DEE-CON 2014 set to be biggest yet
Published On Tue 25 Mar 2014 by Grant Hill
Gospel choirs, entertainers, martial arts exponents and DJs are among those joining artists and industry experts in celebrating Scotland’s largest free anime convention at Dundee University Students Association (DUSA) next month.
DEE-CON will take place on Saturday, 5th April when film screenings, board and video game tournaments, stalls, exhibitions, demonstrations and industry presentations take place. Organised predominantly by students and alumni of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), DEE-CON is a fundraiser event with all proceeds going towards the animation degree show in May.
DEE-CON will feature talks from guest speakers from the animation, games, comic and anime industry as well as other specialists and enthusiasts. The list includes Professor Kenny Mitchell and Maggie Kosek of Disney Research, games industry veterans Peter Greeves and Phil Harris, freelance illustrator, animator and director Bianca Ansems, BAFTA-nominated director Jamie Stone, and Zoe Burgess, Cosplay fanatic and freelance writer.
A gospel choir will be singing songs from and related to games and anime, while a spectacular martial arts demonstration will be performed by Northumbria University Kendo Club. Coinciding with this year’s event is Dundee Comics Expo, which takes place in the nearby Queen Mother Building. The venue will be full of independent creators showing off their comic book work. The event will also feature guest lectures and special guests.
Animation Society president Rossie Stone said, "This event has a large following and has grown impressively more popular every year, with queues literally stretching off-campus last year. This year we are linking the event with Dundee Comics Expo, another popular annual event that celebrates the city’s comics and graphic-novel heritage.
“This only expands the area of interest and the size of the event - which is good for us as we aim to raise the quality and standard each year. Ultimately, this convention is a time and place for artists, young and old, to indulge in their interests in an ideal venue with like-minded people.
“Both DEE-CON and the Comics Expo will be having special guests from the industries give talks, workshops and interviews. This is a highly valued part of the convention as many of our attendees are artists or soon-to-be art students who are enthusiastic and want to learn more about games, music, art, and animation.”
International Table Top Day also takes place on Saturday, April 5th, and to celebrate this an entire floor of DUSA will be dedicated to competitions in Pandemic, Vanguard and Battlestar Galactica among others.
This year’s event will see an entire floor of DUSA turned over to video games with battle raging on both retro and contemporary consoles. Another new feature for 2014 is the opportunity for school pupils and other keen artists to have their portfolio reviewed by leading figures in the animation and comics industries to help them develop their ideas and skills.
Cosplaying, a type of performance art in which participants wear costumes that represent a specific character, usually from fiction, or idea, will be taking place, while professional photographers will be on hand to capture everyone in their costumes.
As well as screenings of anime films and shorts throughout the day, features will include a reel of previous animation graduate films and a preview reel of 2014 graduate film clips. The convention will feature an Artist’s Alley where up and coming anime/fan art/comic artists and illustrators can sell their work, promote their businesses and make contacts.
The event will be rounded off with the now-traditional after party, with DJs Momoka and Nanashi battling it out for supremacy of the DUSA dancefloor.
More information about the event is available at:
http://deecon2k14.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/DeeCon2k14
https://twitter.com/DeeCon2014