alumnistories

Dik Jarman
interviewed by David Blumenstein

David: What were you doing before AIM?

Dik: I was practicing as an architect and production designing for Sydney based animation firm, Flying Gherkin International.

David: So why did you want to go back and study animation? Was it the idea of "enhancing your skillset" for your job or because you wanted to tell your own stories? Or both? Or neither?...

Dik: I found it easy to design for different directors, Nick Donkin, Tony Lawrence, Julia Bourke, but wanted to find my own voice. I have a very strong reason for telling the stories that I do and it revolves around creating a new mythology to live by the collapse of traditional role models; family, church etc. So it was a way to find my own lexicon, or library of images to draw from. As it turns out, I realise now how profound the images that I unearthed were as they have led me down the path of the study of alchemy, and its use as a tool of individuation (Jung).

David: What happened at your interview?

Dik: I became stuck in the lift in the AIM building and my interviewers proceeded to interview me through the closed lift doors. It all came unravelled when I was asked to describe my video reel in words when all I could say was "Get me out of here!"

David: How did you find AIM different to your previous courses of study?

Dik: AIM is very like final year Architecture, where you put your body and social life on the line. It is totally immersive and breaks the mould (sic) allowing you to emerge on the other side.

David: What was the atmosphere like in the studio when the major project deadline was coming down upon you?

Dik: I filmed my project outside the AIM studio and so missed out a lot of the bonding and arguing that went on in the studio. I feel like I missed out on those friendship opportunities there somewhat...

David: So you don't really "hang out" with many of your fellow graduates?

Dik: No. AIM GD students are notorious for not finishing their major piece until the day of the graduate screening.

David: How did you go on that score?

Dik: I was finished a couple of days before screening but not quite before the proposed external assessment day.

David: Same here. Finishing slightly early was cool. I got to watch everybody walk around like zombies. What have you done (professionally, I mean) since you graduated from AIM?

Dik: I have worked on various commercials and music videos as a director, animator and production designer. This led to me taking a break to write Dad's Clock, which is a 6 minute short film about the death of my father. It has exhibited in over fifty film festivals around the world and won a few awards including an AFI.

David: Dad's Clock is a stop-motion piece, which takes long enough to do, but the set you constructed for it was incredibly elaborate, and you shot the whole thing yourself over a period of two years.

Dik: I did some pissy animated stuff before I ever heard of AIM, but there's no way I would have been motivated to do the work I'm now doing if I hadn't been there.

David: Did your time at AIM have an impact on the way you work (and what you work on)?

Dik: AIM allowed me to clarify the way that I work rather than define it.

Dik Jarman, AIM coursework graduate 1997
interviewed by David Blumenstein