A riot of forms, digital and biological, in this week's audio-visual to startle and refresh the soul
Our regular dive into the audio-visual riches of the internet’s free, creative bounty… This time, focusing on morphing and shapeshifting, both digital and natural:
Above is an MTV commissioned short video from Ukrainian artist and animator Nadiia Pliamko (You Tube channel), as part of International Women’s Day. Nadiia has an extraordinary sensibility for disruptive feminine imagery, see below:
From a Creative Review piece:
Having fled Ukraine during the Russian invasion in 2022, Pliamko now lives in Estonia, where she produces 2D and 3D artworks on a range of subjects, including the war itself. Drawing on sources such as “Soviet iconography, Bosch-like dreamworlds, and middle European folklore”, she creates captivating pieces that tread a line between the real and the surreal.
And to ensure that first nature is not undone by second or third nature… A startling documentary on bioluminescent cells. From Aeon:
A project by the Explorers collective, which seeks to bring science filmmaking to general audiences, Cell Worlds (2022) is an engrossing tour of the ‘strangers housed in each and every one of us’. Compiling some of the most magnificent cellular footage ever captured by scientists around the globe, the film shows the oft unseen ways that cells move, divide, differentiate and even communicate in rich, bioluminescent detail. Offering an expansive look at what we understand about the building blocks of life, as well as the limits of our knowledge and what the future of cellular biology might hold, the result is a rare science film that’s both visually striking and deeply insightful.
Found at Directors’ Library. From the press release:
Aphex Twin returned last week with Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760, his first EP in five years, and, now, he has shared his first video in the same timespan. Watch the shapeshifting “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” short, directed by Richard D. James’ longtime collaborator Weirdcore, below. (Its predecessor was Weirdcore’s “T69 Collapse” video in 2018.) The video ends with a dedication to Richard D. James’ late parents, Lorna and Derek James.