AMT faculty Jess Irish will debut her animated film lyric, The Phantasmagoria of Offense: the male version this Thursday, July 7th at 7pm at The Center (208 W. 13th St Room 310 New York, NY 10011​)​.

Open to the public.

The Phantasmagoria of Offense is an animated film lyric by Jess Irish on the danger of image suppression. In this “male version” these images are limited to the male body and the cultural anxiety around expressions of vulnerability, homosexual desire or questioning the dominant paradigm. The political ramifications of image suppression during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s is questioned alongside the well-intended requests for “trigger warnings.” If there is a take away message, it is that censorship is not an abstraction. It has a body count.

Lauren Redniss, faculty in the Illustration Department at Parsons, was recently featured on the front page of the Arts Section of the New York Times (not to mention the front page of the paper, thumbnail for the Arts section). Her interview focused on her new book “Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future”, which explores weather and certain relationships many individuals have with it. Lauren Redniss mentions:

“I’m interested in things we take for granted, the fact we can look out of our windows every day and see this spectacular, unpredictable panorama.”

Much of her process shows in her books as she spends much of her time interviewing, sketching , and even experiencing what she is writing about. She tears down the walls of what a graphic novel is and showcases an immense amount of experimentation that challenges the conventional medium of books.

“Her books are totally composed in both words and images, but they aren’t quite graphic novels,” Ms. Chute said. “Every time you turn the page, you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Click here if you’d like to read more from the interview.