Posts tagged 'Spiritual'

The Jump

I’ve technically already posted the attached – it was, after all, included in Late Night Work Club’s ultra-rad first release, Ghost Stories – but, considering that it was my favorite of the bunch, I figured this magical bit of animation from Charles Huettner deserved its own entry on the site. ENJOY!

[ The Jump ]

Magma

I’m not quite sure I understand the credits for this one. It was made by Barcelona-based Dvein forThe Vein’ but the client was Adobe? Maybe you can make better sense of it...

The Who’s and What’s don’t really matter though cause the visuals in the attached are off-the-chain great and super-trippy; if you’re a regular visitor here I’m confident you’ll love it. My only gripe is that it’s far too short, I can watch stuff like this for hours.

P.S. If you’re interested in process then definitely give the ‘making of’ a watch, too.

[ The Vein / Magma ]

Stardust

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the ships that opened the Solar System for the human species, trailblazing a path for future generations. Before their launch, in August and September 1977, we were almost wholly ignorant about most of the planetary part of the Solar System. In the next dozen years, they provided our first detailed, close-up information on many new worlds–some of them previously known only as fuzzy disks in the eyepieces of ground-based telescopes, some merely as points of light, and some whose very existence was unsuspected. They are still returning reams of data.

These spacecraft have taught us about the wonders of other worlds, about the uniqueness and fragility of our own, about beginnings and ends. They have given us access to most of the Solar System–both in extent and in mass. They are the ships that first explored what may be homelands of our remote descendants.” – from Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

I’ve always been rathered enamoured with the Voyager program – especially the Golden Record, which you’ll get a close-up of at 2:35 – and the fantastic visuals in the attached short by PostPanic do a great job of embroidering JPL‘s masterwork with an appropriate sense of reverence and wonder.

Stardust‘s director, Mischa Rozema, wanted to (among other things) create a film that showed what the universe looked like, “from a different point of view. For example, standing on the surface of the sun looking upwards or witnessing the death and birth of a star - not at all scientifically correct but instead a purely artistic interpretation of such events.”

As you’ll see, he succeeded and the end result (for me, at least) provided a much needed shift in perspective. It’s gorgeous; the perfect companion for a late-night, contemplative, solitary sesh. Enjoy!

[ Stardust ]

The Ancestor

“Go on: bury me,
under stone or under sea;
Silent picture, keep the fishes company.
There is little else for me now…
...but I will find my way,
out of the dark some day,
into a crimson, yellow sun.”

An emotional cocktail of gorgeous visuals (by Crazy Lake Pictures) and poignant tunes (from Darlingside); this one’s a winner, folks.

[ "The Ancestor" by Darlingside – Official Music ]

Evoking Spirits

“I’m-still-swimming-in-that-language,
it’s multi-versal; pages and journals.
My journey here is ended soon –
we blow eternal.

My mind expands
      with widening strands
      of indigo and purple.
This music’s not commericial,
just the-square-to-meet-that-circle.”

We’ve been watching Ori Toor make shit since first discovering the ‘unofficial’ music video he created for Animal Collective’s Lion in a Coma. Since then he’s made a few more and each exhibit his distinct ‘stream of consciousness’ style of staggered-and-repeating organic, undulating shapes. Ori’s approach has subtely shifted in each of them but they’ve all, for the most part, remained abstract studies in colorful form. The attached, his latest, veers into new territory and I’m absolutely loving how he’s mixed in some representational imagery to compliment the usual assortment of evolving, fluid structures.

It’s my favorite Ori-joint yet and easily an ‘instant classic’ of the site…it’d be a crime to watch this in anything but full-screen HD. Oh and a nice pair of bass-friendly headphones is a must, too; Kingdom Crumbs knows how to properly fatten-up the bottom end of their kicks and basslines and you’ll want to rattle-and-bathe in each one.

Speaking of which, I picked up their eponymous album this morning and have been listening to it while I cobble together this post. It’s thoughtful, positive, mellow, rambling-in-a-good-way hip-hop undergirded by some spacey, out-there synthesizers and easily worth the ten bucks in iTunes. If you’re strapped for cash, head over to Bandcamp and name-your-price; even the most frugal of budgets can accommdate a few cents, right?

ENJOY!

[ Kingdom Crumbs - Evoking Spirits ]

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.

[ will (director's cut) ]

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 ]

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 ]

We are stardust.

“If you take all of the iron from the hemoglobin of the people in the tri-state area of New York City, you can recover that much iron out of their blood and realize that the iron from that meteorite and the iron from your blood has common origin in the core of a star…as Carl Sagan has said, ‘We are star-stuff’ but there’s a more poetic – and I think more accurate – way to say it; it’s quite literally true that we are stardust. In the highest exalted way one can use that phrase.”Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Whoa. Deep, bro.

[ Neil DeGrasse Tyson - Greatest Sermon Ever ]

The Shrine / An Argument

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? Mine was fantastic. I’ve been holding off on watching anything Christmas related until today but wanted to share the latest from cut-paper-stop-motion-specialist Sean Pecknold before I dive head-first into some of my favorite movies. We first featured Sean’s work back in June and this, like the former, is another stunning music video for Fleet Foxes. The partnership between Mr. Pecknold’s visual style and the Foxes’ unique sound makes sense – both exude a rare heady blend of warmth, earnestness and mystery – and this time around the abstract geometry has been swapped for a spiritual/nature narrative that deftly holds your attention for a full eight-and-a-half minutes. Full-screen and headphones are a must for this one. Enjoy!

P.S. I checked our suggestion box right as I was about to post this and was pleased to discover that Luke Beaton had recently written in, recommending we check it out. Thanks, Luke!

[ The Shrine / An Argument ]

Machu Picchu Post

Clement Crocq, Margaux Duran-Rival and Nicolas Novali – three former students of Supinfocom Arles – cooked up this little gem as their final graduation project. Do yourself a favor: ensure 1080p is selected and wait patiently until a generous amount of bits load into your random access memory before clicking play; it’d be a shame to get interrupted once shit starts trippin’ balls. I’ll leave it to that…don’t want to spoil the surprise. Enjoy!

Click here to see other fantastic animated shorts by Supinfocom students previously posted on The Tripatorium™.

[ Machu Picchu Post ]

Mars1 and Doze Green

“Where I usually look for inspiration is the macro and micro; the place where words end and the grey area begins and things start becoming more difficult to explain…”

Up-and-coming photographer/filmmaker Colin M Day put together this film of a collaboration between two ultra-talented artists Mars1 and Doze Green who are equally comfortable with spray cans and exterior walls as they are with blank canvases and brushes. I’m not sure what I like more: seeing the finished piece or hearing their explanations of it’s meaning. Metatron forever…

[ MARS1 & DOZE GREEN via Benedek Media > DJ Broadcast ]

Wanderlust

“I am leaving this harbour, giving urban a farewell. It’s habitants seem too keen on God, I cannot stomach their rights and wrongs”

I had mentioned Wanderlust before but never got around to posting the actual video which is a fairly egregious oversight considering 1) it kicks serious ass and 2) we have featured loads of other cool-but-not-as-cool-as-this Björk stuff. One of our readers, Chris, wrote in and suggested it was time to make that shit happen and so here we are.

Oh! Now I remember why I didn’t post it! It’s ‘cause it hadn’t been uploaded in HD to the ‘Tubes yet! Ok, whatever; this is unimportant. What is important is who made it: Isaiah Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch and Daren Rabinovitch, a.k.a. Encyclopedia Pictura. They’re crazy talented dudes and have recently started to upload lots of great watchables to their Vimeo and YouTube pages, like this great process video on how they made Wanderlust.

NOTE: If you have one of those fancy 3D TVs/computers you can experience Wanderlust with an additional dimension. That’s 50% more dimensions than 2D! Enjoy!

[ Björk - Wanderlust (2D) ]

Batabib/Knowing

From the looks of it ‘Knowing’ is a pretty awful movie – I haven’t seen it mind you but, in my experience, the hive mind is fairly reliable about these sorts of things. Anyways, so I’m on the ‘tubes and come across this video – created by musicaeternal – that combines Björk’s ethereal ‘Batabib’ with some scenes from the flick and it all works together rather well. Alex Proyas sure knows how to make some tasty visuals.

[ Björk Batabid HD ]

Fallen

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”Isaac Asimov

‘Fallen’ was conceived/directed/animated by Wolfram Kampffmeyer and Sascha Geddert. David Christiansen and Sebastian Nozon pitched in their talents as well, handling the music/sound and compositing duties respectively.

[ Fallen ]

Seed

TENDRIL – a motion design house based in Toronto, Canada – wanted to “rediscover [their] inspirations for getting into the industry and identify the things that were killing [their] inspiration.” Out of that desire came the idea to create a series of shorts that would communicate who they are and what they like to make. SEED is the first of these shorts and, judging by how it turned out, we’re excited to see what they’ll post next. Concept/direction by Vini Nascimento; sound design courtesy of CypherAudio‘s John Black.

[ Manifesto Fragments Part 1 ]

The Known Universe

“The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.”

This video is a personal favorite of mine – I’ve watched it around nine or ten times – and don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner to put it up on the site. The Known Universe was directed by Carter Emmart with music by Suke Cerulo. Read more on amnh.org.

[ The Known Universe by AMNH ]

MmmHmm

“It’s plain to see for you and me: love!
It cannot hide; just be who you are…”

More dopeness from reliable dopeness repository, Flying Lotus. Thundercat is up ons as well who, in addition to starring in the video, lent his skills on bass and vocals to the track. Visuals come courtesy of top-notch directing duo Campbell Hooper and Joel Kefali, a.k.a. Special Problems.

Also, I’ve been noticing lots of Ents dropping by. Hello, friends – make yourselves at home!

[ Flying Lotus - MmmHmm ]

Purple Kitchen Goddess

by Uno Moralez (http://unomoralez.com/)

Back in January I posted an image I referred to as ‘Four Hands’ that I had found on fukung and asked if anyone knew who had created it. Carol-ann was cool enough to write in and inform us that it was by Uno Moralez, a super-talented pixel artist who specializes in the bizarre. While checking out his site, I found lots of great stuff (like the .gif I posted above) so we’ll definitely be keeping our eye on what he makes in the future. Thanks again, Carol-ann – CHEERS!

[ Kitchen ]

Rotten Fruit

It’s some primal, tribal, ritual business all up ons in this Chris LaGarce directed music video for the Young Loves tune, Rotten Fruit. Enjoy!

[ YOUNG LOVES - ROTTEN FRUIT (official music video) ]