benjamin ducroz: press +.

Grainy, twitchy, glitchy, water-coloury, brown-papery goodness from Benjamin Ducroz’s abstract animation “PRESS +.”

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tom geraedts: eros.

My fascination with colour theory has led me into studying not just the science of colours but also their associated anomalies: colour blindness, synesthesia, and to total blindness itself. Make no mistake: blind people see… just not with their eyes.

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“Eros” is an incredible short by Tom Geraedts that explores this idea. Our senses are all indelibly connected to our thoughts, emotions, feelings, and all over senses. The lack of one actually augments all the others. So what does a blind person see through their mind’s eye when their brain starts to feel; the part of the brain that creates “sight” is still active, it’s the connection to the eyes that’s decided not to co-operate. With its normal route cut off, where does it detour to to visualize the world that’s being sensed around it?

ian stevenson + luke seomore: stare into the sun.

I’m always into exploring the sort of cruel paradox of hiding brutal life lessons inside the guise of children’s things. There’s always a witch heating up an oven just around the corner…

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Directed by Ian Stevenson and Luke Seomore, with audio by Graffiti 6, “Stare Into The Sun” delicately walks the fine line between absurdist children’s animation and inside joke. There’s just something about the hero character’s face that lets you know that, unicorn riding and rainbow hoping aside, this shit ain’t gonna end well. Be sure to watch it to the very end.

martin böttger: foliage shoal.

Staccato leaves and angry chlorophyll. Like plants calling out through static: “Foliage Shoal” is stunning, jarring work from Berlin-based animator and artist Martin Böttger.

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Via Ventilate.

terri timely + pact: the office of eden.

You’re about to watch the greatest underwear ad ever. Yes, you are…

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There are some directors who, in my opinion, simply can’t do wrong and Terri Timely is one of them. “Synesthesia” is one of my favourite shorts ever and then they recently backed it up with their vid for St. Vincent’s “Marrow.”

In “The Office Of Eden”, a new spot for socially responsible organic underwear company PACT, they’ve nailed that sort of  carefully-coloured, hyper-real aesthetic that I can’t get enough of. It’s like motion-Helvetica. Simple, but perfectly so. Sparse, but exactly what you need.

Co-conceived by Ian Kibbey’s brother, Jason, the whole philosophy behind PACT impressed me: they’re social responsible throughout their entire supply chain, they allow you to shop for undies based on which cause you’d like a portion of the price donated to (one of them being one of my favourite charities in the world, Dave Eggers’ amazing non-profit literacy and creative writing organization 826 National), and they’ve wrapped it up one enlightened, easily navigated, beautifully designed package. Evidenced by the hotness of the ad created by Terri Timely, they all totally understand social responsibiltiy and design aesthetic are part of an experience that encourage people to do good: See good, look good, feel good… do good. Makes perfect sense to me.

gwen vanhee: flightpattern.

This basically blows my mind. A “handdrawn videoresponsive video exploration” (fuck yes!) by Belgian animator Gwen Vanhee.

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daniel franke + ryoji ikeda: one minute soundsculpture.

This kicks serious ass. It’s a chromatic hovering expanding blossom of goodness. Created by Daniel Franke to “One Minute” by Ryoji Ikeda.

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adam joy: dreamf focus.

Obviously, any exploration into the connection between colour, memory, emotion, and imagination is right up my alley. I could watch this all day long.

“DreamF Focus” is part of an on-going visual investigation into dreams by Adam Joy:

“Color is as much a symbol as is the imagery in a dream. Color appears to represent the emotional conditions that stimulated a dream or dream image. As with any other symbol, color combines with the imagery to form a more complete “meaning” for the dream image.”

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andreas iversen: ladybird, ladybird.

This fucked me up. It also brings up some of the questions of where ethics and art converge. For me, that argument always brings up the incredibly controversial and possibly borderline psychotic work of Marco Evarissti. Here, it’s examined again by Danish filmmaker Andreas Iversen.

Via Antville

psyop + mtv mhd: crow.

Psyop is the shit. One of my top three animation shops in the world, Psyop constantly turns out innovative, beautiful, purposeful, integrated work. They’re bad ass.  Case closed.

Apparently “Crow” is a few years old but it just went up on their Vimeo a few days ago. Directed by Marie Hyon and Marco Spier for MTV MHD, is a tight, light, black, white, and all around stunning piece of work. Behold it in all its glory:

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