onedotzero
Went to the ICA last night to see a screening in the onedotzero programme of new moving image. It was a steamy night in London and the ICA was heaving. Not the best environment to sit and watch a selection of music videos but there was some interesting stuff. (I particularly liked the promo for ‘swan meat’ by Subtle, directed by SSR.) Many interesting new techniques that I expect to see appearing in ad campaigns in a year or so’s time. I can just imagine the pirouetting biplanes in Rueben Sutherland’s promo for Doves’ ‘Sky Starts falling’ being co-opted for the Halifax. And there were a couple of films (for example Hugo Ramirez’s for Moby’s ‘Slipping away’) that incorporated type into the action in a way that I’m sure will be imitated. Is this a bad thing? That’s the way the industry tends to work, magpie-like, snatching shiny new things from pop culture and repurposing them on behalf of brands. I guess the bright side of this for the directors of the promos is that the ad agencies will go to them to recreate the techniques, so at least they’ll get paid.
Sitting there watching clip after clip of weird and wonderful animation set to music, it reminded me of nothing so much as the early days of the Old Grey Whistle Test. (For the under 40s, this was BBC2’s ‘progressive’ music show of the 70s.) In the times before music promo vids, OGWT was dependent on films of live performances, but they would also often play an album track by what then seemed like some impossibly obscure and exotic band (usually, say, Focus or The Ozark Mountain Daredevils). Not haing any film of the band, while the track played they would show an ancient bit of silent black and white animation, usually involving legions of cartoon cats being squashed by hammers, or something like that. Clearly, this sort of stuff was supposed to be enjoyed after a few magic mushrooms or something similar.
Well, the onedotzero music reel was a bit like that, with wooziness induced by oppressive heat causing mind-altering states.
