Our ‘Library’ - a collection of reference books for inspiration

More bookshelves down the stairs (with Harvey Dog)

Our blog about the wonderful touring exhibition ‘The Mechanical Circus’ from last year (June) got some good reactions which set me thinking about inspiration. Inspiration; sometimes elusive, often unexpected, always sought and hopefully brilliantly exciting.

Much of the inspiration for our own work is drawn from multiple and wide-ranging sources. From found objects and odd mechanical gadgets to exhibitions and interesting or unusual places and spaces (natural and man-made), from chance encounters and chats to, of course, books. Books that contain all of these things and more.

So for a bit of background, we set up Tapocketa (pronounced Ta-pocket-ah) - a small indie animation studio - in 2018 to innovate and explore rich and engaging animation techniques to tell stories that reach beyond the noise and bluster of modern life. With our inspirations and experiences combined, we work to create experiences to entertain, enthuse and inform.

Mariner Mate paper puppet ready for movement

In this post, I want to show and tell you about our library (that’s a bit of an overstatement!). The ‘Library’ is a former walk-in cupboard or very, very small windowless room, depending on which way you look at it. This cupboard was, as always, stuffed with stuff. But in a moment of grandeur and wishful thinking, we decided to make it into a library. Doors off, stuff out, shelves in, painted dark (very important) and we had our library; our mainly reference and non-fiction library that is (fiction books are on shelves down the stairs and in piles for sorting).

Categories include pop-up books, architecture, design, art and artists, travel, and photography, plus a few historical and philosophical and quite a lot of geographical books, time and mythology (I could go on…). We also have a section for those books with bits in, like replica documents in paper wallets, letters and old looking folded maps. Plants have a whole other bookshelf downstairs.

Here I’m going to have a quick dip into just three books, chosen because they have either inspired us in our work or influenced our style. I would love to go through some of the others too … maybe in another blog sometime… The books in question are ‘English Eccentric’ by Ros Byam Shaw, ‘Theatres’ published by Roads Publishing, and ‘Folk Art’ by Robert Young.

So ‘English Eccentric’ is a wonderful collection of (14) interiors that are as varied as their owners. They reveal a truly eclectic mix of individuality, originality and the unconventional - not reflecting the usual wealth required for a stylish interior but the creativity people have, how they express it and also live amongst it. If there is any theme, it is one of personalities and of collections. Of course, some are not quite to my own taste but that is somehow all the more interesting. Why someone collects what they do, or are obsessed with a certain type of thing is very intriguing and there’s always a really interesting story behind it too. Who doesn’t love to hear about those with unusual interests and hobbies?

[Publisher Ryland Peters Small, Photography by Jan Baldwin]

Kitchen of Liddie and Howard Holt Harrison,

TV room of jewellery designer Solange Azagury-Partridge

The next book is ‘Theatres’ published by Roads Publishing. This is all about the visuals; showing theatres from across the globe and from various eras. Some are ruins reclaimed for use while some have been meticulously renovated to show how the fantastic occasion of theatre-going often involved real pomp and opulence. Many other theatres in the book are (relatively) recent builds that together reflect the huge range of what theatres mean to society today. These range from vast impressive structures that become important signifiers to a city, to under-stated, clever responses to the demand for a performance space in an unusual location. Looking at all of these stages around the world, what we got from this book is how important the place, space and setting of a story is, to the ultimate experience and memory of it.

Seeing how the theatre has evolved through the ages and across cultures also reinforces the notion that “The human inclination to tell stories, and to listen to them, lies deep within us all.” foreword - Pekka Salminen (from PES-Architects)

Outdoor theatre in the garden of Rowena Cade, Minack Point, Cornwall

Floating stage on Lake Constance, Brengenz

The final book, for now, is about Folk Art. We bought this book after visiting the Folk Art show at Tate Britain in London a few years ago. The exhibition was a really compelling collection of a wide range of objects each one having a kind of innate charm about it. It was really welcome to see this ‘low art’ exhibition at the Tate. The works were often made for practical use as well as having a very personal and also decorative aspect; signage, furniture, gifts, needlecraft, fairgrounds attractions, and toys. Each piece had a personality and the choices made about the material, proportion, and characters spoke volumes about the care, attention, and knowledge (of both the material and the subject) the maker had. We came away feeling very inspired by the work; rich and humble, practical and ingenious, it strengthened our resolve to do our own thing in our own style.

Published by Mitchell Beazley

A weathered old ‘The Greyhound’ pub sign by W. Flanagan mid 19th century

Portrait of a Midland Plum Pudding Pig by Joseph Lawton

Felt and watercolour portraits by George Smart (famous tailor) c.1830

Double-seat fairground cockerel by Orton & Spooner c. 1910

“A Boy in a Field” c.1850 by an unknown provincial artist

What is interesting about these particular books is that they are a kind of portal to experiences distant to our own. These experiences, objects and spaces reflect the imagination and personal stories contained within them and even though a book has usually been mass-produced for publication there is still something so personal about it.

We make animations but why did we make a ‘boovie’ (book/movie mash-up) instead of a straight forward animation? We wanted to use our particular skills making something that reflects the magical feeling you get when a story comes alive in an unexpected way.

When we published ‘Galdo’s Gift: The Boovie’ we did run into a few paper purists who thought that online books (ie our boovie book) are in some way competition for print books. This attitude took us by surprise (not so naive now!). Our stance being that our type of online book - the boovie; a book movie mash-up - exists not instead of, but as well as print books. We hope it represents the best a medium can be. Both mediums should be celebrated for what they can respectively offer (same goes for performance and theatre). After all, in the end, it’s all about the storytelling, not the medium itself.

P.S we would love to make a print book too

Please share this blog with anyone you feel would be interested…

We are really interested in your inspirations and books so please do recommend any books or magazines (or any other form of inspiration) to us! Thank you :-)

Inspiration: from books to boovie and back again

Eleanor Long

Would you like us to animate your imagery? We do that too!