Lauren Hammersley

During my time in my undergrad I found myself drawn to the experimental side of animation. I tend to take an autoethnographical approach to my work, often attempting to find new ways to discuss topics that personally affect me, such as mental health. I believe it's an important topic to discuss and I want to make people feel and learn more about other's suffering or struggles through my films, with the goal in mind of creating a better understanding and hopefully, in turn, more sympathy. I’ve found animation to be a very useful tool in helping me express these emotions that are difficult to explain as well as the general abstract concepts of the mind. My film ‘TWITCH’ explores the physical sensations of anxiety and mimics them through the manipulation and distortion of black and white portraits of people I had interviewed for the film. This film helped me understand the journey I was taking with my practice. Initially the idea sprung from the realisation that words can only do so much in explaining complex emotions and sensations, and having felt fear of judgment from others when attempting to express how anxiety made me feel. When showing people this film I often got the response that people felt anxious watching it and they usually feared that this was an insult to me, but was actually exactly what I had set out to achieve. I hope to do this with all of my films – create an impact on the viewer to help them better understand others and experience these feelings for themselves when watching. Psychology has been a fascinating subject to me and one I would have pursued had I not gone down the artistic route. The mind is such an intriguing thing and one that I like exploring and researching not only for my films but for my own interest.

My approach to film making begins with an idea (usually scribbled down in the back of a notebook or soon to be lost on the notes app of my phone) that often comes from a deep emotion within myself or one I see in others. The thing I like to do most in life is help other people and try to put a smile on their face (as cheesy as that sounds) so, through the use of animation, I explore ways in which people struggle using a variety of techniques and approaches, aiming to help with the comprehension of these sensitive topics. Bessel Van Der Kolk states in his book ‘The Body Keeps The Score’ that “after trauma the world becomes sharply divided between those who know and those who don’t” and I aim to chip away at this divide with my work. I think we could all use a bit of understanding and sympathy sometimes and I hope my films can provide this.