Blair Neal

Category: Inspiration

  • The Ethereal Geometric Volume in music videos

    The Ethereal Geometric Volume in music videos

    I wanted to write something about a very specific genre of music videos that seems to pop up every few years and has only continued to increase in popularity as special effects costs get lower and the techniques get more accessible. This music video type can be found in genres ranging from electronica to rock and beyond. The trope common to all the music videos I’m discussing is the use of the ethereal geometric volume 

    phantocube

    An ethereal geometric volume is a plot device similar to something like Hitchcock’s MacGuffin where it can simply exist as a polygonal device to move the plot along without it really being explained what this volume really is.

    These devices can be the main characters, a representation of an omnipotent force, a terror, an alien invasion. They can be Cubes, Pyramids, and Spheres or broken polygonal shapes. They can be shattered to bits and oh..good lord, they float and hover like nobody’s business.

    Let’s start at n=4..the PYRAMID

    m83 pink triangle

    Pyramid Example #1: M83 – “Wait” – 2012

    Pyramid as Spaceship

    M83 ‘Wait’ Official video from The Creators Project on Vimeo.

    dark triangle ship flying triangle planetflying triangle

    Pyramid Example #2: Frank Ocean – “Pyramids” – 2012

    Pyramid as Structure and 2d John Mayer guitar solo background

    frank ocean [pyramids] from christopher francis ocean on Vimeo.

    frank ocean triangle frankocean_eyeballfrank ocean real pyramid

    Now let’s step forward into n=6…the CUBE

    Cube example #1: Phantogram – Don’t Move – 2012

    Cube as ethereal looming terror (with shatter!)

    Phantogram ‘Don’t Move’ from 10lb Pictures on Vimeo.

    phano cube hug phanto cube overlayphanto cube loomingphanto cube shatter2 phanto cube shatter phanto hand cube phanto hold cube

    Cube example #2: Battles – Atlas – 2007

    Cube as floating spaceship stage (low-rez…anyone have an HD link for this vid?)

    battles battles3

    Cube example #3: Mew – Introducing Palace Players – 2009

    Cubes as alien lifeforms

     mew snails cubemew1mew cube3 mew cube2 mew cube

    Cube Example #4: M83 – We Own the Sky – 2009

    Cubes as alien life forms (with shatter!)

    m83_sky1 m83_sky_4 m83_sky_2 m83_sky_6 m83_sky_shatter

    Cube Example #5: Kid606 – Sometimes – 2006

    Cubes as alien life forms (also with shatter…)

    And then finally n= infinity…the SPHERE

    Sphere example #1: The Antlers – Bear – 2010

    Sphere as relationship burden/unborn child

    antlers1 antlershatter3 antlersshatter AntlersCart4 AntlersCart5

    (Hemi)Sphere Example #2: Denali – Hold your breath – 2003

    Sphere as strange alien invasion of a river jam session

    Denali1 Denali5

  • Structured light scanning the dog

    or she’s just looking through window blinds…there is no way she’d stay still long enough. Would love to see some Kinect point cloud pet portraits though…

  • Top Music Videos of 2011

    (no particular order)

    Bon Iver – Calgary (really awesome environment..love the reveal at the end)

    Battles – My Machines (amazingly done single shot video)

    Hooray For Earth – True Loves (this needs to be made into a movie)

    No Age – Fever Dreaming (another good single shot video)

    Battles – Ice Cream (all over the place, but the styling is pretty great)

    Adele – Rolling in the Deep (some of the shots are really incredible)

    Swedish House Mafia – Save the world (what a simple idea..but brilliant)

    Oh what the hell:
    Katy Perry – TGIF

  • It makes sense in pictures…

    Someone found this note on the ground while passing by an elementary school

    Text:

    The world is a place
    made of land and water
    and even though it makes
    sence [sic] in pictures
    i do not understand it.

    [via Reddit – I found this on my way to class after passing by an elementary school]

  • The Wobbulator

    I was finally able to cobble together a video for Nam June Paik’s Wobbulator. It was one of my favorite pieces of equipment during my residency at the Experimental Television Center, and I was confused about why there wasn’t a lot of information out there about it on the web. There are a few grainy youtube videos but they don’t show a lot of the exterior of the device or any of the real time manipulations, so I wanted to make a little educational video. Most of the Wobbulator’s source images in this video were either from a camera pointed out a window, or just from straight video feedback.

    For a lot more information, check out the Experimental Television Center’s website in their Video History Project area. There are tons of great articles on early analog video tools and techniques, but in particular there is a very detailed article on the wobbulator. Just to give you some more info, here is the first paragraph of the article on the device:

    A raster manipulation unit or ‘wobbulator’ is a prepared television which permits a wide variety of treatments to be performed on video images; this is accomplished by the addition of extra yokes to a conventional black and white receiver and by the application of signals derived from audio or function generators on the yokes. The unit is a receiver modified for monitor capability; all of the distortions can thus be performed either on broadcast signals or, when the unit is used as a monitor, on images from a live or prerecorded source. Although the image manipulations cannot be recorded directly, they can be recorded by using an optical interface. The patterns displayed on the unit are rescanned; a camera is pointed directly at the picture tube surface and scans the display. The video signal from this rescan camera is then input to a videotape recorder for immediate recording or to a processing system for further image treatment. The notion of prepared television has been investigated by a number of video artists and engineers; this particular set of modifications was popularized by Nam June Paik.

    I also made a quick music video with the wobbulator as a key component…check it out here

    For more on my experience at the experimental television center check out a few of these links
    [1] [2] [3] [4]

    This video is now featured on Rhizome, Create Digital Motion, Hack a day, Makezine, Wired and Notcot among others

  • Color a Sound reimagined

    I have been sharing the code for my piece Color a Sound with whoever contacts me. Today I just got a message about someone who successfully made their own version of the patch and added an extra color! Check out Cedric’s awesome video below: