From 2022-2024 second year UTS Bachelor of Animation Production students worked together with UTS Bachelor of Music and Sound Design students to create short animated films based on the works of contemporary Australian poets from Red Room Poetry's recent projects and archives.
This collaborative project brought together the creativity of emerging animators and the power of contemporary Australian poetry to produce a series of unique, visually stunning short films. A selection of student work will be published across 2025 to celebrate the project.
Throughout the project, students engaged deeply with the poems, exploring their themes, metaphors, and emotions to create animations that both honour the original works and extend their meaning in new and inventive ways. From meticulous research into settings and characters to experimenting with bold animation styles and soundscapes, each piece is a testament to the power of collaboration and creative storytelling.
Special thanks to UTS Media Arts & Production Program Lecturer Deborah Szapiro for spearheading this project, unit tutors and all of the students and poets.
Explore the animations, poems and poets below.
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Entanglement
By Toby FitchI am watching myself untangle
my earphones, my body’s walk paused,
standing on the corner of Bedford and Probert
beneath mini grotesques on the roof -
She-oaked shores
By Dakota FeirerSomewhere in between beginning and end, are shaded beds on sacred bends
Made in layers of leaves, resembling strands, or ancient, sacred ladies
Where sweet waters ebb, and soft northern winds blow
Faceless Maidens Bellow, my arms and Nawi follow -
She
By Jun (Year 10, Christmas Island District High School)Wading in the warmth of the kind blue
Buoyant, I float, caressed by soft hands
Breath heard in her voice and in my body, held still
Waning shoreline, horizons expand -
Night Vision (while we sleep)
By Luke PattersonBeyond the eyelid’s flickering light, strange
how you teeter. Marsh frogs in their homes shake
the shallow waters of these hours. Their song
across space naked spills through an opened window. -
A spell to grow a tree
By Cooper (Year 12, Gungahlin College)Feel the future shade.
Listen to the wind rustling the emptiness.
Sing the song of a homeless bird.
Sip eucalypt tea with the sleep-deprived bats, -
Tiny Roar
By Omar MusaSilken snapdragons, swaying on stalk tower,
open their mouths. The tiny roars of colour
— sherbet, red velvet, purple wine — bees waltz
in haloes around them, sever the thread from earth
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UTS (University of Technology Sydney)
