Anna Lindemann

composer • biologist • animator • performer • educator

Examples of Artistic Work

Creative Research Statement PDF

Featured

Theory of Flight (2011) 50 minutes - video preview
Art-science performance

In a twist on the ancient myth of Icarus, a lecturing scientist reveals she’s been growing her own wings using avian genes. Animated chalkboard diagrams convey the molecular biology, while vocal music and animated silhouettes advance the plot, about the risks and rewards of pursuing impossible research. The music, animation, and story are created by Anna Lindemann.

Theory of Flight (2011) 50 minutes - still image
Art-science performance

Scientist Alida Kear (Anna Lindemann) testing evolutionary theories of flight origins. Photograph by Ellie Markovitch.

Theory of Flight (2011) 50 minutes - still image
Art-science performance

Scientist Alida Kear (Anna Lindemann) and the Bird Spirit (Lucy Fitz Gibbon). Photograph by Ellie Markovitch.

Theory of Flight (2011) 50 minutes - still image
Art-science performance

Scientist Alida Kear (Anna Lindemann) takes flight.

Beetle Bluffs (2013) 12 minutes - video excerpts
Short animated film

Beetle Bluffs brings to life the stories that accompany each specimen within a natural history collection by illuminating the dynamics of nine beetle mimics and their wary lizard predator. Beetle Bluffs is a film by Anna Lindemann, developed in collaboration with Brian Farrell, Curator of Entomology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Beetle Bluffs (2013) 12 minutes - still image
Short animated film

The film is inspired by a pioneering 1938 paper on beetle mimicry by Philip J. Darlington, a former curator of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. This still from Beetle Bluffs shows Darlington's desk.

Beetle Bluffs (2013) 12 minutes - still image
Short animated film

The film features specimens collected by Darlington, including these Anolis lizards.

Evo Devo Music (ongoing creative research) - explanatory animation
Creating music based on evolutionary and developmental biology processes

Evo Devo Music is an ongoing collaborative research project by Anna Lindemann and Eric Lindemann. Our mission is to use the Evo Devo (evolutionary and developmental) processes that have produced the great diversity of life on earth, to create artworks with, as Charles Darwin put it, "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful.” We have pursued two strands of research to date: "Gene Network Music" and "Musical Organisms." This explanatory animation introduces the biology underlying "Gene Network Music."

Evo Devo Music (ongoing creative research) - explanatory diagram
Creating music based on evolutionary and developmental biology processes

"Musical Organisms" are inspired by the processes of cell division and cell differentiation that define biological development.

Evo Devo Music (ongoing creative research) - musical example
Creating music based on evolutionary and developmental biology processes

Watch a "Musical Organism" grow and listen to the adult form.

Playtime (2014) 30 seconds - video documentation
Public media artwork commission

Miró-inspired shapes self-assemble into two friends at play in this Boston Cyberarts and Massachusetts Convention Center Authority “Art on the Marquee” public media art commission displayed at the 80-foot-tall multi-screen LED marquee outside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Viola (2015) 12 minutes - still image
Art song with live animation

Composed by Franz Schubert in 1823, "Viola" dramatizes the young Violet adorning herself as a bride and eagerly hastening forth, only to face icy winds and uncertainty. The Violet's nonchalant flower sisters are blithely oblivious to her pain. "Viola" is part of a concert-length program currently being developed by Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Anna Lindemann, and Ryan MacEvoy McCullough. The program will feature works for voice, piano, and live animation exploring biological time. Performance by Lucy Fitz Gibbon and Ryan MacEvoy McCullough. Animation by Anna Lindemann with assistance from Erin Kaminski, Shobha Venkatraman, and Cindy Recinos.

Viola (2015) 12 minutes - still image
Art song with live animation

Bird Brain (2009) 30min - still image
Multimedia work for live instrumentalists with electronic music accompaniment and animation

In a rice forest, a male bird builds an impressive bower of butterflies to attract a mate, while a female bird tends to her nest atop a kitchen stove. We see glimpses into the biology of these creatures as butterfly wings develop and pasta mitosis animates the growth of the incubating egg. Animation, stop motion, and live action film tell the tale of these birds, and live musicians and electronic music unite in songs of penne chromosomes and funky avant-garde jungle rhythms. Music, animation, hats by Anna Lindemann. Performed by Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Damian Blättler, Ezra Seltzer, with electronics realized by Synful Orchestra.

Bird Brain (2009) 30min - still image
Multimedia work for live instrumentalists with electronic music accompaniment and animation

Scientists exhibit flocking behavior.

Winged One (2010) 14 minutes - still image
Art-science performance

How is it that a human develops arms and a bird develops wings? Winged One illuminates the genetic mechanisms underlying limb development through a biology lecture and an animated world of replicating yarn DNA, lace and button proteins, and molecular musical leitmotifs. Winged One is a preliminary work in the development of Theory of Flight. The work combines music, lecture, stop motion and computer animation by Anna Lindemann.

Flying Curiosities of the Plant & Animal Kingdoms (2009) - still image
Mulit-channel video installation

Flying Curiosities of the Plant & Animal Kingdoms takes inspiration from nineteenth century curiosity cabinets of insect and bird specimens. But here, the curiosity cabinet becomes animated. Not only plumage and iridescent carapaces, but also the beauty of flight, can be examined and admired. Still image of an escaping specimen.

Flying Curiosities of the Plant & Animal Kingdoms (2009) - still image
Mulit-channel video installation

Animation still of tubular growth of a feather.

Metamorphosis Animation Workshop (2010) - process still
A five-week workshop for kids

This workshop for kids, conceived and organized by Anna Lindemann, combined learning about metamorphosis and learning about stop-motion animation. The workshop culminated in the creation of the 4 minute stop-motion Four Fantastical Metamorphosing Creatures.

Creativity Convergence (2015) - process still

A gathering designed and organized by Anna Lindemann with the aim of catalyzing interdisciplinary creative projects at the University of Connecticut. The event included dinner, multimedia concert preview, artist talks, and collaborative project imagineering. Made possible by the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Dean’s Grant and the Office of the Vice President for Research.