Degree Show 2026
Josephine Batley
BA Art and Design
Josephine is a digital artist who creates enchanting technological spaces using 3D modelling. The short film ‘Death of a God’ unfolds within a dreamlike realm where life forms exist in states of symbiotic exchange. Via fantasy worldbuilding and environment design, the animation materialises a cyclical ecology of consumption and rebirth.
A rendered image from the first shot of the final film. The pictured light rays are animated to writhe, the movements enhanced through the ambient and instrumental soundscape of the piece. This environment has been devised through an accumulative process, where each grass blade and flower is 3D modelled and painted onto the landscape according to hue, creating painterly visuals.
The narrative unwinds through sudden shifts between different perspectives, camera motions constituting the low, snakelike movements of a creature in the grass, and then the ambling, slowed movements of the monster. Through prolonged, fixed shots of nature, an audience is invited to mindfully notice subtle shifts in the ecosystem, including the wilting of flowers as red smoke passes through.
The final shot of the film returns to the early image of a deer, suggesting a cyclical narrative.