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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Chi-Chian
Voltaire
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CHI-CHIAN
Voltaire
The story of Chi-Chian has lived in the mind of Voltaire for many years. “I was at an outdoor cafe in Harajuku, Tokyo in 1989, when suddenly Chi-Chian jumped out of a near-by skyscraper and landed in my head.” Says Voltaire. As he scribbled on the tablecloth in front of him, a young, gentle Japanese Goth girl took form; Chi-Chian was born. As Voltaire developed her character and created a complex history around her, he realized he had to find a way tell her story in a longer, more cohesive form.
Over the next 8 years, Chi-Chian appeared in an ID spot for SCIFI Channel as a stop motion character that electrocutes a giant robot with several thousand volts of electricity. She also appeared in a six-issue comic book series published by Sirius Entertainment. This series was released between 1997 and 1999 and found a small but fiercely loyal following in lovers of dark science fiction, organic technology and rich, emotional story telling. Three years after her television debut in that classic station ID, Chi-Chian has found her way back home to SCI FI Channel in an animated, online series at http://www.scifi.com/chichian/.
When first approached to create this animated series using Flash, Voltaire, who had been directing television commercials and station IDs for 15 years, wanted to utilize his experience as a stop-motion animator. So instead of using hand-drawn, vector images, Chi-Chian uses photographic, bitmap images of actual stop-motion animation models and sets. This animation style, reminiscent of the minimalist motion seen in Japanese Anime, turns the limitations of Flash technology into a strength. In essence what’s been created is a Japanese, animated film shot with stop-motion models! When asked to describe the series in a sentence Voltaire said, “Tim Burton and H. R Giger get together with Ray Harryhausen to create a Japanese Anime.”
Chi-Chian the series follows a young, Japanese, Betty Boop-esque Goth girl, who is certainly not your everyday sci-fi heroine. Living in a dark, future Manhattan (destroyed in the New York/New Jersey War that we all knew was bound to happen), Chi-Chian is a gentle soul who respects all living things. But when her friends—a race of six-foot-tall cockroaches—become the target of villainous creeps, she must take up arms to protect the ones she loves. Peppered with sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek humor and a disturbingly original vision of the future, Chi-Chian is at its core a story of innocence lost as a child searches for the answer to the age old question, “Why can’t people just be nice?” In the process, she experiences first hand the darkness of the human soul.
Chi-Chian was conceived and created by Voltaire. Film star Bai Ling (Anna and the King,Wild,Wild West) voiced the character of Chi-Chian. Michael Lee of Brooklyn, New York, and Daniel Govar of Baltimore, Maryland animated the series. Voltaire managed a crew who did everything from model building to photo retouching.The SCIFI.COM team included Lead Producer Alissa Gordon as well as Laurissa James, Sean Redlitz and Rachel Gibbs.
Links: http://www.scifi.com/chichian/
Voltaire
The story of Chi-Chian has lived in the mind of Voltaire for many years. “I was at an outdoor cafe in Harajuku, Tokyo in 1989, when suddenly Chi-Chian jumped out of a near-by skyscraper and landed in my head.” Says Voltaire. As he scribbled on the tablecloth in front of him, a young, gentle Japanese Goth girl took form; Chi-Chian was born. As Voltaire developed her character and created a complex history around her, he realized he had to find a way tell her story in a longer, more cohesive form.
Over the next 8 years, Chi-Chian appeared in an ID spot for SCIFI Channel as a stop motion character that electrocutes a giant robot with several thousand volts of electricity. She also appeared in a six-issue comic book series published by Sirius Entertainment. This series was released between 1997 and 1999 and found a small but fiercely loyal following in lovers of dark science fiction, organic technology and rich, emotional story telling. Three years after her television debut in that classic station ID, Chi-Chian has found her way back home to SCI FI Channel in an animated, online series at http://www.scifi.com/chichian/.
When first approached to create this animated series using Flash, Voltaire, who had been directing television commercials and station IDs for 15 years, wanted to utilize his experience as a stop-motion animator. So instead of using hand-drawn, vector images, Chi-Chian uses photographic, bitmap images of actual stop-motion animation models and sets. This animation style, reminiscent of the minimalist motion seen in Japanese Anime, turns the limitations of Flash technology into a strength. In essence what’s been created is a Japanese, animated film shot with stop-motion models! When asked to describe the series in a sentence Voltaire said, “Tim Burton and H. R Giger get together with Ray Harryhausen to create a Japanese Anime.”
Chi-Chian the series follows a young, Japanese, Betty Boop-esque Goth girl, who is certainly not your everyday sci-fi heroine. Living in a dark, future Manhattan (destroyed in the New York/New Jersey War that we all knew was bound to happen), Chi-Chian is a gentle soul who respects all living things. But when her friends—a race of six-foot-tall cockroaches—become the target of villainous creeps, she must take up arms to protect the ones she loves. Peppered with sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek humor and a disturbingly original vision of the future, Chi-Chian is at its core a story of innocence lost as a child searches for the answer to the age old question, “Why can’t people just be nice?” In the process, she experiences first hand the darkness of the human soul.
Chi-Chian was conceived and created by Voltaire. Film star Bai Ling (Anna and the King,Wild,Wild West) voiced the character of Chi-Chian. Michael Lee of Brooklyn, New York, and Daniel Govar of Baltimore, Maryland animated the series. Voltaire managed a crew who did everything from model building to photo retouching.The SCIFI.COM team included Lead Producer Alissa Gordon as well as Laurissa James, Sean Redlitz and Rachel Gibbs.
Links: http://www.scifi.com/chichian/
Chi-Chian was conceived and created by Voltaire. Film star Bai Ling (Anna and the King, Wild, Wild Wests) voiced the character of Chi-Chian. Michael Lee of Brooklyn, New York, and Daniel Govar of Balti, Maryland animated the series. Voltaire managed a crew who did everything from model building to photo retouching. The SCIFI.COM team included lead producer Alissa Gordon as well as Laurissa James, Sean Redlitz and Rachel Gibbs.