Melina Sydney Paduasydneypadua.com
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graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

and

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. She is the author of '' The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage''

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and Applied arts, aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century Industrial Revolution, industrial steam engine, steam-powered machinery. Steampun ...

comic, and her animation work appears in several popular Hollywood films. She has worked as character animator in

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

s such as ''

Marmaduke ''Marmaduke'' is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson (cartoonist), Brad Anderson from November 15, 1954 to 2015. Publication history The strip was created by wri ...

'', '' Clash of the Titans'', '' The Golden Compass'', '' The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'', ''

The Iron Giant ''The Iron Giant'' is a 1999 American animated science fiction film directed by Brad Bird and produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation. It is loosely based on the 1968 novel '' The Iron Man'' by Ted Hughes (which was published in the United ...

'', '' Quest for Camelot'', and ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

''. Her work has been exhibited at the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Tech Lab and at a

exhibition by the Oxford Museum of the History of Science. She gave a conference on storytelling at ''The Story'', an event shared with

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of th ...

, Tim Etchells,

David Hepworth David Hepworth (born 27 July 1950) is a British music journalist, writer, television presenter, and publishing industry analyst. He was instrumental in the foundation of a number of popular magazines in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Along with the j ...

, Aleks Krotoski, and Tony White among others. In December 2015, she was awarded the biennial Neumann Prize of the British Society for the History of Mathematics for ''The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage''. In April 2016, she was nominated for the

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

in the Best Writer/Artist category, and ''The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage'' in the Best Graphic Album—New category. In 2004 Padua decided to teach herself how to animate on a computer. She started by sketching a storyboard for a short film. The end result was the 2.5-minute ''Agricultural Report''. This film ended up being shown at over 200 festivals and won a few awards, including Best Short Film at the Taormina Film Festival and Audience Award for Best First Film at AnimaMundi Brazil.

Early life

Padua grew up in Mexico City and in the Canadian prairie (Western Canada). She now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her husband.

''The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage''

Sydney Padua wrote the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

''2D Goggles or The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage''. It features a

pocket universe A pocket universe or bubble universe, also called pocket dimension, is a concept in inflationary theory, proposed by Alan Guth. Description It defines a realm like the one that contains the observable universe as only one of many inflationary ...

where

Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (''née'' Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), also known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-pur ...

and

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

have actually built an analytical engine and use it to "fight crime" at

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's request. In April 2015, the comic was published as a 320-page book titled '' The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage'' by

Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint. Founded in 1942 as an independent publishing house in New York City by Kurt and Helen Wolff, it specialized in introducing progressive European works to American readers. In 1961, it was ...

. The comic is based on thorough research on the biographies of and correspondence between Babbage and Lovelace, as well as other bits of early

Victoriana Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901). It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, ph ...

, which is then twisted for humorous effect. It began as a one-shot for Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The comic was the source of a limited edition print of 25 to raise money for The Ada Initiative in July 2011. Episodes are also available as an iPhone app. The comic was adapted as a stage show, ''A Note of Dischord'', by Theatre Paradok at the 2013

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

and as an opera by Guerilla Opera in 2023.

References

External links

Sydney Padua official website

2D Goggles – Padua's Lovelace and Babbage website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Padua, Sydney Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Artists from Mexico City British comics artists British women writers British animators British graphic designers British women animators Steampunk writers British women graphic designers British female comics artists Artists from London