Experiencing Interruptions?

In Search of Chemozoa

Managing its cancerous cells, a tiny organism offers its own solution to a big question, how to find balance in an destabilised natural environment.

This animated film presents a mythical creature inspired by research at the Arizona Cancer and Evolution Center at the Biodesign Institute (US). The film incorporates animated sequences of an in silico model organism built, cell by cell, in a game engine. Its cells have the mechanics of cancer programmed into them and its life cycle is inspired by radically new therapeutic approaches to cancer, centred on living long healthy lives with cancer instead of trying to cure and failing to cure a disease that has touched so many.

  • Paul Smith
    Director
  • Vicky Isley
    Director
  • boredomresearch
    Director
    AfterGlow
  • Pamela Winfrey
    Producer
    Tiffany Gets Really Mad, The Last Horse
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    SciArt, Experimental, Indie
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 16, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Raw Science Film Festival

    August 26, 2022
    Finalist for Experimental Animation Award
  • SCINEMA International Science Film Festival
    Adelaide
    Australia
    August 15, 2022
    Australia Premiere
    Finalist for Experimental Animation Award
  • Sigma Xi STEM Art & Film Festival

    November 7, 2021
    Best Film Award
  • Europe Film Festival

    June 1, 2022
    Short Best Experimental Film Award
Director Biography - Paul Smith, Vicky Isley, boredomresearch

Boredomresearch is a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, their work uses 3D gaming, animation and film tools to create poetic expressions that respond to a developing understanding of human dependence and dominance of nature. Boredomresearch has produced award-winning films and artworks including: 'Call of the Silent Cell' (2021), a film exploring the symbiosis of human and environmental health which won the Best Film and Best Artist Film Awards in Southampton Film Week (2022); 'In Search of Chemozoa' (2020), a moving image artwork created in collaboration with Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, which presents a poetic rendering of a fictional model organism, won the Best Film Award at Sigma Xi STEM Art & Film Festival (2021); 'AfterGlow' (2016), a SciArt experimental animation project, commissioned by Animate Projects, won the moving image Lumen Prize award (2016) that celebrates the very best art created with technology.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, as boredomresearch have been producing and exhibiting art projects embedding scientific principles and mechanics for over 20 years. Producing projects that explore: biodiversity, critically endangered and extinct species, environmental conservation and the health of our human bodies and our sustaining environment. The artist duo have always been interested in natural systems. They collaborate with scientists to shift perspectives from one centred on data and understanding, to instead foster an experience of research beyond normal frames of scientific reference. Through their artworks they present biological insights and creative speculations that encourage us to understand our being and our environment from a different perspective.