We caught up with Dawn Taylor, CEO of Manipulate Festival, to dive into the festival’s bold vision of reshaping storytelling through visual art forms.
Hi Dawn, you’re the CEO and Artistic Director of Manipulate Festival. Can you tell us a little about the festival this year and your ethos?
Manipulate is an Edinburgh-based festival of Scottish and international animated film, puppetry and visual theatre – all the work that we present is either driven forward by image, rather than by words, or has the goal of bringing the inanimate to life. 2025 will see Manipulate focus on creative experimentation, sustainable futures, and investment in Scottish artistic talent. We’ll be supporting Scottish artists to experiment with new work, and inviting audiences in to get closer than ever to the work and those making it. The festival is smaller than in previous editions and is far more focused on homegrown work, although our animated film programme will remain global in focus. Manipulate 2025 will play host to premieres of new Scottish performances, works in progress at all stages of development, hands-on opportunities to discover how these visual works are made, and conversations with artists about sustainable new festival models for the future.
Why does Manipulate focus on the visual aspects of performance and creative experiences?
Given that the UK has such a long and rich literary and dramatic tradition, there is huge emphasis in our culture placed on the written word. All the artforms that we champion tend to buck this trend – their power and magic lies in their ability to convey complex ideas through images. This unlocks new ways of seeing the world and can also bring together diverse groups across communicative or geographic boundaries. All of our work is focused around artforms which breathe life into the inanimate or tell stories using primarily images rather than text. We believe that the common thread between these artforms lies in the opportunities they create to discover the latent magic in the everyday, to find common visual languages beyond the reach of words, and to enable play at all stages of our lives.
What are some key headline events audiences can look forward to this year at Manipulate Festival 2025?
One of our much-anticipated Scottish premieres is ‘When Prophecy Fails’ by Scottish physical theatre company Groupwork. Set in 1950s suburban America, the piece tells the story of a UFO doomsday cult and explores the theme of cognitive dissonance (clinging to a belief despite contradictory evidence). The company, led by Vicki Manderson and Finn den Hertog, have a knack for finding niche stories with universal relevance. I’m also looking forward to our short film programmes ‘On the Edge’ and ‘Queer Stories’, co-curated respectively with Take One Action Festivals and Sanctuary Queer Arts, through which we will showcase some truly brilliant and urgent stories from marginalised artists and communities. We are always looking for work in our film programme which at once showcases innovation in animation whilst introducing audiences to stories and perspectives other than those they might regularly hear.
What’s involved in the ‘Snapshots’ aspect of the festival programme?
Snapshots is our annual performance work-in-progress event, through which artists can test a new idea in its early or mid-development stages, and get feedback from a supportive audience. It’s been one of our most popular events over the last decade, with artists enjoying the opportunity to share works live at a critical stage of their development, and audiences able to get the first glimpse into new works as they find their feet. Five brand new works will be shared with our audiences, ranging from a bouffon exploration of the British Empire to a physical theatre and British Sign Language piece about nightmares.
Do you think animation gets the credit it deserves in the current arts and culture landscape as an art form?
Animation remains a marginalised artform within the wider screen landscape, despite the fact that much of what you see onscreen in big-budget action films is in fact animated. However, big releases like ‘Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ have done a lot to increase the visibility of and appetite for stop motion animation, and with the success of a number of adult animation series through major platforms like Netflix, awareness of the potential of animation as an artform for adults is growing. I would love to see more ringfenced development support through funding bodies to support new ideas and new talent, as there are a lot of exciting new voices entering this field which can go unheard if animation is often swallowed up in the wider film pool.
How do you think we can get more involved in visual art forms like these within our own individual creative practices and lives?
There are so many great festivals and events happening across Scotland which you can attend or volunteer at to become more immersed in these artforms and stay up to date with what is happening. It’s also a good idea to check out alternative streaming platforms to the big players, who likely show a larger number of independent films. Klassiki is one of these – they specialise in Eastern European cinema and there’s lots of brilliant Czech animation from the canon which is worth seeing. These artforms are also incredibly accessible to try at home – there are free puppetry tutorials on Manipulate’s website or for a more in-depth experience, you can book onto one of our professional masterclasses as part of the festival.
Finally – what are you most looking forward to seeing?
I’m looking forward to everything equally of course, but this year I’m very excited that our One Bum Cinema Club (a roving cinema for one person at a time) will be touring Edinburgh libraries for 8 weeks through February and March. The cinema is a converted shed and showcases a series of short, non-verbal and family friendly animations, which load randomly as the one audience member pushes a big red button. For those visiting with children, a parent and child can fit in together (we don’t mind if you break the one bum rule if one of them is quite small!).
Manipulate Festival will take place between 12-15 Feb in Edinburgh. More information here.