Smug
Taking part in a conversation about what is or isn’t art is the intellectual equivalent of masturbation; it’s probably fun for you but isn’t of much utility to anyone else. I obtained a four-year degree in art during my early twenties which means – beyond accruing an obscene amount of debt – that I’ve spent more than enough time locked in my own head, enamored with how wonderful my own thoughts were on the subject.
This is not something I’m proud of.
That being said, I’ve found that thinking intentionally about anything is rarely a waste of time, just as long as you don’t allow the procesc to transform you into a pretentious douche. The net outcome of my autoerotic cognitive fiddlings? Two things:
- I don’t see much use in categorizing things as art or not-art.
- I tend to appreciate anything that exhibits craft.
The first item above is self-explanatory but the second is why I instinctually dismiss performance artists, ‘found-object’ impresarios or anyone else whose manifesto over-leverages the word ‘exploration’ and tend to revere potters, illustrators, photo-realists and graffiti writers.
Smug is an exemplary example of the latter two. Anyone who has attempted to draft anything with aerosol will attest to how difficult it is to get it to do what you want it to. I tried my hand at it during my late teens and was instantly repelled, knowing immediately that I didn’t possess the patience to be competent, let alone great. Just look at the images I’ve collected above, marvel at their draftsmanship and the artist’s mastery of color – can you believe a human being is capable of this shit? Attached is just a small sampling of his work, hit up his Flickr for loads more.
Probably my favorite artist right now is Kid Zoom who we featured back in December. Click that last hyperlink if you know what’s good for you.
[ SmugOne ]
posted by respondcreate on May. 08, 2012 in Pictures | tags: art, colorful, drawing, graffiti, painting, smug, trippy
Waiting Room
Trippy, mane.
Jake Fried creates his unique style of bizarre, constantly evolving animation by hand using only ink and wite-out. Once you’re done watching this, head over to his website to see more.
Cheers to Sam Lillard for the heads-up.
[ Waiting Room ]
posted by respondcreate on May. 05, 2012 in Videos | tags: animation, bizarre, hand drawn, hd, jake fried, monochromatic, stop motion, trippy
will
Oof.
Pay attention to the color in this one. Notice the differences in palette when it’s just the father or only the daughter; this is the arrow, pulled deftly from the quiver and notched silently to the string. The bow is drawn at 3:21 and, by the time it is loosed at 3:27, there’s no time to get out of the way. Just let it hit you. In my case, the aim was true.
Cheers to Eusong Lee, a student at Calarts, for the stellar job.
posted by respondcreate on May. 03, 2012 in Videos | tags: animation, calarts, colorful, death, eusong lee, geometric, hd, spiritual
Sub Wars
File under: LOLWAT
Absolutely diggin’ this bizarre, hyper-violent animated short by Chinese director/animator/illustrator SeanSoong. Enjoy!
[ 地铁大逃杀 - SUB WARS ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 29, 2012 in Videos | tags: animation, ayo_chen, bizarre, china, hd, lolwat, seansoong, star wars, trippy, violence
The Rifle’s Spiral
“Good night to these wretched forms; all them gray eyes on the subway.
So long before you were born you were always to be a dagger floating…
...straight to their heart.”
Jamie Caliri conjures up an ethereal, bizarre and magical gumbo of visuals (with stylistic nods to Edward Gorey and Tim Burton) in this excellent stop motion music video for The Shins. It’s a treat friends, don’t hesitate to dive in.
A big thanks goes to Benjamin for sending this our way…cheers!
[ The Shins - The Rifle's Spiral ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 29, 2012 in Videos | tags: bizarre, dark, dream, ethereal, hd, jamie caliri, magic, music video, stop motion, the shins, trippy, vevo sucks
Crossover
I found this little gem by Fabian Grodde while perusing the Vimeo Festival Awards picks for 2011. I’ll leave the flowery prose to a minimum; it’d be a crime to spoil the surprise. However, I should probably mention that you need to grab your headphones as the music/sound-design by Alexander Binder and Johann Niegl is top-flight. Enjoy!
P.S. Go vote! Below is a list of all the videos currently in the running that we’ve posted to the site, organized by the category they are nominated in. To show your support, click the link next to the category name and it’ll take you to the appropriate voting page…you should be able to figure it out from there.
Music Videos (vote link):
Animation (vote link):
Motion Graphics (vote link):
Lyrical (vote link):
[ Crossover ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 24, 2012 in Videos | tags: alexander binder, animation, fabian grodde, hd, horror, insects, johann niegl, nature, spider, tribal, trippy
Perpetual Ocean
“This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience…read more on nasa.gov”
Know what’s a bummer? Military spending is on the rise while NASA funding has been on a steady decline since 1992. A big thanks is due to Erica for sending this in to remind us that they’re still doing great things and our boy Neil for some much needed perspective.
Click here to see moar NASA radness on The Tripatorium™.
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 22, 2012 in Videos | tags: animation, electronic music, hd, nasa, ocean, perspective, space, trippy
iv.10
About three weeks ago Scott Benson tweeted about an apparent segment of the population that thinks animation used to be better then. Wait, did I just link to a tweet? I think I can swing a copy/paste of 140 characters for proper context: “Those who claim that modern animation doesn’t match up to an earlier period aren’t on the internet. It’s the best era of the medium NOW.”
I get what he’s saying – and honestly, I agree – but these are just subjective opinions based on our personal preferences. I’m one of those annoying assholes who, when someone says something is ‘better’, quickly attaches an unsolicited ‘for you’ suffix to their statement. It’s a knee-jerk response conditioned by years of being told the stuff I liked was somehow inferior. Like, for instance, finding out that the particular genre of music I instinctually enjoyed was ‘gay’.
But I like it, isn’t that the whole idea?
I’ve noticed that when the creative efforts of the present are derided it’s because, in the eyes of the ‘haters’, modernization has somehow ruined a sacred process that didn’t need fixing in the first place. In terms of animation, I think there’s something magical about a huge team of people collaborating together to render each cell by hand, nary a computer in site. Certainly the barriers to entry with a process like this (an ability to draw well and a near unlimited supply of patience etc.) tends to keep out the casual riffraff. But this kind of leave-it-to-the-experts, country club, gated-community/ivory tower mentality to creativity is just the un-evolved primate, fear-of-death-and-the-future part of their brains talking. Just go out and make shit; pay their chest-beating no mind.
We’re living in an age when someone like beeple can, with the help of a microprocessor and a generous swath of free time, create his own distinct flavor of audio/visual experience (like the attached) without having to compromise with bean-counters, standards and practices or really anyone for that matter…all from the comfort of home. When else in the past would someone fund a bizarre little film like this? With it’s quirky soundtrack and abstract visual accompaniment where each-and-every blip and beat has its peculiar, candy-colored visual equivalent.
We are in the age where anyone can make what they want and get it out there for virtually nothing. That’s the dream, right? Fuck yes; what a wonderful time to be alive.
Wired has a great write-up on IV.10 which is definitely worth checking out, as is the other beeple stuff we’ve posted; it’s all worth your time. Also, the aforementioned Scott Benson’s The Murf is fan-fucking-tastic; if you haven’t seen it yet don’t hesitate to click that last hyperlink.
Cheers to Sam Lillard and Santi Adams for sending this one our way. Thanks!
[ IV.10 ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 17, 2012 in Videos | tags: abstract, animation, beeple, bizarre, colorful, electronic music, hd, trippy
Changing The Rain
Just a heads-up: you might not be able to watch the video here (if you can’t then click here). Why? VEVO. My disdain for the service is well documented but I’ve softened a bit and think a personal grudge towards a distribution model (with an unnecessarily shitty user experience) is a poor reason to not share these tasty bits with y’all. Plus, if MADE ever uploads a HD version to their Vimeo account I’ll just update the post. You dig?
Anywho, this shit is doooooooope; a glorious four-and-a-half minute technicolor psychedelic romp down geometric wormholes, past kaleidoscopic alien abductions and into the mouth of God. Full 1080p too, so get this shit full screen.
Pete Fowler directed this one and, if you’re not familiar with his work, I recommend you head over to his Flickr account immediately; his bold graphic style is a treat. Oh, and if The Horrors intoxicating blend of starry-eyed, psychedelic, rambling synth-drenched rock is your thing I recommend you check out Skying for lots more of the same. It’s the kind of album you’d want on a road trip; it’s cinematic but contemplative, bright and big but a bit lazy, too. It’s all rather nice really and easily worth the ten bucks.
A HUUUUGE thanks is due to Naz for sending this one our way…cheers!
[ The Horrors - Changing The Rain ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 16, 2012 in Videos | tags: aliens, bizarre, colorful, geometric, hd, kaleidoscope, made visual studio, music video, pete fowler, psychedelic, spiritual, the horrors, trippy, vevo sucks, wormhole
Breezeblocks
I’ve seen some truly heinous shit in my day but the panic that gripped me as this music video progressed was terrifying.
I think this has more than a little to do with the birth of my first child, an incredible experience that occurred just over a week ago. When she emerged slick and squirming from my wife’s birth canal I could feel the neurons in my brain twitching with a busy psychedelic electricity, their axons plumbing to new depths while fingers of delicate dendrites spread outwards to deposit a bumper crop of synapses into my grey matter. The initial effect was euphoria, unlike any I had ever felt; nothing can prepare you for it; there is no fitting analogy to aptly describe the wholesale expansion of conciousness that takes place when a new member of your family arrives.
Much ado is made of the love that floods through you in that moment – and let me assure you, it’s there in prodigious quantities – but the fear that slowly creeps up your spine when the medical equipment is wheeled out and you are left alone with your swaddled heir is rarely mentioned. In the apt words of Jerry Holkins, “they’re only using the word fear because they don’t know what else to call it, how to name that rising, primal ice one feels when faced with the hanging jowls of the unknowable.”
Oof.
You quickly realize that the world you have inhabited for the past few decades is not fit for human life, or rather (I should say), for this human life. She is too delicate, too pure; too beautiful, too sweet. I could not bear the thought that any harm might befall her and I wasn’t quite sure it would be wise to ever leave that hospital.
A few years back I finally refined enough mental rocket fuel to propel me free of my inherited belief system’s gravity. You know, the one where you can avoid an eternity of perpetual immolation by placing your trust in a two-millennia-old fully-God-and-fully-man jewish carpenter? To be clear, the after-death insurance policy isn’t what kept me there for so long but the idea of an always-there, infinitely wise best friend who had a ‘plan’ for my life. The entirety of my psyche was stuck in a mental holding pattern, waiting in vain for the God of the Universe to tell me what it was that ‘He’ wanted me to do. Many of my former fellow congregants spoke smiling and glassy-eyed about how there was ‘freedom in Christ’ but I honestly never understood what that meant. It just felt like torturous cognitive incarceration to me.
And again, when that warm, initial giddy wave that accompanied my new-found spiritual freedom receded back, a cold realization deposited itself like jagged, rusty flotsam on the shore of my mind: no one is minding the store. There is no ultimate authority on right and wrong, no final judgement on those who seek to harm, no all-powerful hand to ensure that love ultimately prevails…
...no perfect being to protect her.
So yeah, this video! It’s messy, and raw, and real. And watching the narrative unfold in reverse (as expertly directed by Ellis Bahl) grips me with terror: who is her father? Does he know where she is? Can he get there in time? Who will save her?
I know it’s just a music video but this all could have (and, in all likelihood, probably has) happened here, in the real world. And just as I have decided to shrug off the illusory restrictions of some distant, intensely-interested-in-my-future deity, I am also determined to not be held in captive fear by all the potential ultimately-out-of-my-control ways harm could materialize around my daughter. I guess what I’m trying to explicate here is that, in spite of all this, I still have a say in the matter; I am endowed with the freedom to contribute my efforts, no matter how small, to shaping this marvelous plane of existence, too.
A sometimes scary but blindingly beautiful world awaits your discovery, Maia; there is so much I want to show you.
[ ∆ | Breezeblocks ]
posted by respondcreate on Apr. 11, 2012 in Videos | tags: alt-j, ellis bahl, hd, horror, music video, reverse time, violence, ∆