Monthly Report: Clara Trevisan (July 2026)
I started July visiting Hiroshima Botanical Garden, which was very inspiring as I could see, among other plants, some crazy looking orchids, iconic carnivore plants and a beautiful begonia greenhouse.
Concerning the project, after getting the whole scheme of the diagram a bit more sorted out, I began working on the rest of the animations that would fill it, building connections with the previous elements, and designing the final layout. I realized I could divide the whole diagram into 3 sections: light, leaves and water. This division helped me elaborate the design. I added two Komainu (lion dogs) protecting the diagram, one with a maple leaf and the other with a lemon - two very big elements of the region. Also I inserted a caterpillar I believe to be called Lymantria Mathura, that I saw quite a few times around, a boat, a person and some formulas for the behaviour of light and energy. Even though the diagram displays many things that called my eye and my curiosity in Hiroshima, there are so many more elements that could be added there.
On the 13th we made a presentation in Hijiyama University about our work. It was very nice to be able to share our views with the students, but even nicer to know their own perspectives about our films. From the words the students came up with after watching, the one that marked me the most was Deidarabotchi, which is the name for the Night-Walker, a form of the Forest Spirit (Shishigami) that appears in Mononoke Hime film, by Hayao Miyazaki. Not only was it very flattering, I was also happy because this specific creature featured in my moodboard while I was making Mother of Dawn. So it was very cool to see the connections made by the students, and how I related very closely to most of these connections. After that, we got to see a bit of the Art Department in the University.
After the presentation, in the afternoon, I went for the first day of my workshop with the Ujina Junior High School students. A great thanks to Mr. Maehara, the art teacher in charge of the art club, who welcomed me to do the workshop with the group. I first did a tiny presentation on frame-by-frame animation and presented the activity I brought. The class then started developing their own creatures, and drawing them into the positions of the frames from an animated loop. They were very focused on the work, I only wish I could give them some more feedback and interaction. The language barrier ends up being a bit of a challenge in these situations. I then edited all the frames and made a sequence and a soundtrack. On the second day of the workshop I presented the result, and suggested we talk a little about their experience. Since the students were a bit shy to talk, I asked them to write some comments and feedback about the activity. It was great to understand more about how it was for the group, and to know that many were inspired to try more animation.
In July I also visited Kyoto, Nara and the Tower of the Sun, in Osaka. I got to ride the Shinkansen, and, in Kyoto, I saw the Gion Matsuri celebrations, the floats and the mikoshi procession. Some other highlights would be the many deer and the toy museum in Nara, the 1000 year old Cedar tree in Kasuga-taisha, and the Giouji Temple, in Kyoto, which was beautifully covered in different types of moss. Later in July, me, Zohar and Bence visited Naoshima, Okayama and Kurashiki. The Chichu Art Museum, in Naoshima, was very impressive, the building, the spaces and the installations. All very memorable. The landscape around was also incredible, very inspiring to go to the beach - so we went. We managed to enter the sea in Shibukawa Beach, great for the burning summer heat.
On the 25th we went to see the Hiroshima Port Dream Fireworks Festival, which was mesmerizing. I had never seen this big of a fireworks presentation with so many different shapes, and the grand finale was vertiginous, the sky was covered in silver. One thing that caught my attention was that the crowd, which was thousands of people, was very silent - from the amount of people that were there, I’d expect to hear much more noise. The next day we visited the Hiroshima Handmade Festival, crowded with people and many stalls of artisanal products made by local artists - including the very japanese realistic food sculptures. It was pretty cool to see the work of local independent artists, which, until then, was not the easiest thing to find. Very full month!
