Prestigious award for animation lecturer

Senior Lecturer Samantha Moore, from the School of Art and Design, won the Nature Journal Scientific Merit award at the third Imagine Science Festival, New York.

The award is given to the best short film of the festival and Samantha was presented with it for her film, An Eyeful of Sound.

The film beat off tough competition from over 35 shorts and Samantha’s success will be promoted through the prestigious journal Nature, and she will also receive a 2,500 dollar cash prize.

Samantha, from Shrewsbury, said: “I'm really thrilled to have been given this award by Nature and the 2010 Imagine Science Film Festival. An Eyeful of Sound was a challenging and fascinating project to work on as it included science and documentary as well as animation.”

Awarding the prize, the festival organisers said: "We absolutely loved your film, as it really encompasses what we are all about here at Imagine Science Films - a cocktail of science, imagination and storytelling."

An Eyeful of Sound focuses on Synaesthesia – a condition whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together. In the animated documentary, Synaesthesia is discussed, argued over, dissected and celebrated.

The film is described as “conjuring up the fascinating visually complex internal world of audio-visual synaesthesia, where senses make unique connections the rest of us don’t experience.”

The project was funded by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award. Samantha Moore, an award winning animated documentary maker, worked with Dr Jamie Ward, leading researcher into synaesthesia and head of the UK Synaesthesia Research Group, and a group of people with synaesthesia to portray an accurate and insightful portrait of what it is like to experience the condition.

The jury consisted of Carl Zimmer, Valerie Weiss and Randy Olson.

For more information about the festival and awards, visit http://imaginesciencefilms.com/festival/awards/

For information about An Eyeful of Sound, visit http://eyefulofsound.blogspot.com/ and http://imaginesciencefilms.com/2010/09/an-eyeful-of-sound/

ENDS

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