Posts tagged 'Robots'

Shadows

It’s pretty rare that I’ll post a video that isn’t HD. The attached is only 360p which is, like, 50% less than my typical minimum-p-quotient but the lack of resolution does little to diminish its charm.

It’s a music video is for a tune by Wagon Christ, an artist I first encountered during my post-college-single-and-searching-for-meaning-slash-purpose years. At the time I was living alone and working from home for a start-up which meant my long-simmering tendency to obsess was, for the first time, allowed to swell unfettered to a full, rolling boil. My mind has wrapped that entire era in a peculiar, wistful nostalgia; I have no desire to return to those days but will forever appreciate how they shaped me into who I am today.

My memories of that time have all bled together, lost in an impenetrable haze of code, photoshop, booze, solitary walks and music from SomaFM. The latter had a show, Groove Salad, that played ambient, downtempo instrumentals and I am forever in its debt for introducing me to artists like Leggo Beast, BullitnutsdZihan & Kamien, Tosca, Baby Mammoth and, of course, Wagon Christ.

The visuals – created by Celyn Brazier and Tom & Mark Perrett (of Nexus Productions) – are evocative of both Yellow Submarine and Castle in the Sky and tell a story about the transformative power of time, demonstrating how quickly the impressive giants of yesterday can become todays tourist curiosity.

ENJOY!

[ Wagon Christ - 'Shadows' ]

Box

“Box explores the synthesis of real and digital space through projection-mapping onto moving surfaces. The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera…It is the culmination of multiple technologies, including large scale robotics, projection mapping, and software engineering.”

Whooooooa.

Projection mapping is sufficiently magical when displayed on static surfaces but to see it like this takes the medium to a whole new level. Cheers to Bot & Dolly for some absolutely stellar watchables.

Thanks for sending this our way, Garrett!

[ Box ]

Putty Boy Strut

Been itchin’ to post this one since last Wednesday when I first saw it pop-up in Mr. Lotus’ twitter feed. He’s got a new album, Until The Quiet Comes, set to drop on October 1st and made the brilliant decision to hire Sir Cyriak to create a video to promote it’s release.

It’s a true collaboration and exactly what you’d expect when creatives of this caliber combine their unique skill sets. The tune itself fuses together two of Flying Lotus’ fortés: sterile, machine-pulsed-and-stripped-down beats and his trademark spacey, rambling, warm-and-jazzy tones. Cyriak takes that contrast and runs with it, creating a world populated with regiments of single-purpose robots that is forever changed after one of them spontaneously evolves, trading in its initial programming for a more familiar-to-us set of survival-of-the-fittest, kill-or-be-killed instincts. The video escalates in typical Cyriak fractal-fashion, progressing in complexity from the micro to the macro until everything-is-everything and then back again. Word.

It’s a treat, y’all. ENJOY!

FYI: Both our Flying Lotus and Cyriak feeds are packed with fantastic videos.

[ Flying Lotus - Putty Boy Strut (Until The Quiet Comes, new album out October 1st/2nd) ]

Dubstep Dispute

“Join this lovable crew of droids as they solve their differences the only way dubstep robots know how.”

File under: LOLWAT

[ Dubstep Dispute ]

SyncBody

Lights down, full-screen and the volume way up. Strap in and enjoy the latest (seventh) installment in the excellent BRDG series from +MUS.

Choons by Yaporigami; visuals by Daihei Shibata + Hiroshi Sato.

[ [BRDG007] PLMS_IV_D (SyncBody) ]

Davyd

I first saw A.I. at the movies in the summer of 2001. I distinctly remember enjoying it. I haven’t watched the film since but in the past 10 years I’ve heard people talk about how they didn’t really like it. Not that it was bad, mind you, but just that it didn’t knock their socks off; overall just not especially memorable, you know?

I’m trying to remember the plot points now and, honestly, am having a difficult time. There’s that kid from Sixth Sense and he’s a robot but he’s unhappy, right? Does he want to be a ‘real boy’ or something? I feel like there’s definitely some Pinocchio similarities or some shit.

Anyways, what I do remember are the visuals. I was always into watching stuff from a young age but 2001 was towards the beginning of when I started to set aside time to appreciate culture. When I realized art isn’t just Vivaldi or Rembrandt (though they both most certainly are); that it’s anything people create that inspires them; that the things I love – movies, music videos, electronic music, video games etc. – are worth admiring and paying attention to.

Oh right, about that: the visuals! Just rich, colorful and all ‘glow-y’. Great costumes, make-up and set design too. Spielberg is a wizard at atmosphere. Speaking of which, that’s why I’m diggin’ hard on this, the latest from our good pal Pogo. He leverages all the little visually-rich moments that stand out, mining them of their audio and then reassembling it back together again, creating an entirely unique experience. It’s all mood and feeling and I fucking love it. So much so that I’m going to give the movie another go in the coming weeks and then starting disseminating my thoughts in 140-character increments over on Twitter. Do you have an account there? Wanna talk about movies or something?

Oh and just wait til 2:01 when the Jude Law melody kicks in. Nice.

Lights down, volume up and enjoy!

[ Davyd (A.I. Mashup) ]

Help Your Friends

“When things go wrong, people need help;
lend them a hand, the best you can.
We can help each other out!
Team work is what it’s all about!”

We’re huge fans of Will Sweeney – he’s been an integral part of some of our all-time favorite music videos: The Parachute Ending, The Game and Goin’in – so we were thrilled to discover that he lent his unique visual style to a Yo Gabba Gabba jingle written by DeVotchKa. It’s an excellent way to ingest some sage advice. Enjoy!

Previously: Argyle The Octopus

[ Help Your Friends – Will Sweeney for Yo Gabba Gabba! ]

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) ]

All is Full of Love

This Chris Cunningham directed video for Björk‘s 1999 single, ‘All is Full of Love’ has, “won multiple awards, including two MTV Video Music Awards for Breakthrough Video and Best Special Effects. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video (it lost to Korn’s “Freak on a Leash”). It is on permanent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York…read more After giving it a watch you’ll see what all the fuss is about.

A big thanks goes to Aaron Smith for sending it in – cheers, sir!

[ Björk - All is Full of Love (HD 720P) ]

Straight up Wallin

Generation Kill by Andree Wallin
Generation Kill by Andree WallinWanna Play by Andree WallinRobots Inc. by Andree WallinMobilize by Andree WallinDuel by Andree WallinWar Cry by Andree Wallin

Why, oh why, couldn’t I have been born with the gift to be a terrific illustrator? Instead, I am forced to search the interwebs for artists such as Andree Wallin. Wallin uses just the right blend of traditional illustration and oil painting with digital retouching for my tastes. Plus, his works include a lot of robots, demons, and general sci-fi carnage, plus a few landscapes for good measure. Something for everyone! Full gallery at the link below.

[ andreewallin's deviantART gallery ]

Little Wheel Keeps on Turning

Little Wheel

Posting this in case some of you haven’t had a chance to play this wonderful little flash game created by the crew over at OneClickDog.com In Little Wheel, you play as a lone robot trying to restore power to its industrial world after being blacked out for 10,000 years. It’s your basic point-and-click flash game, but it sports great graphics, a fitting jazz soundtrack, and is overall pretty darn fun. If you have about 15 minutes to spare you can beat this in one go. Enjoy!

[ Little Wheel ]

When life gives you lemons…

A creative solution to an energy shortage…if only it was this easy for us oil/gas guzzlers.

[ Playing with light - Mon ami le robot via StumbleUpon ]