I founded Supernova Digital Animation Festival in 2016 as a leading initiative of Denver Digerati, the first annual festival in the world dedicated exclusively to digital animation and motion art. Originally presented to the public through outdoor LED screens, the festival adapted during the pandemic of 2020 into a month-long celebration with limited outdoor activations and robust online programming. In 2022 the festival was noted as one of the ten Top International Animation Events You Should Plan to Attend by Business of Animation. I could not be more proud than this achievement and all the hard work and unfathomable challenges that went into building this program, one that could be considered ahead of its time, but also ultimately unable to prove financially viable due to the progressive nature of the concept dovetailing with the uncertainties derived from the pandemic that underscored the entire art scene. Supernova offered thousands of artists from all over the world a rallying point for their their work, an extraordinary and prestigious showcase in an exciting and profoundly innovative public context. It brought new life to the art scene in Denver in support of diversity and innovation, at a time when it was consistently on the wane and bereft of “out of the box thinking” and new modes of expression.
Each year of the festival is represented through the images below, from most recent to the inaugural, which link to information offering a snapshot of the imagery and breadth of each year’s event through a wealth of material I took great pleasure in creating and that pushed my own imagination and creative development with each iteration.
Introduction text for 2016 inaugural Supernova Digital Animation Festival Catalog:
SUPERNOVA FIRST EVER OUTDOOR FESTIVAL OF DIGITAL ANIMATION AND ART
Denver Digerati and the Denver Theatre District will offer up a fresh perspective on the most popular form of entertainment with the SUPERNOVA Outdoor Festival of Digital Animation and Art. The festival emphasizes new, exciting realms in digital animation and art through a variety of programs from 4-11pm on the 14th Street LED screens at Champ and Arapahoe and a special competition screening in the DPAC Galleria. Winning pieces will be honored by three distinguished guest jurors, Claudia Maté, Jonathan Monaghan and Morehshin Allahyari, all chosen for their pioneering work within the fields of new media, contemporary art and digital motion graphics on an international level. The festival will conclude with a live new-media music performance by Denver based Thug Entrancer and artist Milton Melvin Croissant Ill.
SUPERNOVA utilizes a robust international artist network and unique infrastructure developed by Denver Digerati through its series Friday Flash, one of the nation's leading outdoor digital art programs. Friday Flash is presented to the public on L.E.D. screens situated in the Denver Theatre District as a new public art viewing experience illuminating how technology is altering all facets of our daily lives in extraordinary ways.
SUPERNOVA endeavors to take this art form to the next level through an explosive, multi-faceted digital entertainment sphere that will engage all audiences. Hour long programs commencing at 4pm will include a History Of Denver Digerati's Friday Flash, Digital Painting And Abstract Art, Solo Artist Spotlights by John Butler and Adam Ferriss, Kid Wonder: Student Shorts and Animation For All Ages, Local and UC Denver Artworks, Director's Picks, Machinima and Gaming Related Art, and a radical showcase of Music Videos. SUPERNOVA will represent innovation in both art and experience.
SUPERNOVA will also feature an all-day educational forum with special presentations by guest jurors Claudia Maté (UK), Jonathan Monaghan (Washington, D.C.) and Morehshin Allahyari (NYC) as well as Festival Director Ivar Zeile (Denver, CO). The forum, a limited attendance, ticketed event, will include professional critiques, panel discussions and small-screen art engagements throughout the day at the Commons on Champa Innovation Center.
A number of entities and cultural forces have come together to make this singular event possible. SUPERNOVA is presented by Denver Digerati with support from Denver Arts And Venues Next Stage NOW!, the Denver Theatre District and exclusive education sponsor CU Denver. SUPERNOVA is also supported in part by Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, cultivating arts & leaders for a vibrant community. Additional support is provided by the Biennial of the Americas, Orange Barrel Media and WeedenLaw. Use of the L.E.D. screens for SUPERNOVA is made possible by Branded Cities.
Understanding Supernova: Video Series
During the summer of 2020, when the Covid19 pandemic had shut down life as we all knew it and decimated Supernova’s operating budget, I had nothing but time on my hands, spent primarily inside my small apartment. The conditions were perfect however for investing in new equipment such as a “green screen” and trying out new concepts that could potentially advance the Supernova cause and that of digital animation for whatever future was next. The following series of videos materialized during this period, offering a new way to “understand” what Supernova and my work with Denver Digerati was all about. I realized that people had little interest in reading about such things, and that perhaps a bit of time spent plowing through the visual archive and fashioning a script might prove useful in the age of online and streaming video, of which the project was part of. The results were decent enough, while the real desire was to have more time, more money and a more professional setup in order to present the material properly. But as with all things Supernova, I would do the best I could with perennially limited resources.
Who the Piss Knows! An interview with Beeple, and other Supernova 2016 artist highlights
In programming the inaugural edition of Supernova I had discovered the work of an artist going by the name Beeple who had created a handful of animation that I found to be amusing and of interest. I decided from the earliest stage that Supernova should launch with materials that presented some degree of depth relating to the medium the festival was focused on, offering whatever audience might gather to watch something to reflect on, or with, beyond the animations that I knew would dazzle their visual senses. I had long appreciated artists interviews as the best method for understanding contemporary artists, so decided to include a few within the 2016 forty page festival catalog, along with brief descriptions from a few of the Student Shorts. Because Beeple seemed to represent a new breed of artist hiding behind an intriguing “stage name,” I decided to include him in the mix, though his limited responses felt a little underwhelming at the time. They would become way more revealing years later when his work launched the brief NFT craze, a collection of the artist’s “everydays” selling for an eye-popping amount in the multiple millions, one of the highest figures ever paid for an artwork in history. I can only laugh at his response to my question of where his practice might go in the future. Indeed, who the piss would have ever guessed! The interview was likely the first or only with Beeple prior to his dumbfounding success, as would be the case with many of the other artists I would endeavor to query more in depth about their work and position as artists. For me, these moments are amongst my greatest personal treasures from the Supernova initiative.
