A selection of animations and clips inspired by the work of M.C. Escher.

After having imagined an acrobatic and poetic course at the Fort Saint-André in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon in 2016, the acrobat, actor, juggler and dancer, Yoann Bourgeois, created a series of exceptional performances at the Panthéon of Paris, in co-production with Théâtre de la Ville. Set at the highest point of the dome of the Pantheon, the famous Foucault pendulum serves as a support for the choreographer’s work on movement and balance entitled, “La Mécanique de l’Histoire” and feels as if Escher met Cirque du Soleil.

Martin Gardner, scientist, mathematician, and magician wrote nearly 297 monthly columns for Scientific American and in 1961 used illustrations by Escher for a rave review of a radically different kind of textbook, Introduction to Geometry. Read how this started the Escher craze.

Here are a few clips that pay homage to the master draftsman and impossible thinker, specifically to his famous lithograph, Relativity.

 

This is a behind-the-scenes look at how they actually made M.C. Escher’s “Penrose Steps” illusion from Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

The scene from Labyrinth that features a set inspired by M.C. Escher.

Inside the Labyrinth: Escher – Jim’s Red Book from The Jim Henson Company

Read Danny Bazo’s essay “Automatically Generating Animations From Escher’s Images”

 

 

Inspirations, a meticulously crafted 3D animation, reveals a universe of wonderful things based on imagery in M.C. Escher’s art. Cristóbal Vila, the filmmaker, describes his inspiration on his website: “I looked into that enormous and inexhaustible source of inspiration that is Escher and tried to imagine … what things would surround an artist like him, so deeply interested in science in general and mathematics in particular. This, though, from a completely imaginary, free and invented point of view.

The video makes several visual references to Escher’s iconic images and works like a game of I Spy — find as many as possible in three and a half minutes. It’s worth watching full screen in HD to catch details, like a stoic crocodile exhaling a puff of smoke. For a brief glimpse of the artist in his actual studio, visit the official website, and select “M.C. Escher at Work” from the side bar. Unfortunately the video isn’t embeddable, but it shows Escher working on a mezzotint.”

For more work by Cristóbal Vila, visit http://www.etereaestudios.com/.

(Thank you to The Atlantic: and Open Culture)

Short Tessellation films inspired by Escher.

For more short movies about M.C. Escher, visit the special film section on the Official Escher website.

M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity is now playing in select cinemas and available on Virtual Cinema benefiting the theaters and filmmaker. How to see it here.

Read reviews by magician, artist, filmmaker, writer Teller and animator Steve Segal on EatDrinkFilms.