Biography

James Duesing has worked in many forms of animation, from hand drawn and early digital work to 3D and motion capture projects. He has explored animation individually and collaboratively along with its integration into installation, web, eBook, print and Augmented Reality projects.

In his book HYPERANIMATION DIGITAL IMAGES AND VIRTUAL WORLDS animation historian Robert Russett has this to say about Duesing’s work: “Characteristically composed of dark fantasy worlds and strange hybrids of animals and humans, Duesing’s digital animation offers comical and eccentric reflections on human interactions and desires in an increasingly violent and polluted world. On one level his imagery is composed of entertaining cartoon-like characters in various kinds of richly rendered environments. On another level his work probes serious sociological issues in a way that is at once provocative and disturbing.”

James Duesing’s work has been exhibited and broadcast throughout the world including: The Sundance Film Festival; PBS; Siggraph; The Berlin Video Festival; MTV; The World Animation Festival; The Southern Circuit; Showtime; The Movie Channel; The Learning Channel; The Stuttgart International Festival of Animation; Shanghai Animation Festival, Peoples Republic of China; The Tate Gallery and the National Film Theater of London, England; Film Forum, New York; the Varna World Animation Festival, Bulgaria; the Hirshhorn Museum; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Hiroshima International Animation Festival, Japan; and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. His work is held in collections at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Goethe Memorial Museum, Tokyo; The Israel Museum and Video Data Bank, Chicago. He has received numerous awards and grants including a Creative Capital award, an award of distinction and an honorable mention from Prix Ars Electronica, in Linz Austria, an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Fellowship, an Emmy Award from the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences, National Endowment for the Arts grants and a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts. He is a Professor at the Carnegie Mellon School of Art where he previously Co-Directed The STUDIO of Creative Inquiry and directed the Center For Arts in Society.