School
for
Poetic
Computation
Animation as art practice. Let’s emphasize instinctual movements with graphite, ink, sand and paper to build poetic and personal short documentaries that defy convention.
Images courtesy of teachers and guests.
Let’s tell stories through movement and gesture, one frame at a time. Leave the polish and assembly line behind! Let’s use our instincts to find rhythm and embrace the accident. We’ll watch animated short films from the past 100 years. Kōji Yamamura, Mary Martins, Chitra Ganesh, Lotte Reiniger, Don Hertzfeldt, and many more. We’ll work with drawing techniques like charcoal and ink, physical media like sand and paper cutouts, and gain a basic understanding of lighting and photography for animation. Most importantly, we’ll expand our capacity for storytelling by trusting ourselves and searching for something true. We will work straight ahead under the camera in order to unlock personal filmmaking methods. Over 10 weeks, we’ll construct very short films that defy convention and strive towards the poetic. Using a variety of methods of research, from sourcing found audio to using personal archives, we’ll finish the course having made a project that emphasizes the enduring qualities of the hand of the artist.
This class may be for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
Case Jernigan makes happy sad stop-motion films. He makes paperworks, drawings and prints too. Case grew up in Charleston, SC, where people tell stories to reveal things about themselves. He makes work about vulnerability, artistic integrity, embarrassment, sickness and healing. His projects reclaim pieces of his lost self by building memory palaces and preserving small pieces of knowledge.
Case has shown short films and won awards in dozens of film festivals, like Slamdance, HotDocs, Sweaty Eyeballs and Salute Your Shorts. His films have been Vimeo Staff Picks on 5 occasions. He’s a Screen Australia grant recipient.
Case has participated in many artist residencies, notably the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, The Center for Book Arts NY, the Saltonstall Foundation and the Art Students League NY. He’s exhibited his work in the US, England and Italy, and he’s made commissioned work for clients like the New York Times, The Guardian, Pop-Up Magazine, and even athletes like Venus Williams and Ronaldinho.
He’s making a videogame called ‘Bub’ with his friend Todd Anderson about healing and artmaking. He studied painting at William & Mary and the New York Studio School, and printmaking at Il Bisonte, Firenze. He lives in Italy with his beloved partner and rabbits.
he / him
Shayna Strype is a New York-based artist working in animation, film, and puppetry performance. Her films have screened at a variety of venues including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Slamdance, Palm Springs ShortFest, Hiroshima Animation Season, and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, and have received awards at Brooklyn Film Festival, Thomas Edison Film Festival, and Athens International Film + Video Festival, among others. Her work has been supported by The Jim Henson Foundation, Mono No Aware Cinema Arts, Dixon Place Theater, Mass MoCA's Assets for Artists, and the SVA Art Practice residency. She is a 2026 MacDowell Fellow.
She/Her
Erik Winkowski is a multidisciplinary artist whose work combines illustration, filmmaking, animation, music, and bookmaking. His projects often explore creativity, experimentation, and the unexpected possibilities that emerge through play.
he / him/his
Amanda Bonaiuto ,is an animation director, artist, and assistant professor of Illustration at Parsons School of Design. Her films have screened at film festivals and institutions globally, including Slamdance Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Festival, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, among others. Her work has been recognized by press outlets such as It’s Nice That, The New Yorker, Vimeo, and NPR. She holds an MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts, and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She offers workshops, mentorship, and animation publications through a collaborative project called ,Magician Studio,.
Amanda uses animation to experiment with choreographic movement, relational ruptures, and the ever present tension between bodies and space. Her work examines experiences of turmoil in mundane spaces; the bedroom, the funeral home, the emotional dance created through chains of physical association. She is fascinated by the porousness of lived experience. Her films consider how our environments exert influence as we reciprocally construct our own world.
she/her
Applications open until Applications closed on August 10, 2026.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on . Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
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