Letters O, P, and R

Words that start with the letter O, P, and R. A typographic animation.

Ake & Ch

Words that end in -ake and start with ch-. A typographic animation.

Facial Recognition

A group of kids demonstrate the concept of image resolution.

Paper Origami

Things you can do with a single sheet of paper.

Perspectives

Jarnow regularizes a child's primitive sketch of a house into increasingly firmer architecture, showing how the same place might by rendered by different hands. Objects twist and turn, a drawing resolving into a wall painting, as the perspective shifts, boxes within boxes, until the viewer is back outside

Map Projections

In what would become a familiar theme throughout his carrer, Jarnow explores the earth from above, invoking Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion and the Gnomic map to illustrate different geometric and compromise projections.

Rotating Cubic Grid

The primary motif in this silent picture is a grid that controls the shapes and motions of forms contained within the framework of a rotating cube. Constructed from interlocking cycles, the film explores branches and loops along paths laid down by geometric logic.

Tondo

Tondo introduces the cosmic formalism that was the primary theme of Al Jarnow's independent films. An infinite gridscape alternates with vibrating etchings, spirograms and other surreal realities.

Cube

A filmed exercise that follows in the path of Rotating Cubic Grid and Cubits, the predictably titled Cube features cubes of varying shapes and size sliding around and growing into and out of one another, demonstrating how multiple parts can make up a whole.

Cubits

Jarnow adapts an architectural grid catalogue of cubic rotations in order to explore a direct relationship between animation procedure and logical numerical operations. The film is as much the making of animation as it is a paper model of a computer. The cube sheet, upon which the film is based, is so constructed that a horizontal cubic rotation and a diagonal pan yields a diagonal rotation. Combinations of these primary moves result in more complex rotations throughout this awe inspiring film.

Architecture

A stop motion opus made up of hundreds of hand-painted wooden blocks that takes the viewer through a brief history of architecture. Primitive structures evolve into larger buildings...

Number Rap #17

Kids rapping about the number 17.

Shell Life

Shells create intricate patterns in this short stop-motion animation.

Yak

Jarnow's first work for Sesame Street and the Children's Television Workshop - yak is a goofy take on the letter "Y."

Scratching and Painting on Film

A stream of consciousness experiment committed directly to celluloid, Jarnow pays homage to Stan Brakhage and Harry Smith. Abstract designs transform self portraiture, lettering tests and images traced from other films including a Charlie Chaplin short.

Plans & Elevations

Abstract geometric diagrams come to life.

Autosong

When Jill Jarnow won a blue Volkswagon in a design contest, and named the car Wart after the young king Arthur in T.H.White's The Sword and the Stone - it naturally wasn't long before the iconic vehicle turned up in a film. Autosong unfolds on an autobahn of the mind, a road between the formalism of highway driving and the looped flipbook experiments.

Skeletons

A short film made of cel drawings, showing us how various mammals, plants and objects all share similar skeletal structures. Produced for Sesame Street.

Shorelines

After a day of gathering hundreds of seashells and rocks from the beach, Jarnow uses the found objects to construct a stop motion commentary on how we look at nature through various cinematic techniques.

Cosmic Clock

A mind-twisting time-lapse beginning on a hill just outside town, doing for the concept of time what Charles and Ray Eames's 1968 film The Powers of Ten did for space. One billion years in two minutes.