Category Archives: Blog

The Private Life of Plants – BBC Timelapse

David Attenborough documentary series exploring the life cycle of plants. A study of the growth, movement, reproduction and survival.

The series utilises time-lapse sequences extensively in order to grant insights that would otherwise be almost impossible. Plants live on a different time scale, and even though their life is highly complex and often surprising, most of it is invisible to humans unless events that happen over months or even years are shown within seconds. (BBC 1995)

Tango by Zbigniew Rybczyński

Thirty-six characters from different stages of life – representations of different times – interact in one room, moving in loops, observed by a static camera. Rybczynski had to draw and paint about 16.000 cell-mattes, and make several hundred thousand exposures on an optical printer. It took a full seven months, sixteen hours per day, to make the piece. (1980)

Inspiration for the Bonobo video ‘Cirrus’ (2013)

A New Look at Jean Tinguely’s Work

The Swiss artist Jean Tinguely is especially known for his art machines and considered as one of the main protagonists of kinetic art. He belonged to the Parisian avantgarde and the Nouveau Réalisme (New Realists) in the mid-twentieth century. Tinguely was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1925, but grew up in Basel, where the Museum Tinguely presents his work since 1996.

Sculptor of Air – Alexander Calder

nique modern artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) revolutionized the art of sculpture with his distinctive modernism, freeing sculpture from its stand and adding movement to the art itself.
He rose to fame in the 1930s with his renowned Miniature Circus, but his modernist creativity skyrocketed with his wire sculptures, an invention he dubbed “drawing in space”.
Contemporary and friend with Duchamp, Miro, and Mondrian, who have greatly influenced his evolution, this genius tinkerer, too often limited to his Mobiles, was fueled by artistic renewal, creating such unexpected shapes as his huge stabile sculptures now exhibited worldwide.
In light of the artist’s life, this film retraces this unique quest and explores the masterpieces that have marked the history of 20st century art.

CALDER FOUNDATION | HOME

https://www.artsy.net/artist/alexander-calder

Plastic bag scene from the film ‘American Beauty’

“It was one of those days, when it’s a minute away from snowing, and there’s this electricity in the air. You can almost hear it, right? And this bag was just dancing with me, like a little kid begging me to play with it, for fifteen minutes.

That’s the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know, but it helps me remember. I need to remember.

Sometimes there is so much… beauty… in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.”

IMDB

Star Guitar by Michel Gondry

“Star Guitar” is the second single from The Chemical Brothers 2002 album Come with Us. The music video, directed by Michel Gondry, features a continuous shot filmed from the window of a speeding train passing through towns and countryside. However, the buildings and objects passing by appear exactly in time with the various beats and musical elements of the track. The video is based on DV footage Gondry shot while on vacation in France; the train ride between Nîmes and Valence was shot ten different times during the day to get different light gradients. The Pont du Robinet as well as Pierrelatte’s station can be seen. Gondry had experimented with a different version of the same effect in his video for Daft Punk’s “Around the World”, where he had represented each element of the music with a dancer.
Gondry actually plotted out the synchronization of the song on graph paper before creating the video, eventually “modelling” the scenery with oranges, forks, tapes, books, glasses and tennis shoes.

Michel Gondry

The Johnny Cash Project

A UNIQUE COMMUNAL WORK, A LIVING PORTRAIT OF THE MAN IN BLACK

Through this interactive website, participants may draw their own portrait of Johnny Cash to be integrated into a collective whole. As people all over the world contribute, the project will continue to evolve and grow, one frame at a time.

Submit your drawing to become a part of the new music video for the song “Ain’t No Grave”. Strung together and relayed in sequence your art, paired with Johnny’s haunting song, will become a living, moving, and ever changing portrait of the legendary Man in Black.

The Johnny Cash Project

Minuscule by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud

The animated TV series ‘Minuscule’ is a mixture of real video footage and 3d elements (the characters).
Minuscule
revolves around the day-to-day existence of insects which are presented in burlesque situations, with a fair amount of philosophical contemplation thrown in. A cross between a Tex Avery cartoon and a National Geographic documentary! Created by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud.