Paul Bush is a British experimental film maker and animator, some of his films resembles some of Jan Švankmajer’s work, the piece that this blog post focuses on ‘While Darwin Sleeps’ shares visual and technical similarities with Švankmajer’s ‘Historia Naturae, Suita’ (1967). Bush uses various conventional experimental film techniques, but he also uses unconventional methods. One of the more unique techniques Bush uses when making his films is scratching directly onto coloured filmstock layered over live action footage.
Bush made this film using over 3500 insects from the collection of Walter Linsenmaier in the natural history museum in Luzern, each insect used appears for only one frame. The film has a hypnotic element to it, making it at times feel ethereal and for a brief moment convey the illusion that these dead animals are alive.