Christina Hibner is a 2D animator based in Pleasantville, New York. She graduated from Manhattan College in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and a minor in Graphic Art. Hibner graduated from School of Visual Arts in May 2019 from the MFA Computer Arts program with a concentration in Motion Graphics. Using her scientific background, Hibner can convey complex conceptual ideas and translate them into visual content that is informative as well as engaging. She has experience in academic research and can communicate with scientists at a collaborative level when interpreting data and information for visual art purposes. To Hibner, science is a gateway to a greater appreciation of this world and strives to inspire people to understand it and protect it. Her thesis titled Unified Theory is an infographic inside of a narrative that follows a junior god in training who is learning from a senior god about how mind blowing science is by opening up her awareness to the true nature of reality.
The more you know, the more there is to learn. Since I was young I could never pick a side, art or science. In graduate school I realized I didn’t have to. I have always been trying to balance the two, but everyone told me they were two separate worlds with no overlap. When I was an undergraduate student studying physics, the textbooks we used had very dry and static visuals. You had to imagine what the change over time would look like. Animation is a perfect tool to show this. I would create visuals to help my classmates and I digest the material easier. I would animate my visual data for research presentations to spark interest and comprehension. Somehow when complex ideas are clearly visualized, they don’t seem so complex. It seems fascinating and intriguing. I felt this way watching documentaries as a kid when the animated segments would come on. Animated science help students navigate a complex virtual world. Science made me feel like everything made sense. My work brings science to a level of comprehension that motivates students to be curious about the world they live in, at least to not be afraid of the unknown. I hope to achieve this through my thesis Unified Theory, which illustrates the scientist’s struggle of obtaining knowledge through making a million mistakes. It is not common to have one foot in the sciences and one foot in the visual arts, much less to maintain and exercise both halves of this duality. Left brain and right brain work in harmony to create educational informational visual art. My style uses moody backgrounds and character acting as an anchor to relate to while the trippy colorful visuals draws attention, all in support of a scientific principle. We have all wondered at some point in our lives ‘how did all this stuff get here?’ and ‘what is everything made of?’ Being curious comes so naturally to a child. Inspiring a love of learning sets a student up for a life of questioning everything and always learning. Keeping that curiosity alive in people is the key to the scientific advancement that will save this world and bring us all into the future.
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