Signed in Ink is a special programme I curated for the 2026 Kaboom Animation Festival in Amsterdam, in response to the festival’s theme of Human Touch. The programme presented eleven animated films that use ink to set words into motion. My introduction discussed ink’s ability to cross borders, slip beyond language, and remind us of the pleasures of writing.

From the handwritten letter to the printing press, ink has been a dominant medium of record-keeping and communication for centuries. When words and images are inscribed in ink, loose ideas are fixed into durable marks. Signed in Ink brings together short animated films that reveal how animated ink can simultaneously capture and disrupt meaning, translating ideas across languages and borders.

Out of the Inkwell: Invisible Ink
Miserable Miracle
POSTALOLIO
Polar Bear Bears Boredom

Some films in the programme draw on ancient traditions of calligraphy and ink-wash painting, where drawing and writing share a common form. Others turn to print technologies — from the letterpress to the xerox machine — to transform these instruments of mass communication into objects of play. Across all the works, ink repeatedly slips beyond legibility: letters dissolve into dancing figures, marks turn into shadows, and gestures accumulate into visual poems.

Two Weeks – Two Minutes
G-AAAH
5¢ a Copy

In an era of digital communication through keyboards and data transfers, Signed in Ink embraces the materiality and craft of writing. Whether dipping brushes into an inkwell or striking a typewriter ribbon, the artists in this programme celebrate the pleasure of sending messages through ink. Precision and control coexist with accident and excess, reflecting the enduring tension between the rules of writing systems and the possibilities of expressive movement. These films remind us that language is never a neutral tool of transmission: it stains, smudges, and leaves lasting impressions.

Accordion
A Fly in the Restaurant
Shadow of the Butterflies
Sea Song

Signed in Ink was curated as part of the Animate Materials Workshop project, in response to the 2026 Kaboom Animation Festival theme, Human Touch.

Programme

Out of the Inkwell: Invisible Ink Max Fleischer & Dave Fleischer | USA, 1921 | 8 min 20 sec

A Fly in the Restaurant Xi Chen & An Xu | China, 2018 | 6 min 25 sec

Accordion Michèle Cournoyer | Canada, 2004 | 6 min 2 sec

G-AAAH Elizabeth Hobbs | United Kingdom, 2016 | 1 min 17 sec

5¢ a Copy Ed Ackerman & Gregory Zbitnew | Canada, 1980 | 2 min 52 sec

Postalolio Marv Newland | Canada, 2008 | 5 min 4 sec

Polar Bear Bears Boredom Koji Yamamura | Japan, 2021 | 7 min

Sea Song Richard Reeves | Canada, 1999 | 4 min 11 sec

Two Weeks – Two Minutes Judith Poirier | Canada, 2013 | 2 min 35 sec

Shadow of the Butterflies Sofia El Khyari | France/Portugal/Qatar, 2022 | 9 min 9 sec

Miserable Miracle Ryo Orikasa | France/Japan/Canada, 2023 | 8 min 13 sec

Total running time: 60 min

Sunday 15 March 2026 — 14:30, Slachtstraat Filmtheater
Saturday 21 March 2026 — 14:15, Eye filmmuseum