Why Analogues?

Analogues is a newsletter and podcast from animation artist Lewis Heriz - a space to talk about animation (techniques and technologies), and being human.

This is not just about analogue film-making, but about the way our brains are structured through association, or analogy. I’m interested in the interaction of the physical world with neurological processes, hence 'animation and being human’: animation is possible due to the trick of light igniting the imagination. Now that our view of the world is dominated by animation technologies - screens of all types, and in the near future, surfaces and environments of all types - animation is more tightly associated with being human than ever. This is the backbone of it.

What should I expect?

If you subscribe (for free) you’ll get full access to the newsletter, sent to your inbox once every month, and website. It will include animation, photography and illustration alongside the writing. If there’s interest, I would like to have a paid section that goes into more detail about the work in the free letter, with how-tos and behind-the-scenes. But the main newsletter will never become fully paid.

Who Are You Though?

I’m a multidisciplinary artist, now based in the Shropshire hills, in the UK. My final MA project from the Royal College of Art, So Long (We Dreamt of This) has been screened at Annecy International Animation Festival & Aesthetica Short Film Festival in 2022, and was awarded Best Experimental Film at Experimental Film East Anglia. My first animated short in 2019, Improv (1) was awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick.

I’ve been working as a freelance illustrator and designer since 2007. Animation was always my passion, but illustration and design (mainly in music) was my second love and main work for 15 years. I am proud to have designed over 200 record covers for various record labels and bands, with regular work for Soundway and Strut Records. I’m one-third of Sofrito, a record label and club night born in East London that celebrated and promoted the area’s international dancefloor culture & history since 2008. I have designed posters for events such as the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 2019 & 2022, Curzon’s Agnes Varda season (2018), and Open City Documentary Festival in 2017. I still design, but animation is now the thing that mostly fills my day.

Currently I am creative director for Fully Human, a new arts-based research project from the PSHE Association that is working with young people to help them navigate the challenges of a digital life. We are speaking with school pupils to hear their thoughts and feelings about developments in AI, while educating them on the technology; and a collaborative, experimental animation project is in the works.

Analogues is essentially a personal studio journal, a place to record my thoughts as I continue my practice as an artist.