'Music of the Spheres' (2026) Meditative Animation Short: Our Post-Human Landscape

Toronto-based independent animator, educator and interdisciplinary visual artist Jennifer Linton (her films include the 2023 'Ouroboros' and the 2018 'Wunderkammer', more on her personal page) easily moves from printmaking and installation to animation. Currently teaching in the Experimental Animation Program at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada, she has also completed a 7-minute animation short, 'Music of the Spheres'. Self-described as a "seven-minute meditation on the post-human landscape", its animation is structurally synchronized to a data-sonification of the 47 Tucanae globular cluster, situated 16,000 light-years from Earth.

As the director will tell Zippy Frames, the title itself is an ancient philosophical concept originating with the mathematician Pythagoras in classical Greece. According to that conception, the mathematical proportions in the movements of celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon, and planets—constitute a form of cosmic music. In the 17th century, astronomer Johannes Kepler refined this concept into a fascinating bridge between mysticism, geometry, and science. In homage to Kepler’s work, the film's artwork draws heavily on 16th- and 17th-century esoterica.

Here are some more details on this highly symbolic but also emotionally resonant animation short (now online to watch), as told by the film director:

Starting the 'Music of the Spheres'

The catalyst for this work emerged during the pandemic lockdowns in Toronto, when urban wildlife seemed to flourish or, at the very least, ventured further into empty city spaces beyond the usual. While many artists focused on the human experience within these empty spaces, I became intrigued by how nature appeared to reclaim and repair itself in our absence.  

The Animated Characters

The film features three celestial beings: the Virgin Mary, a Moon Goddess, and a Sun God. Mary serves as an Earth Mother figure mourning the loss of humanity. In contrast, the Moon Goddess and Sun God exist as ancient cosmic forces indifferent to human existence. Their designs, along with the lobster's, draw from the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The lobster derives directly from The Moon card’s traditional symbolism, which typically includes a full or crescent moon, two towers flanking a body of water, a dog, a wolf, and a crustacean (typically a crayfish, but sometimes a lobster). Though variations of the card often omit the dog and wolf, the lobster remains a central element alongside water, emphasizing the lunar connection to the tides.

Visual Art and Animation

My visual art practice is rooted primarily in drawing. Printmaking, installation, and animation serve as natural extensions of this foundation, allowing me to explore new avenues and expand my understanding of what drawing can accomplish. My gallery-based work often had an implied narrative connecting the different drawings, and I approach my time-based work similarly. As an animator, I typically rely on visual storytelling, inviting viewers to discover and interpret the narrative for themselves.  

The Musical Collaboration

The film's pacing was driven entirely by its soundtrack, rather than the other way around. The piece, a pre-existing composition I licensed directly from composer Suzie Shrubb, first caught my attention on SoundCloud in a three-hour version. I immediately knew I wanted to build a project around it. Titled “a tintinnabulation of cosmic scintillation,” the composition derives its pitches from pulsars within the 47 Tucanae globular cluster in the Tucana constellation, roughly 16,000 light-years from Earth.

In a recent email, Suzie shared this reflection on the collaboration: 

“While did not write [this music] specifically for 'The Music Of The Spheres', I also feel as though I did just non-locally in time, years in advance. The piece's natural home is in this film, […] I just didn't know it yet. The piece emerged from my lifelong fascination with astronomy and particle physics as part of a long-term composition project titled Music of the Spheres/ Music of the Atoms which aims to explore, express and reveal connections between music and the fabric of reality…”

Analogue and Digital Animation

Prior to this project, all my animations were analogue, created by drawing on paper with a peg bar, paper cutouts, puppets, and paper phenakistoscopes/zoetropes. Marking my first fully digital film, this project challenged me to draw using a stylus. Although I still prefer the tactile experience of drawing on paper, certain aspects of this work would have been nearly impossible without a digital workflow. Traces of my cutout animation style remain, while the overall aesthetic references the esoteric illustrations of 16th-century alchemists, the scientists of their era.

Rebirth and the Human Kind

Long after our departure, Earth will retain the imprint of human existence, embedded in the soil as a layer of plastic fossils. Over time, animals might adapt to this altered landscape by integrating synthetic debris into their biology. This is far from science fiction, as hermit crabs are already using cast-off plastic as substitutes for shells. Microplastics have recently been measured in lobster meat at record levels. This future is already unfolding.

Post-Human, Post-Film Considerations

We’re still living in the Anthropocene, but no species lasts forever. Unfortunately, our big brains and tool-making abilities are likely to speed up our inevitable decline, but perhaps they might also prove our salvation. The jury’s still out. 

For my next project, I am returning to analogue techniques with a silhouette-style animation using paper puppets, inspired by Lotte Reiniger. Currently in pre-production, the film is an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Juniper Tree," blending disturbing themes of child murder, cannibalism and ghostly revenge with a delightfully Germanic black humor.

Watch 'The Music of the Spheres'

The article is part of our Animation Filmmaker Spotlight series.