It’s the final day of 2022 and after being sidelined most of the month with holidays, family time and the odd blizzard, I’ve decided to end the year by being productive, and publishing one more Audiovisual Art entry before 2023! What a year it’s been: 15 exhibitions across 8 platforms, featuring 78 artists from all over the world; and we could have done more, had we simply said ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came our way. One of my favorite projects of course was Sound & Vision on object.com, which was the focus of last month’s audiovisual article. If you’re reading this and haven’t checked out the exhibition, here’s the link: https://objkt.com/collection/KT1GjPdfEFv44dFbGyTSysV9Qhj9FQ1Zi2zo
I still can’t believe that so many talented visual artists and musicians came together for the show, the quality of the work is simply amazing and sets a high (towering, really) bar for Volume 2, which we plan to organize for the spring.
Ok — on to the featured artworks for this final 2022 article. I’m going to start with a Toronto based artist, Ryan D. Anderson. I have seen his animations shared on twitter from time to time, mainly with his hilariously weird ‘Goober’ character singing about things like needing a new gym bag. I should have known that he was Canadian, and I wish I knew sooner that he was in Toronto, since I’m sitting in the very same city as I’m writing this! Alas, I leave tomorrow morning and I have this article to finish before heading over to my sister’s for NYE. I’m getting off track.
Back on track: a few days ago, on Dec 27, a video popped up on my Twitter feed with a ‘gm’ from Ryan himself: https://twitter.com/ItsRyanAnderson/status/1607755683469955072?s=20&t=BpeTraVoe0SaCG_TD_HdHQ
It’s a cinematic short, set to a Chopin-esque piano soundtrack over subtle city street sounds, just gorgeous. I don’t often scroll twitter with the sound on, but on that day I was for whatever reason, and it was the music that grabbed my ear first. I had only seen his more comedic animations, so the piece didn’t seem ‘typical’ of Ryan’s work, but I recognized the animation style right away — purples and yellows, with a pixelated, hand-drawn, shaded pointilism effect. This piece shows a city at dawn, peaceful and quiet, with pink clouds passing overhead and the sun rising over the water just at the end. The perspectives are striking and familiar, looking down at the city streets from overhead, up at the sky with streetlamps passing by overhead, and clusters of buildings with lights on in the distance. Set to the music, it’s just perfect. I have no idea what the title is, and I wasn’t able to find the piece on Ryan’s SuperRare or Foundation profiles, so the twitter link above is all I can share at the moment. Go watch it now :) .
Ryan’s linktree: https://linktr.ee/ryandanderson
The next artist I want to feature is the mighty Lion Young, aka Leigh Young, an artist from Australia and the creator of a digital series called “In Shadow”. Young creates every aspect of the work, and it’s difficult to overstate how sophisticated the animation and the music is for this body of work. On SuperRare the description reads:
In Shadow
This is the story of a search through the wilderness. And the price we pay to find what we seek. 30 animated pieces, across multiple platforms, capture the journey of the Boy with No Name. In pursuit. In shadow.
Here’s one of the latest pieces in the series, XIV. Bush Symphony:
https://superrare.com/0x1e1928cfae9c57c028da97f658610bf7b90db399/xiv.-bush-symphony-15
The music sounds like he hired a studio band to play a spooky western, there are smoky, translucent shadow spirits with glowing eyes that fade in and out as the main character traverses a dark forest, and the animation of the torch (!!!) and the glow that it gives off — I’m out of descriptives.
A few months ago a lot of people were talking about ‘storytelling NFTs’ — I think the talk centered more around PFP projects (as usual) and collectibles that had a fleshed out background story, etc, but in my mind there is no other body of work that embodies ‘storytelling’ better than In Shadow.
I’d like to do feature one more artist and artwork, which is a bit of a departure from the previous two. This is by ex_mortal https://twitter.com/ex_mortal_ , who I first came across via the artist & curator Sky Goodman (they collaborated on a piece for Sound and Vision Vol. 1). He uses Modular synths, Drum machines, Video Synths and Analog VHS processing — basically it’s a lot of analog hardware without the use of computers to create music and visuals.
Long before EDM was embraced by the outdoor festival masses, there was IDM, short for ‘Intelligent Dance Music’. In the late 90s and early 2000s we listened to IDM artists like Autechre, Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin Boards of Canada and Squarepusher in small clubs in Brooklyn NY, who paired glorious synth soundscapes with alternately abrasive and ambient beats. For musicians, it was like giving your brain an auditory workout. Ex Mortal, whether he knows it or not, comes from this school of music. And he’s added ‘Video Synths’. Whatever those are. He actually lists them, so i know they must be real. This is one of his latest creations, listed on objkt.com:
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ATodA94e3kR4KMWx2jefdb5ydyoCqafFG/4
_10.5 minute ambient thing.
_ Recorded on 12/20/22 , to a single stereo track. Computerless hardware synthesizer music.
_ Synths : KORG MS2000, ROLAND SRV 3030, NOVATAION PEAK, KORG SQ-64, MALEKKO VARIGATE-8, MUSIC THING RADIO MUSIC, ROLAND SPACE ECHO RE-201, KNOBULA CINEMATIC, BLUE LANTERN SPACEMOTH V3, 1010 BITBOX.
_Recorded in a single pass, to a single track, no edits were made:)
_Looping gif created from a long video synth session. Video synths used :
_ syntonie.htp CBV 001,CHROMA CAULDRON MAINBOW, melted electronics strangeloop.
I love the performative aspect of this piece — recorded in a single pass, just twisting knobs, real-time, with crazy sounding equipment from an alternate history. Here’s one more piece, slightly more ambient: https://objkt.com/asset/KT1UAVQueiR7jqi6aCJmr9hipbKq9R7Bxb7E/43
And that’s a wrap for 2023! I think the new year fireworks are already starting in Australia and China. I plan to continue the Audiovisual Spotlight throughout the new year, and of course we have Sound and Vision Vols 2 and 3 to look forward to in 2023 as well! Happy New Year everyone, wishing you all the very best for the coming year :) :) :).
-Dan
