Brent Biennial 2025: AIR Ritual - Cameraless Animation Workshop

About the event

In this hands-on, cameraless animation workshop, participants will be introduced to key Structuralist films before exploring the creative possibilities of 16mm film. You’ll have the opportunity to paint, scratch, and draw directly onto celluloid, working with both archival home movies as well as clear film leader for direct animation. The session will culminate in a live projection, showcasing the unique short works created during the workshop.

No prior experience with 16mm film is required—this workshop is designed to provide an accessible foundation for anyone interested in experimenting with film as a creative medium.

Maximum number of participants: 18

The event will take place in Blue Shed, Harrow Campus, University Of Westminster, Watford Rd, Northwick Park Roundabout, Harrow HA1 3TP. Room announcement will be given nearer the time.

About the artist

Jacob Watkinson is an experimental filmmaker and Arts Facilitator whose work explores the fragile materiality of celluloid, pushing the medium to its limits and examining the creative possibilities of image manipulation. Inspired by the Structuralist movement, his various films have screened at festivals and exhibitions worldwide.

In addition to his artistic practice, Jacob works as Creative Director for an archival organisation dedicated to preserving and sharing personal and family histories, helping individuals protect their memories while connecting them to a wider cultural narrative.

He also leads arts workshops focused on hands-on experimentation with celluloid as a creative medium.

Brent Biennial 2025: AIR Ritual

Each breath is a new possibility of life. Inhalation and exhalation as cycles of existence. Air is also the catalytic substance of ignition; it represents the power of utterance; declaration, song, whistles, chants, spells, of mobilising ideas and knowledge, people and animals. The intangible, invisible force that creates changes in culture, education, legal systems, religion and ideologies.

AIR Ritual forms part of the programme for Brent Biennial 2025. Titled “Bones, stones, and calling the four elements”, it seeks to invoke a communal spirit of gathering and imagining. Between June to October 2025 four ‘rituals’, WATER (22 June), EARTH (24 July - 1 August) FIRE (26 September - 12 October) and AIR (17 -24 October) will unfold at four Brent sites – a public reservoir, a park, an old medical facility and a university campus. Located in the north and south of the borough — Harrow, Wembley and Kilburn — the ‘rituals’ will feature artists presenting workshops, talks, performance and exhibition.