working with global illumination to float a skeleton in a kitchen ok? ok. 

Fiction Advocate

I Am A Natural Wonder  appears today at Fiction Advocate!

gifed scenes from upcoming animation

Set up a tumblr for my computer animation 1 students: Check ittttt out:

http://animalanima.tumblr.com/

TOCO is now available for pre-order! to have in hand on Sep 15th

dear friends,  my debut story collection is now available for pre-order on Amazon click here! 

I'm still getting used to the idea that it might one day exist, but it really is happening. I've been singing to FC2's tummy and we've been practicing lamaze and watching TOCO grow its little fingers and toes in the ultrasounds, and, well, soon it'll be sleepless nights and breast pumps then braces then dating then it'll go and have little books of its own and then death.

I hope you'll like it!

stay tuned for info on the dangerous book-tour/road-trip I'll be taking with my oldest-dearest friend Jordan Stempleman (whose soon too be poetry collection Wallop (Magic Helicopter Press) will be joining us)

tentative plan to turn this into an art/lit review blog, starting with this relatively new book loot 

Song 14, by Jordan Stempleman

Song 14 is now up at HTMLGIANT for the Poem a Day series.

I sculpted and rigged Jordan's head using Maya animation software which, if you're going for anything human, will inevitably end up on the creepy side.

New interview up at Route 9 Literary Journal between me and the brilliant Jenn Mar

Read an interview between myself and Adeena Reitberger from American Short Fiction here!

Pick up a subscription to American Short Fiction  and get #56

My collection of short stories, The Observable Characteristics of Organisms, is due out in September with FC2

I am a Natural Wonder. resurfaced

originally published at I Am a Natural Wonder

Ian Cheng

Interested in the work of Ian Cheng lately, maybe because I'm teaching Intro to Maya this semester and advanced Maya next semester. In any case, it is refreshing to see 3D technology applied in a context that isn't exclusively created for "animation entertainment" purposes. Read an interview with Cheng here at Bomb magazine. 

Liars -- Brats from ian cheng on Vimeo.

American Short(er) Fiction Award and FC2. Good times

Incredible to have won the American Short(er) Fiction Award and alongside Sabrina Orah Mark no less! Read our stories in ASF’s next issue this fall. And then hopefully it’ll move you to read my collection of stories The Observable Characteristics of Organisms which comes out from the unprecedented FC2 next fall!! Yes> Yes.

Digging on these floor pieces by Lance Wakeling

Antigonick

Flattered to be mentioned in this great interview between Poet/artist Bianca Stone and B.Lussier over at the California Journal of Poetics. Bianca's done all kinds of wonderful things. This one is a collaborative book with Anne Carson, Antigonick (an illustrated translation of Sophocles' Antigone). And it is beautiful.

Las Gravitas

My beautiful wife has been blowing up in the New York dance scene lately. This week Danspace Project is hosting a shared evening with a piece I was lucky to collaborate with her on and a piece by Ben Kimitch. Thursday Friday and Saturday 14 15 16. Come see how amazing she really is. Time Out New York says This shared program features Benjamin Kimitch's discontinuous sounds and Aretha Aoki's Las Gravitas. Kimitch, who trained in Chinese folk dance, explores personal memories in his work that includes Julie McMillan and Claire Westby; Aoki constructs a piece—featuring text and sound by Ryan MacDonald and Cassie Peterson—that explores where fact meets fiction.

Niicugni (Listen): World Premiere!!

my wife Aretha Aoki in a new Emily Johnson production. Niicugni (Listen): World Premiere!! It’s here - the world premiere! Niicugni has been many years in the making and I am thrilled beyond belief to begin sharing it with you. We premiere THIS FRIDAY at 8pm at the Nancy Smith Fichter Dance Theater at Florida State University in Tallahassee. This premiere is co-presented by Seven Days of Opening Nights Festival and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. Please come if you can, and if you can’t, send us your love! Niicugni is many things. Here’s what I can tell you: it is a dance that took thousands of years to make. It is a story made of many. It is a word that instructs us to listen. There is hope here, and death; monsters and laughter; salmon, bear, blood. There is you, everyone who has ever lived, the ground beneath us, and a never ending attempt to pay attention. I made this for you and it is also for my dad. Niicugni is second in a trilogy of works that began with The Thank-you Bar. It is made and performed by Emily Johnson with Aretha Aoki, James Everest, Bethany Lacktorin, and Heidi Eckwall. It is housed within a light/sound installation of hand-made, functional fish-skin lanterns made by volunteers across the country. Here is a trailer for you to see, made by the fabulous Julia Bither. Current Niicugni Tour - come see! WORLD PREMIERE! Seven Days of Opening Nights Festival with MANCC at FSU: September 21, 2012 MassMOCA, North Adams, MA: November 16, 2012 NYC PREMIERE! Baryshnikov Arts Center as part of PS122’s Coil Festival: January 9 - 12, 2013 Redfern Arts Center, Keene, NH with Vermont Performance Lab: February 13, 2013 ASU/Gammage: March 2, 2013 Tigertail, Miami, FL: March 22-23, 2013 Bunnell St. Gallery, Homer, AK: April 11 - 13, 2013 Northrop Auditorium at The O’Shaughnessy, Minneapolis, MN: April 21, 2013 Portland Institute of Contemporary Art: date TBA

Trailer for Niicugni (Listen) from Emily Johnson on Vimeo.

No, Not Today -- Monday

Today is the oficial release of Jordan Stempleman's No, Not Today from Magic Helicopter Press.

Below is the final book trailer I've put together featuring a poem from the collection.

pick up a copy of this if you need or want to be moved here

Jordan Stempleman's No, Not Today promotional video number 4.
now available at magichelicopterpress.com

No, Not Today

No, Not Today from Ryan MacDonald on Vimeo.


I've made some promotional videos for Jordan Stempleman's new collection of poetry No, Not Today

this book is alive.

it is available at Magic Helicopter Press

Armed Guard Garden

The Times people!

The only thing this reporter forgot to mention was my name (yes I proudly did the sound for this piece) but no worries, the reviews are shining:

read the full article here

"Ms. Anspaugh’s “Armed Guard Garden” draws the viewer in immediately and never lets go. In silence, the lights dawn slowly. We make out a figure — no, two. Like sentries, they patrol the perimeter of the stage and define its diagonals. Three more pour flour onto the floor to define concentric boxes. They make lines on the rear wall in chalk. None of these borders will last."

Congrats to Vanessa Anspaugh, Jen Rosenblitz on creating two beautiful pieces.
Congrats to Vanessa's incredible dancers, my beautiful girlfriend Aretha Aoki,  Niall Jones, Molly Lieber,   Lydia Okrent and Mary Read.
Congrats to Cassie Maud Peterson who offered conceptual collaboration.
Congrats to Emily Roysdon for her wonderful costumes.
Congrats to the lighting designer Vincent Vigilante.
Congrats to the Dramaturge Susan Mar Landau.
and to Jen's dancer Addy's Gonzalez.

yeah

Armed Guard Garden

Pleased to be a part of the next Vanessa Anspaugh contemporary dance project, Armed Guard Garden, which will premiere February 15th at New York Live Arts.

Please visit this project's kickstarter page and donate what you can to get it off the ground of amazing and into the realm of incredibly fucking amazing.