INDEX
Inside the Animator’s Data Archive
And the act of “digging” itself becomes another key to fully experiencing the exhibition. Sifting through vast layers of accumulated data in search of something that resonates with you is a painstaking, deeply personal, and surprisingly enjoyable process.
The venue offers two dedicated sections for this purpose, one for digital digging and one for analog digging, each providing a distinct and contrasting kind of excavation experience.
In the digital DIG section, visitors are free to browse through data folders taken directly from an animator’s desktop. The slightly illicit thrill of peeking into someone else’s computer, like hacking into a private machine, only adds to the experience. Before I knew it, that feeling had me completely absorbed, digging deeper and deeper into the image files.
In the analog DIG section, countless cut envelopes containing reproduced key frames are neatly arranged. These thick envelopes, commonly used on animation production sites to store materials, encourage visitors to browse through them by hand, much like crate digging for records, and to slowly uncover an image that speaks to them.
With the purchase of a separate 2,000 yen ticket, the reproduced drawing you dig up can be taken home as is, allowing the experience to extend beyond the exhibition space and into something personal and tangible.
