Posts tagged 'Mind Bending'

infime

Dan Charbit (and the talented folks at Cut And Cook Studio) bring the WHOA.

Go watch Loom next.

[ infime ]

Mutual Core

“I shuffle around the tectonic plates in my chest.
You know I gave it all, try to match our continents;
To change seasonal shift, to form a mutual core.”

You guys remember SOLIPSIST, right? (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, drop what you’re doing and go watch it immediately.) It’s easily in the top five of my ‘Favorite Pieces of Internet’ list for 2012 so I was SUPER-PUMPED to discover (via Sam Lillard) that its creator, Andrew Huang, directed Björk‘s latest music video.

The two are a natural fit: His craft-material-as-biology approach pairs well with both her nature-as-allegory lyrical tendencies and always-out-there visual style so it’s no surprise that this collaboration thrums with a primal, living energy.

The bits are available in 1080p, too so don’t hesitate to load this thing on the biggest display available. ENJOY!

P.S. Our Bjӧrk feed is pretty rad.

[ OFFICIAL Bjӧrk - Mutual Core - Art + Music - MOCAtv ]

Remember

Have you guys ever heard of Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seeds? In terms of psychedelics I wouldn’t recommend them. On the gradient scale from discomfort to otherworldly bliss they skew wildly towards the former; your platter is piled high with twin helpings of purge and (if you’re lucky) only a minuscule, mostly-tasteless garnish of surreal, clanking insight. To put it simply: there’s a reason you can buy them legally at your local garden supply store.

We’ve all been there though right? A blank-slate weekend with itchy thoughts, desperate for some kind of stimulation. Your mainstays are all-but depleted with no one in sight to replenish their stores. It’s in these moments the mind gets desperate. “Oh, you read about these on the internet? You heard it could-do-something-or-other? Yeah man, whatever, I’m down.”

A bored young brain can be a strange and dangerous thing.

Anyways, after a heavy barbecue dinner, a few drinks and some futile resin hits we swallowed them down. Numerous trustworthy warnings, received in hypertext, were casually disregarded; apparently they were supposed to be soaked overnight to remove some noxious husk. Too late, it’s 11pm on a clear, perfect Saturday; we’ll take our chances. “Let’s go.”

Hours pass. Nothing. Time for bed; we’re getting sleepy, unaware that this is part of the ramp up. “I’ll take the couch dude, good night, see you in the morning.”

I’m not sure when the ‘thrumming’ started but it probably kicked-off during R.E.M. sleep. Though in-reality absolutely still, my limbs were buzzy and shaking. It was as if my tendons were lengthening, the attached muscles dangling freely from stringy bones like swaying wind chimes before a late-summer thunderstorm.

And where was the warmth going? Why was it traveling to my core in thick palpable waves? Thrum-rum-rum-um, thrum-rum-rum-um, thrum-rum-rum-um. It was pleasant but…not. I couldn’t decide. Was I dreaming?

I opened my eyes and the opposite wall was alive with blinks and flashes. Is this the trip? Yes, but not like I was thinking, the fevered visuals on display came not from my mind but a more pedestrian source: the cheap display of an all-in-one stereo perched high on the shelf behind me. There was no sound coming from the speakers but I could hear it all the same, Thrum-rum-rum-um, thrum-rum-rum-um, thrum-rum-rum-um.

It moved in concert with my jangled limbs, carrying heat down my shoulders and up my hips to meet in the center of my gut. It felt wonderful for about a minute and then I realized what was happening: my body was trying to tell me that I was going to vomit. Like now. In someone else’s house. I needed to make a break for it.

FUCK.

Lying on the cool bathroom floor felt fantastic and I stayed there for hours. It wasn’t just the idle stereo’s flickering slot-machine demo mode that could be heard but all sources of light. In here however, the gentle thrum was gone, it’s barely-audible throb replaced by a constant and abrasive owl’s screech from the bright spherical bulbs above the vanity.

It was around this time that I said aloud, “Morning…I want it to be morning now.”

The flavors in the attached remind me a bit of that night though, thankfully, sans anxious nausea. This is one of those videos you need headphones on in a dark-room to fully appreciate. The layers of tight, aggressive synths and staccato vocals from new-on-the-scene Raveyards coalesce into an aggressive cacophony while the whacked-out dark, just-a-bit unsettling visuals (as directed by Brussels-based Charles De Meyer) ramp up accordingly til it all culminates in a bizarre crescendo.

It’s so dope, you guys; an instant classic. Enjoy!

[ Raveyards - "Remember" ]

The Wonder Hospital

“A surreal journey through a mysterious hospital that alters the perception of physical beauties.”

File under: LOLWAT

Today’s dose of bizarre is graciously provided by Beomsik Shimbe Shim, a South Korean-born filmmaker/animator currently working in Los Angeles. Enjoy the ride!

[ "The Wonder Hospital" (Full version - official) ]

Solipsist

For the past few weeks I’ve been moving all my stuff from one place to another and, just days ago, finally procured internet in my new home. I still had access to the hive-mind via my phone but the lack of a physical keyboard and suitably sized screen during my leisure hours made keeping the site up-to-date a bit difficult. I’m kind of paranoid about not making all of you happy. I want to make you happy – no, I need to, desperately so. This is a fools errand I know, but there are forces at play beyond my control.  The imperative to continually deliver fresh internets to you all is so ground into my psyche that any choice my consciousness might have had in the matter has long since desiccated into a dusty, shriveled husk that bares no resemblance to its former autonomy.

My obsession lies not in collecting hits, likes or followers but in generating a more difficult to quantify resource: genuine affection. I want you to like coming here. I want you to be pleased to see I have updated. I want you to come back. Why? I dunno. If I did the preceding paragraphs wouldn’t be descriptions of my damage but an excerpt from my manifesto and, since I don’t have one of those, it’s best if we press on.

Unless I’m missing something I think my motivations are, at their core, fairly simple: finding something that is awesome is, in fact, awesome. And sharing that awesome thing with others, sans any ulterior, self-serving motive is even awesomer. I like awesome. I crave it. I need that shit, man. Ergo, this website.

Wait, what the fuck are we talking about? Oh yeah.

So I come back from my little hiatus and see a whole bunch of great suggestions. It appears you guys like awesome shit, too! And you like the awesomer act of sharing it with others. This is nothing new to me but I like being reminded of it all the same. It just feels good. Genuinely good. You know, that super-warm feeling that inexplicably rises through your chest but evaporates the moment it’s consciously acknowledged? That.

It was brief and moving and authentic and great so thanks, bros and bro-ettes.

The suggestion bin was packed with it’s usual random succotash of trippy ephemera but there were seven suggestions for one video in particular and, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, it’s the one attached to the top of this post.

Holy shit, it’s so good. It’s like a narration-less David Attenborough style documentary that looks as if it was filmed on the same planet that Wanderlust is from.

In creating SOLIPSIST, Andrew Huang struck a near-perfect balance between two approaches that are often at-odds: the nearly-impossible-to-duplicate-otherwise tactility of shot footage with the absolute-control wacked-out-ness that computer generated imagery affords. I think you’d agree that he’s straddled this fickle, narrow fence with a deftness that must make other directors jealous. Or, in the parlance of today’s youth, Mr. Huang’s got his swag on.

The making-of for this one is can’t-miss-fascinating so, once you’re done watching the film, make sure you give it a watch.

Massive thanks are due to Cosmo, Sarah, Hess, Diego Martintereso, zak standel, Sam Lillard and Garrett for making sure I didn’t miss this one. Word.

If you’ve got anything you’d like me to see, fill out this little form and share the love.

One more thing! If you haven’t seen Wanderlust yet, I recommend you do that next. Cheers!

[ SOLIPSIST ]

In The Middle

I first watched this last night on my laptop and was instantly smitten. My initial assessment was that it was akin to looking through the windshield during a drive-thru car wash within What Dreams May Come. It’s an orgy of sloshing, intermingled color that’s constantly changing costume from a myriad wardrobe of morphing textures.  Anyways, after watching it on the laptop I was curious to see what it would be like on the big screen, so I hooked it up to my HDTV and took a seat on a comfy chair about fifteen feet away.

Whoa man.

I highly recommend you do the same and, if you don’t have a large screen available, just take a few giant steps back from whatever device your watching this on; it’s not so much about the size of the screen but your distance from it that’s important. When you do a whole host of imagery will present itself: people, landscapes, things; all fleeting but instantly recognizable. It functions similarly to Chuck Close‘s post-seizure paintings: up close they appear as a grid of imprecise, crudely rendered orbs and splotches while, at a distance, a psychedelic proportional face starts coming into view.

The attached was created by Morgan Beringer as part of a two-video set (the other one is equally hypnotizing and abstract so don’t hesitate to give it a watch) for Matthew Dear‘s recent release on Ghostly International, a label I whole-heartedly recommend you keep an eye on. Their track-record of top-quality releases (with videos to match) is a clear indicator that what they’re doing over there is special. Have you seen Brokendate? Also from Ghostly, also rad.

If you’re diggin’ this then be sure to check out Amalgamation, too.

[ Matthew Dear - "In The Middle (I Met You There) [ft. Jonny Pierce of The Drums]" ]

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

File under: LOLWAT

Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling created this potent dose of bizarre with plenty of help from their talented friends at THIS IS IT, “a collective of illustrators, animators, artists and designers based in London.” Click here to see a full list of who-did-what. 

Cheers to Pvt Engle for sending it our way. Enjoy!

[ Don't Hug Me I'm Scared ]

The External World

Ann wrote in with a hyperlink to this 57 second long animation that David OReilly (remember ??????) made for Tim & Eric’s Saint’s Row promotional short film, “Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax” accompanied by a single sentence, “you could definitely file this under lolwat. Her categorization was dead on and we initialized our patent-pending Post To The Internet™ sequence as we figured it’d be something most of you would enjoy. One of the steps involved in the aforementioned ritual is checking if the artist in question – in this case David – has anything better that should be posted instead. He does!

The masthead of his website reads: ANIMATION, 3D, INTERNET, EPHEMERAL DRIVEL, FLEETING DISTRACTION, NONSENSE, CATS ETC and, according to that rubric, The External World delivers. It’s seventeen minutes of seemingly-disparate-at-first-but-eventually-interconnected infinitely bizarre vignettes. It’s awesome.

I should mention that an HD quicktime of this film is available for download if you’re willing to part with about $5. The purchase has no real value and is essentially ceremonial as The External World is freely available on both Vimeo and the ‘Tubes but, I decided to buy it anyways. Why? Well, for one, supporting art just feels good man. I also want to affirm this type of behavior and do what I can to fund whatever David will create next. Maybe you’ll consider doing it, too? In the meantime: enjoy the weirdness.

[ The External World ]

Take Your Medicine

Come on, get up and on your feet;
Beyond refuge of troubled sleep.
Have I had enough? Or did I take too much?

Oh em gee! This shit is the dopeness y’all; easily an instant classic of The Tripatorium™. If you’re a regular visitor to this site you will guaranteed-love this music video directed by Nader Husseini for San Diego based rock outfit, Transfer. I’m having a hard time encapsulating why I enjoy it so much with just a couple of sentences: is it the giant demon beast with a dolphin-esque skull steadily keeping the beat on an array of floating drums? The exploration of substance abuse/dependence that culminates in a cascade of pills spilling forth from aforementioned aquatic mammalian skull monster? How the rich, undulating textures and muted color palette support the steady emotional build-up breakdown? There, I’ve done it: it’s all of those things together, at once. Enjoy the ride…

To see a complete list of the talented dudes and dudettes involved in making of ‘Take Your Medicine’ as well as a lengthy list of it’s awards/nominations click here.

[ "Take Your Medicine" by Transfer | Official Music Video ]

blackhole

Whoa. This one is weird. And wonderful. And trippy. And bursting with colo– well it’s a lot of things, OK? ‘blackhole’ is definitely one of those music videos you want to watch full-screen with the headphones on and the volume up. Both the visuals and the tune were created by super-talented arjanM. Prepare for a bask in the bizarre, friends!

Big ups to IntellJ for sending this fantastic little suggestion our way! Cheers!

[ blackhole ]

?????

Today’s dose of LOLWAT comes directly from the bizarre mind of David OReilly.

[ ????? ]

Scanner

Levi Beamish wrote in and asked us to check out a ‘video portrait’ he made with a, “simple practical effect achieved by stacking 100 video layers, pushing each layer one frame out of sync and [then] cropping [it] to 1% of [its original] size”. It’s the same concept used in the ‘Vital Signs’ video we posted back in March (be sure to check that one out of you haven’t seen it yet).

Short but sweet, we likey. The Kid Cudi backing tune was a nice touch, Levi; its just right for the visuals. Thanks for writing in!

[ Scanner. ]

Journey Through A Melting Brain

“Strata-cut animation is most commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like “loaf” of clay, internally packed with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the animation camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within.”

In the mid-90’s David Daniels revived and refined the stratacut animation technique that was originally pioneered in the 1920s by German animator Oskar Fischinger. The attached video is a montage of some of Daniels’ best sequences – prepare yourselves to bask in the weirdness. Enjoy!

[ Journey Through A Melting Brain (The Stratacut of David Daniels) ]

Yes I Know

If you enjoy the mind-bending and the bizarre then prepare to meet one of your new favorite videos. Eric Epstein conceived, directed, edited, animated and composited – with production assistance from m ss ng p eces – this monster of a music video for Memory Tapes. It’s perfect viewing material for a late-night weekend decompression and chill session so we heartily recommend you watch it on the largest, highest-definition screen you’ve got. The whole thing is weird, well executed and wonderful but we especially enjoyed the flocking birds sequence at the end. All-in-all a treat, friends – enjoy!

[ Memory Tapes "Yes I Know" ]