops that focus on the designs of the character's clothing. The subtitles are lyrics from rapper BbyMutha. They reference my  struggles with religious and class based expectations of demureness versus my identification with her lyrics and persona. Rig Documentation is a screen capture of a rig I built in Blender.