Nothing Blooms
Mourad Hamla (Algeria, 2024, 2:43)
Honorable Mention – Abstract Video Art
Credits
Directed by Mourad Hamla
Completion date: March 28, 2024
Country of Origin: Algeria
Runtime: 2:43
Shooting format: Digital, black and white, 16:9
Process: 3D photography rotoscoping
Description
An ephemeral beauty and a meditation on the transient nature of all things. This video invites viewers to contemplate impermanence, while celebrating the fragile and fleeting splendor that exists even in the act of fading.
Director’s statement
The movement in Nothing Blooms was not based on strict choreography but emerged through a combination of structured design and moments of improvisation within Unreal Engine, allowing the animation to feel organic and fragile. Camera movement was conceived as a gentle observation of a living organism, while the editing follows a breathing rhythm, more contemplative than narrative, echoing the transient and meditative essence of the work.
The sound design creates a subtle sonic atmosphere that enhances the ephemeral mood. The music, composed specifically for the piece, guided both the pacing of the visual flow and the contemplative rhythm of the editing.
In the director’s own words, the “3D photography rotoscoping” process combines macro-photography of organic materials such as faded flowers and leaves, partial 3D reconstruction through photogrammetry, and frame-by-frame manual tracing that creates delicate movement. These elements are integrated into a digital 3D space that evokes “intimate reliefs” rather than conventional three-dimensional modeling.
Programmer’s notes – Blas Payri
Nothing Blooms stands out as a rare achievement in contemporary abstract video art. The piece transforms organic matter into a suspended, weightless world where petals, light, and shadows evolve in a dance that is both physical and immaterial.
Its plastic beauty is exceptional — luminous, delicate, and deeply poetic. What makes the work particularly striking is the way the digital postproduction creates believable, physically resonant movements from non-living forms. The animation breathes, oscillates, and expands with a sense of organic rhythm that evokes the choreographic pulse of life itself.
Unlike much 3D-based video work that tends to rely on continuous motion, Nothing Blooms uses cinematic montage, alternating framings and scales to construct visual phrasing. This gives the work a filmic structure while maintaining an abstract visual language.
Moments of metamorphosis — when the flower dissolves into air, folds over the space, or bursts into ripples — embody a rare synthesis of technical mastery and poetic sensibility. The piece feels like a meditation rendered in motion, a visual equivalent to a musical étude on fragility and transformation.