Transfiguration (as you walk), Sparks' "Existential Threat", and the inspirational raising of a totem pole. Videos that can reframe you

We are proud to present our occasional weekend audio-visual refreshment, taken from the amazing digital commons of creativity we live in. It’s a tin cup in a waterfall, but we hope you enjoy.

Above is Transfiguration 2020 - an update of a digital artwork from 2011, The Transfiguration, using the latest in CGI techniques. The maker is Matt Pyke, founder of Universal Everything. An artist’s description:

A hulking giant, set against blackness, walks confidently into the nothingness, his figure endlessly evolving between primitive and advanced materials in this evolving CGI artwork.

The Transfiguration’s abstracted figure appears in a succession of virtual “costumes” that explore a variety of shapes, forms, textures and material qualities – one moment it’s a suit of flames, the next concrete, and then a coat of crystalline formations, before it’s finally a colourful furry monster.

From Creative Review:

Coinciding with the physical release of Sparks’ 24th record, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, their latest music video enlists the help of another animator, Brighton-based Cyriak.

Known for his subversive and surreal style, Cyriak was approached by the band to create a video for a song of his choice from the new album. There was one track in particular that immediately stood out to the animator, the fittingly titled The Existential Threat.

Cyriak: “It has a psychology driving it, and a feeling that hangs over us all, especially in these modern times of information overload. Are these threats real, or imaginary? Are they just a paranoid delusion, or do we ignore them at our peril? It was great fun making this video, and I hope it makes people think about their inevitable impending death in a more light-hearted way,” he says.

From Aeon video

On 22 August 1969, the Indigenous Haida community in the village of Masset in British Columbia gathered for its first totem pole-raising ceremony in nearly a century. ]

There to shoot the historic occasion was the National Film Board of Canada’s all-Indigenous ‘Indian Film Crew’. The footage was then handed over to a non-Indigenous post-production team and edited into a short documentary.

The resulting film, This Was the Time (1970), featured non-Indigenous narration and a decidedly Euro-Canadian perspective, framing the Haida as a disappearing people rather than one poised for rebirth following decades in which the Canadian government had essentially outlawed their culture.

A powerful and accomplished work of reclamation, Now Is the Time (2019) captures the 1969 ceremony from a Haida perspective – and with a stunning 4K restoration of the original footage. The short documentary includes new interviews with the celebrated Haida carver Robert Davidson – who was just 22 years old when he carved the totem – and the Haida educator and activist Barbara Wilson, who crafted the initial proposal for the original documentary, and was instrumental to bringing its follow-up to life 50 years later.

Lending the archival footage a fresh sense of perspective and clarity, the Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter’s short documentary illuminates how the ceremony sparked a renewed sense of spiritual purpose in the community.