Meena Pant

"The first thing I thought of when I thought of breathing was sleeping. I usually spend a lot of time napping with my dog, my sister, or when I was younger, my mom. For most animals, sleeping around another animal/person is a show of trust and comfort, because we drop our guards and leave ourselves vulnerable.
From what I have noticed, our breathing becomes slow and even, and mimics the pace and rhythm of the others sleeping around us. My mom used to tell me that when I was a baby, she would purposefully slow her breathing so that I would calm down and match her. Through my art, I tried to recreate that sense of comfort and vulnerability, while also focusing on my dog’s breathing while she sleeps. I decided to animate the beginning half of the video so that I could have more control over the portrayal of myself and my dog, and use a dark blue color scheme to create a sleepy mood. I was able to edit how long each image frame is seen, and I chose to make the inhale frames faster, and then make the point when my dog’s chest is biggest pause for a longer time, so that it appears like she’s taken a pause before exhaling.
I incorporated the performance aspect of the assignment by using candid photos my family has taken of my dog and I sleeping over the years, so it is a very genuine depiction of how we sleep. I also recorded myself and my dog lying in bed and blended that into the animation, so that it appears like I have woken from a dream and come out of a drawing and into the real world. The change from animation to real video also represents the change in breathing patterns for both of us. It transforms from slow monochrome blue to represent sleep, into colorful and quick video to represent the excited pattern of breathing while awake."