Sparks

“No matter gain or grim, it’s those tiny little sparks,
In daily life that makes me forget my wounded heart.”

I can’t recommend Röyksopp enough; whether it’s their ‘choons or their videos, it’s always a treat. Enjoy the mellow, drift away on the chill.

If you’re diggin’ this one I recommend watching Eple next.

[ Röyksopp - Sparks ]

Accumulonimbus

“Natural and man-made objects on a spin cycle accumulate, disintegrate, and multiply. Created by stop motion animating clay on glass, the film is a meditation on motion and the life cycle of matter.”

Some very nice abstract, morphing stop-motion animation and sound design from the talented Andy Kennedy. If you’re interested in seeing how he put everything together then be sure to check out the making-of page on his website. It’s populated with lots of broken images but the process videos and text still load properly though so it’s definitely worth checking out.

[ Accumulonimbus ]

Pelican

“To have it all, to have it all, to have it all, and still want more;
One thing’s for sure, one thing’s for sure, one thing’s for sure, we’re all getting older.
So we take a lover, so we take a lover, so we take a lover, waitin’ in the corner,
And before you know it, before you know it, before you know we’re pushing up the daisies.”

David Wilson Creative is teeming with talent. Their music videos are consistently top-notch and this one, a trippy, bisected journey through the wormhole of life – from birth to death and then back again – for The Maccabees, is no exception.

They also uploaded a super-rad making-of video that’s full of fascinating tidbits – like how it was shot entirely in one day (!!!) – as well as insight into their tools, process and inspiration. This quote, from David himself, shows how intentionally he approached each detail of the execution, “What was really important in terms of the edit…was essentially the percussive nature of the track. There’s lots of really nice accents and I really wanted to accentuate that…so we spent a lot of time finessing and working on the objects pulling apart to really make an impact on both the guitar parts and the drums throughout”.

Click here to see more David Wilson Creative work that we’ve posted to the site (Our favorite? Zero hesitation: Let Go) or here to check out their Vimeo account, a treasure trove or rad watchables. Their in-progress Advent series is especially nice. Enjoy!

[ The Maccabees - Pelican via Gizmodo ]

Changing Education Paradigms

“An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak; when you’re present in the current moment; when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing; when you’re fully alive. Anaesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what is happening and a lot of these drugs are that. We are getting our children through education by anesthetizing them and I think we should be doing the exact opposite; we shouldn’t be putting them to sleep we should be waking them up.”

I was first introduced to Sir Ken Robinson via his super-popular/awesome TED talk on how schools kill creativity, originally posted back in 2006. This more recent lecture at the RSA covers similar ground and will resonate with anyone who has found themselves profoundly bored while sitting behind a desk, waiting desperately for the bell to ring. The accompanying time-lapse white board animation (created by Cognitive Media and a signature of the RSA Animate series) is an excellent complement to Sir Ken’s rapid-fire delivery, helping to drive home complex points with an ease anyone can follow. Time to get your learn on…

[ RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms ]

Bronx Sniper

“No one gets out of here alive,
In the melee there are many ways to cry.
Who knows where the gunshots are coming from;
Those who’ve been picked off aren’t saying much.”

File under: LOLWAT

Sub Pop Records: Purveyors of fine tunes and rad music videos. Corey Adams and Alex Craig bring the bizarre with some fantastic direction that channels Mister Heavenly‘s signature ‘doom wop’ vibe. It’s deliciously whacked-out-weird. Enjoy!

[ Mister Heavenly - Bronx Sniper (OFFICIAL VIDEO) ]

Bronte

“Now your bowl is empty and your feet are cold,
And your body cannot stop rocking.
I know…it hurts to let go.

This one’s a bit melancholy but, don’t despair, it’s also sweet and poignant so the net outcome skews towards reflection, not sadness. Ari Gibson channels a Miyazaki-esque vibe in this music video for Gotye that does a terrific job of exploring the weird, heady gumbo of new (often times conflicting) emotions and experiences that define our transition to adulthood. What gets lost as we grow up? Can we get it back?

The synergy between the visuals and the music is fantastic so make sure HD (available in both 720 and 1080p) is selected and the headphones are on. Enjoy! Oh, and Ari also directed The Cat Piano, an excellent short film we posted back in June so I’d recommend giving that a watch next.

[ Gotye- Bronte- official film clip (HD) via iamdonald ]

Optimist

Michael Chichi, the man at the chewy center of Synaptic Stimuli, made this psychedelic kaleidoscope remix of Optimist, a film by Brian Thomson that was shot at Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple‘s annual Festival of Colors. It’s three-and-a-half minutes of floating mellow vibes buoyed by the ambient, dreamy sounds of Tycho. Enjoy the colors, y’all.

Click here to continue the chill.

[ Optimist (Collidescopic redux/remix) ]

Scale It Back

“To memorize a pack of cards I create a story in my head where each image represents a pair of cards.”

Accountant Ben Pridmore is the 2004/2008/2009 world champion in memory sport, a relatively new way in which primates compete to see who can memorize (and recite back accurately) the most information. He utilizes, among other techniques, visual thinking which leverages, “the part of the brain that is emotional and creative to organize information in an intuitive and simultaneous way.” It’s another example of how our brains are incredibly malleable abstract reasoning machines, capable of iterative self-reconfiguration to better solve complex problems.

This music video by Ewan Jones Morris & Casey Raymond depicts one bizarre narrative that Mr. Pridmore developed for memorizing a deck of cards and it’s fascinating peek inside his award-winning grey matter. The choon is dope, too; DJ Shadow is one of my all-time favorites. Preemptive Strike was frequently spinning inside my Discman at college, the perfect companion for long walks across campus and all-night paper-writing sessions. I whole-heartedly recommend you check it out.

[ DJ Shadow "Scale It Back" ]

Supernatural

Gabriel Rud wrote in with some monochromatic, twitchy, morphing visuals he created for Argentine composer, Daniel Melero. It’s as if you’re peering into an electron microscope, witnessing the birth of some strange new organism.

[ Supernatural - Daniel Melero (2011) ]

Song of Los

A robot is born, escapes, learns love and dies. This is the story of her memories.

Some fantastic work from Saman Keshavarz, a young director with a talent for teasing out surprisingly intricate narratives in the music videos he creates. You’ve probably seen the one he did for Cinnamon Chasers (it won best music video at SXSW 2010) and the attached is further proof of his instinctual understanding for the cinematic qualities inherent in good electronic music. Saman utilizes a style of quick, thoughtful cuts to establish the story while leveraging the emotional cues provided by the music (we loves us some Apparat) and some fantastic art direction to further draw you in.

We’re diggin’ it. Enjoy!

[ Apparat - Song of Los (Director's Cut) ]