Has been a great marathon

Hello dear friends. I hope everyone is doing great. I apologize for my complete absence in the past weeks. You guys have no idea... I've been working so so so much for the Darwin show. Basically, from 7 am to 2 or 3 am. My pauses have been just for the meals and for  err...  other physiologic needs (which includes, of course, industrial quantities of a nice coffee). Other than that, has been work, work and more work. I've finished it all today and I still can't believe it. Such a nice feeling of relaxation now, only broken by a slight anxiety feeling, so common before each opening show. I just looked at my nails and wow they grew so much. I really have been completely absorbed by this work but I also know that that's the only way to make it work in the end.

For the first time in my life, I feel happy with the work I did. I have been having the recurrent thought that I may had transcended myself this time by doing the apparently impossible thing. I still can't believe I did it. To explain it better, I was proposed to create a series of 23 skeletons morphs that could show clearly the lines of the evolutionist theory by Charles Darwin. All of us who have ever tried our luck with a morphing software know how limited it can be. They basically "move" things in similar areas or negative spaces of the images. So, in order to maintain some rigorous scientific line, I had to invent and reinvent permanently to be able to morph correctly such complex structures as real skeletons, with different poses, different alignments of the bones, different number of bones and so on so on. In the end, I like the result and the team composed by biologists recognized them as perfect. It worth the effort, undoubtedly.

The photography I worked with was amazing, by the great Patrick Gries, and that has also contributed to the success of these animations. They have such a nice aesthetics and a very clean look. Each morph project, composed only by two images,  contains more than 1500 reference points/dots, which clearly shows the complexity of the process. Then if 1500 x 23 x 2 equals 69 000 dots, I may have created and adjusted almost 70 000 reference points. Crazy! So, reptiles, mammals, birds, all morphing perfectly. I'm sure if Darwin has had the opportunity to make these morphs himself he would even believe his own theories much more.  I'm also sure that each person looking at the final result have no idea of all the effort behind it.

So, yesterday, I saw it all working for the first time in the exhibition area, using a video projector on a wall (6m x 6m). The impact is so great and the whole thing shows up with a tremendous good resolution, a nice slow motion and an excellent sound. That's the way the public will see them from February 13 to May 24. It ended up being the focus of the whole show, which made me feel surprised and very happy too.
I intend to upload some parts of this work to DA after the 24th of March to the film gallery. Can't do it before that.

The team is huge and great. It includes, for instances,  the work of Elisabeth Daynès, who made that amazing reconstruction of Tutankhamon, a group of scientists, designers, sculptors, video artists and photographers from all over the world and has been a great pleasure to work under these conditions.

It was already recognized, by the occupied area and the number and quality of elements, as the biggest show ever dedicated to Charles Darwin. Something that cannot be missed, I assure you. After Lisbon, the show will proceed to Madrid and other capitals around the world. Despite all the controversy between creationists and evolutionists, no one can deny the importance of Darwin's work to humanity as the foundation for all modern biology.

My work for the show consists on the referred series of 23 morphs, a short movie about the evolution of forms and a 25 minutes movie about Darwin's Theory on the expression of emotions by man and other animals.  An excerpt of the last one will also be on DA after the 24th of March and I hope it will be interesting for you as it has been for me. The theme is interesting for sure and the movie establishes a parallelism to modern times.
To all those in the neighborhood or people visiting Lisbon interested in seeing the show, here are the details:

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Av. de Berna, Lisboa

Opening: February 12
Opening to the public: February 13 (Tuesday to Sunday, from 10am to 6pm)
Guided tours: (50 minutes - From Tuesday to Friday at 1pm and at 4pm, Weekends, at 11am, 12, 2:30 and 4:30 pm.
Schools: from Tuesday to Fryday, 10am to 5pm.


For the recent visits, comments, favs and all that sweet jazz. I'm very grateful for all the feedback on my work. it just gets too difficult to reply to everyone but I always read the comments. A thousand thanks!!!