WoodSwimmer is a short video demonstrating a concept of wood-scanning. It is a form of stop-motion animation allowing a camera to view a cut, sanded and prepared surface of hardwood, and then follow that surface as it moves through an entire sample of the wood. In this process the full interior of the hardwood, including growth rings, medullary rays, reaction zones, knots, rot and decay are all clearly visible, and in motion.

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I had made a previous stop-motion science-fiction story that was about the evolutionary aspects of different types of metal. For my next film, I began to work with wood. I came upon the concept of the WoodSwimmer as I began to explore the visual science-fiction possibilities of this remarkable substance. Wood is a common material that is found all around us, but the interior structures have been little explored in motion.

I used a DSLR camera in a setup for stop-motion animation in conjunction with a milling machine typically used for working with metal. This allowed the precision and repeatability needed for smooth animated motion as I cut through the hardwood samples. At great difficulty, several minutes of footage were obtained. The musician Bedtimes (Conor Grebel) then edited this footage to a song composed for the piece.

WoodSwimmer is a beautiful journey through a common material, wood, which has a fascinating interior structure. Moving through this material reveals and illuminates a natural world seldom glimpsed, both in space and in time. I would also hope that by showing this amazing aspect of the natural world, a better appreciation of nature and the importance of conserving our precious resources can be gained.

Cutting machine