How did you start making art with old Nintendos?

I bought a Nintendo DSi XL for my 10th birthday I think, and it came preinstalled with this software called Flipnotes Studio and I just got addicted to it. At first I was just making my own animations, trying to make the pictures move on the screen in any way I could, and then I realized that there was a sort of social media app related to this Nintendo game. And that was game changing because then I could see animations created by people all over the European and Australian servers.

What topics do you focus on and what kind of content can we find within this app?

Personally, I really like making romance and love animations [laughs]. Like just shipping two characters together, exploring the dynamics between people that way, lots of lip-syncing music videos. Like I'll get some songs stuck in my head, I'll go on a walk and just imagine what characters I want to draw to it. I'll also do funny memes.

On Sudomemo [name of the online community] people can upload chain animations where they’ll be like “OK everybody draw yourself dancing to this song” and they might draw like five frames and then the next person can download that, add five frames of themselves, the next person downloads that and adds five frames, and so on. I really like doing that stuff. You have a big collaborative animation made by lots of people at the end of it.

We also have a few competitions throughout the year. We just finished our Winter Comedy Festival (WCF) so we were encouraging people to make Comedy animations. In the Spring time. We have the first round of our Flipnote Fight Competition (FFC) which is usually stick figures, but we also have Sprite animators, anime animators, whatever. People just try to draw the most epic fight scenes ever. We have special guest judges from the Hyun’s Dojo community, which is an even bigger website than we are, except they're just focused on fight animations.

During the Summer, we have our Flipnote Animation Tribute Event (FATE). This is an event where we try to mimic the art styles and the kind of content that was posted on the original site back and like 2008 - 2012, so lots of very nostalgic animations. They make memes that were popular back in that time like it is just focused on nostalgia during the summer because it's the anniversary of when the original site shut down. A very sad time for all the old users of the site. It's really nice to have a tribute to that kind of culture, I think. It has its own unique culture that like I don't see anywhere on the internet really, so it's nice to have a gathering of people where we appreciate this cultural vault that some of us used to experience. But we have a lot of teenagers actually who weren't even alive when this old site was alive and they're very nostalgic for a time that they never experienced themselves, i think that’s really cool as well.

So yeah, those are the main genres we have on Sudomemo. There’s lots of other very, very talented artists sharing their crafts. Just go check it out !

What is this old site that you’re mentioning?

So the old site was called Flipnote Hatena. And that website lasted 5 years from 2008 to 2013 when it was shut down. And then in 2014, Sudomemo was created by a few hackers and very smart tech people who brought back the original service. So Sudomemo is the modern day social media site for sharing Flipnote animations created with a Nintendo console with people all over the world. You can reach it through the Flipnote Studio app on the Nintendo or through the website.

What is your specific role in this community?

Everything [laughs]. No no no, I’m mostly a designer. I started off as a graphic designer. I was originally just tasked with drawing the graphics for our Weekly Topics. So every week we challenge the community to make animations based on some random topic. I think my first topic I ever made a graphic animation for is cheese [laughs], so I just had to like make a graphic like “this week’s topic is “cheeeese”” and advertise that on the website so people know that “oh, i should make an animation about cheese this week” [laughs].

So how do people enter the community? Do you have to have certain skills or can you just join the community because you’re into it?

No matter what your skill level, if you’re a completely basic artist, never even picked up a pencil before, you are welcome in this community. We don’t judge by skill level. It’s actually a very nice community to be in if you’re new to art. Like the community is very supportive. We have a Youtube series in progress for teaching people the fundamentals of animation using flipnotes. There’s a lot of helpful resources for learning how to start off. The community is very active so even if you just start off making some basic art, people will interact with you. You just need a Nintendo DSi or 3DS model because your account is linked to the hardware.

How would you say that your practice challenges industrial media production?

I’d say, for the most part, it's more independent than industrial media production. A lot of the time you’re just making it yourself. People don’t make these animations for profit most of the time. There have been artists who got commissions for making animations in this style to make music videos, which is very cool. But for the most part, people post to Sudomemo because they have something in their heart that they want to express in whatever way they feel is best. It’s just a community based on sharing creativity.

So, would it be safe to say that your community positions itself outside of the filmmaking industry?

Yeah ! Like outside of the traditional industry but still focused on the fundamentals of animation. But yeah, each animation can only be a megabyte at most. You know, it’s very small but you can do a lot with that one megabyte !

The last Nintendo DS was released in 2017. How does this impact your practice?

It’s quite difficult to find the hardware at times. That’s why in our community we focus on preserving the hardware and teaching people how to look after their hardware in a way to make it last. For example, lots of people don’t like to use their Nintendos while they are charging because this can damage the battery life. Some people in the community are extremely good at repairing and helping to instruct others on how to repair your Nintendo. It’s difficult but people are dedicated to preserving this hardware and this art form.

Because all those pieces and elements are not produced anymore, there must be a clear ecological perspective when it comes to deciding to create movies on this technology, right?

Yeah, definitely. Some people like to buy old hardware on ebay for super cheap and then use the parts for repairs. I think it’s a really interesting and nicer relationship to have with technology than we do in the modern day. You know, phones are quite difficult to repair and most of the time, it’s the software that becomes out of date rather than the hardware. In this case, you really value the technology that you have and you really want to make it last as long as possible so you put in the care to learn how to look after it and learn how to keep it alive for as long as possible. I have a much different relationship with my Nintendo than with my phones. I know that the battery of my phone is not going to fail before the software so there’s no point in preserving the battery. When you have hardware that can last, you are more incentivized to look after it. I know the Nintendos are gonna fail eventually but we want to delay that as much as possible and be a bit optimistic!

Is the ecological aspect important to your community, or to you?

For my part, yes. But I also know that naturally, with posting any kind of information on the internet there can be a big ecological impact and it can be very expensive to use the more ecologically friendly data servers. Unfortunately, we can’t afford to spend more money on a more sustainable server. But we do really make efforts to minimize our digital impacts in many ways, like I will compress any of the graphic images that I put on the website because it makes a big difference with the amount of people posting on there. And also, the fact that each animation can only be a megabyte impacts our digital footprint.

Do you think that the media industry could learn something from the way that you’re managing this community and the kind of art you’re making?

Definitely! Less is more a lot of the time, especially with the movement of having hyper realistic video games nowadays. A lot of the time, I think that older video games look better with their more pixelated looks. And, you have to be so much more clever with how you’re using the limited amount of resources that you have. Movies have so many details but that’s so much information and we don't necessarily need it. We can do so much with one megabyte!

Were you aware before applying to this training course [Ecocinema Lab] that your practice was intrinsically ecological or did you realize this when you filled in the form?

No, I just thought this project sounded cool. I didn't immediately think that the work that I do with Sudomemo was ecological but as I was filling the application and reflecting on it I realized that we do have a focus on minimizing our impact.

So even if the community members are not intrinsically focused on ecology, the preservation of those devices is an ecological practice. It’s really nice to see how you make “cool” to be eco-friendly.

Yeah, I think it’s interesting to bridge that gap. In my head, the ecological people and the more hardware people are worlds apart. And also the social media side itself, Sudomemo, it’s really not capitalistic. It doesn’t revolve around constant engagement. The feeling I get when using Sudomemo is that I have to slow down. It takes a little bit of time to use your Nintendo to load your animation online but also if you want to comment, you have to handdraw your comment so every person you interact with is a real person, not a bot designed to farm your engagement. It’s not designed to hook you in like TikTok.