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A song of praise to the future: John Butler’s new speculative animation ‘Acrohym’
03.07.2013
07:49 pm
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For twenty-years, artist John Butler has been the driving talent behind an incredible array of short animated films and science-fiction series. As one half of the Butler Brothers, John has produced, written and animated original, speculative fictions that examine the nature of our relationship with Government, Military and Corporations through technology.

Animations such as Eden, The Ethical Governor, T.R.I.A.G.E. and Unmanned have reinforced John’s dystopian view of the world, where technology is primarily developed as a means of control, war and exploitation.

The future being shaped by computer technology tends more towards a world of anonymous depots, owned by companies like Amazon, where whey-faced workers trudge endless miles through giant product mazes, being told what to do and how long they have to do it by their own personal navigational computer—rather than the much vaunted promise of personal liberation.

‘I don’t think we’re doomed,’ says Butler, ‘But we are stuck with it. I think the self checkouts in supermarkets indicate where we are going, towards a cybernetic transaction space. They should give us a discount since we’re doing all the work now.’

Butler’s latest animation Acrohym is a satirical ‘song of praise’ to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency):

...the most exciting arts commissioning agency in the world today.

Acrohym stands for ‘Advanced, Central, Research, Organization, High-Yield, Markets.’ The kind of buzz words promoted by PR reps and technocrats, who are currently destroying language and democracy.

Butler is fascinated by this and the way in which organizations like DARPA, have become like art/science patrons developing new technologies for the military, while at the same time creating their own language.

‘I liked the idea that DARPA seemed to think of cool acronyms first and work backwards from that. Things like the FANG (Fast, Adaptble, Next-Generation Ground vehicle) challenge, the Triple Target Terminator (T3) and the Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition ( MAHEM). They ruthlessly torture language to create a new form of technocratic poetry.

‘I think weapons design attracts the brightest minds and can draw on limitless funding, so it’s no wonder they make such fascinating stuff. It is an art form of sorts, increasingly so, as the systems become more baroque and dysfunctional, like architectural follies.

‘Form Follows Funding is the first Law of Procurement.

‘I think Defense is the seedbed of all research, but it eventually trickles down to the civil sphere. If private enterprise had created the internet, it would be a lot of bike couriers with USB sticks. Only a military project could have had such a long range investment strategy.’

John is working on his next project, but I wanted to know when he would be makinga full length feature film?

‘As soon as I’ve secured Ministry of Defense funding.’

More of Butler Brothers’ work here
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

John Butler: ‘T.R.I.A.G.E.’


John Butler: ‘The Ethical Governor’


 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.07.2013
07:49 pm
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Lego my video: Tim Pope reacts to seeing one of his videos for The Cure recreated in Lego
02.19.2013
01:07 pm
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This is a guest post from renowned director Tim Pope.

OK, I admit it: I am the one that chucked The Cure over a cliff in a wardrobe.

The main part of the video was committed to celluloid in a large, wet floored hanger in London—in fact one of the largest spaces I can remember ever filming in. Weird, given the fact that we were literally doing the claustrophobia of the cupboard’s interior.

The exterior bit was filmed at Beachy Head, a beauty spot in the UK’s west Sussex, where the snowy white rocks fall away to the ocean, 162 metres below. A frocked priest even drives this stretch of coastline in a Landrover vehicle to talk people out of committing suicide here, for which it has become synonymous, and there are on average sadly over three attempts a week.

Little did I know that I was shooting something I would be talking about thirty years later. To me, this was just another in a string of videos I made for the group. All in all, I probably did 37 Cure videos. I say “probably” because I honestly don’t know—let’s just leave that to the experts. Ask the average Goth in the street “how many videos did Tim Pope shoot for The Cure?’ and he or she will tell you, with precise dates, the meaning of the video and most of all about what haircut Robert sported that day. See, these videos seem to ‘run deep’ with people, indeed. I often, still to this day, get people contacting me to ask if their university thesis might be about our videos. I of course made, and do make, videos for many other artists, of which I am exceedingly proud: Neil Young, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The The, Talk Talk, Paul Weller. More recently, Fatboy Slim, Amanda Palmer, The Kaiser Chiefs, others. But still it is generally The Cure ones that people want to come back to, especially as the fans seem particularly fervent and loyal.

Often on a cab ride, when it comes in the conversation to the part about what your job is, I will portray myself as a plumber, or private detective, or fireman. Anything, but to talk about ‘that’ video. However hard I try, though, it always seems to come back to: “Oh, you did the wardrobe video! I love that video! It’s my favorite from the eighties!” I guess it’s going to be etched on my gravestone: “Tim Pope. Yeah, he did the wardrobe video.” Still, mustn’t grumble, eh? Like they say, “better to be remembered for something.” There were others that (amongst the guesstimated canon of 37) have gone in deep to people’s psyches, seemingly penetrating their inner beings like syrup tentacles. “Lovecats” for The Cure saw Robert dance in circles about a room, talking about “cagey tigers,” while he sent the audience giddy with his cat-like choreography—oh, and I punched him on the nose with a stuffed cat.

“Love Song” saw him and band—Simon, Porl, Boris, Roger—in a cave of penises; shocking even to me when I saw the film back in the harsh light of the editing suite: “Oh God, I’ve gone too far this time!” “Inbetween Days”, where I placed the (very expensive) camera in a shopping basket attached to a piece of rope, so we could give the effect of Robert chucking the camera away, and then catching it again. “Lullaby”—and here we come to the point of why I am writing this now—where Robert (to quote the lyric) “feels like” he’s “being eaten by a thousand million shivering furry holes” (One of the best lines of any pop song, ever, surely?). What was I to do with the video?

Famously, Robert was shocked to see my interpretation of a spider’s mouth—go check the video for yourself and tell me if you think what ‘eats’ him resembles any part of the female anatomy. In other parts of the video, where he is bed-bound, he spent a day inside a spiderweb made from glue like candy floss and doubtless had colorful, solvent-based dreams that night. The byproduct of the glue was that it pulled out half of his hair when he tried to remove it from his face. Which, when you are a RS, is, I guess, bad news—bad news if you are anyone, really.

These videos are all part of my misspent youth—the equivalence of the “naughty things” others got up to behind bicycle sheds. Mine just happened to be a little more, erm, public. I am used to seeing piss-takes, versions, ripoffs, of my work with The Cure, but I was particularly taken with the intriguing version of “Lullaby” in, wait for it, Lego.

Yes, like most people, I have built many a building or airplane from this iconic stuff, but never a video. See it here on Dangerous Minds for the first time. Part of me wants to know why someone would go to all this trouble? To replicate an entire video, frame by frame, cut by cut, shot by shot—wow! My congratulations to the person who made it, credited on the end title card as “Lucas Tuzar.” Lucas says something, in further words, about it being “for Nicola Tuzar’s birthday” and a few others “all of them are big The Cure fans”. I don’t know if he means “big” in terms of their physical size, or he is referencing their passion for the group. Probably the latter, I would guess.

So, there you have it: one of my videos now made in Lego. Thank you, Lucas!

You can see more of my videos at my website www.timpope.tv, or you can get my Twitter feed @timpopedirector.

Below, the original Tim Pope-directed “Lullaby” from 1989:
 


 
The Lego remake:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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02.19.2013
01:07 pm
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‘Time for Timer!’: Saturday morning cartoon PSAs from the 70s
01.15.2013
12:34 pm
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Time for Timer was the overall title for a series of PSAs that ran on ABC in-between Saturday morning kids cartoons in the mid-70s. Timer was a yellow blob with a wristwatch, a top hat and a walking stick. Timer’s schtick was that he was telling kids about what time it was: Time for nutrition, time to brush your teeth, time for a recipe for making homemade juice popsicles, how to prevent lightheadedness by eating breakfast and the merits of cheese:

When my get-up-and-go has got up and went,
I hanker for a hunk o’ cheese!
When I’m dancin’ a hoedown and my boots kinda slow down,
Or anytime I’m weak in the knees,
I hanker for a hunk of,
A slab or slice or chunk of,
A snack a day’s a winner
And yet won’t spoil my dinner!
I hanker for a hunk o’ cheese!

If you are aged 35 and older, you probably remember these PSAs quite well. I confess to still remembering the words for several of Timer’s catchy little ditties and my memory is shit! The Time for Timer spots never really had the same cultural longevity or nostalgic appeal as the Schoolhouse Rock spots did. Certainly there has been no Time for Timer tribute CD with various indie rock bands singing his songs, but Timer and his advice to kids lives on, like everything else, on YouTube.

A bit o’ Timer trivia: The character made his debut on the 1973 ABC After-School Special episode called The Incredible, Indelible Magical, Physical Mystery Trip which starred Paris Hilton’s auntie and future “real housewife of Beverly Hills” mess, Kim Richards. Timer made a cameo appearance in an episode of Family Guy, playing himself as a crack smoker, hankering for a hunk of rock…
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.15.2013
12:34 pm
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‘Join the KKK’: Weird vintage ‘shock tactic’ ad used to promote Krazy Kat cartoons, 1925
01.03.2013
08:55 am
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Since this ad came out in 1925, in Kansas, there’s just no way the “designer” wasn’t attempting a cheap, rubberneck ploy with the acronym. By 1922, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan had become so pervasive in the state that Governor Henry Allen said they had “introduced into Kansas the curse that comes to civilized people, the curse that rises out of unrestricted passions of men governed by religious intolerance and racial hatred.”

It’s even stranger when you know that Krazy Kate creator and cartoon pioneer George Herriman was a multi-racial Creole man, whose family were abolitionist “free people of color” from New Orleans. Weirder still when you find out he drew a lot of racist comics of his own.

It’s a fascinating artifact, layered with the sort of contradictions that make American history so strange. Like an Inception of racism. Meta-racism!

Below is an animated 1916 Krazy Kat cartoon, created three years after Krazy Kat began its ran as one of the most popular comic strips in history
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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01.03.2013
08:55 am
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Tax the Rich!
12.18.2012
02:07 pm
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Someone should hack into Fox News, divert their broadcast signal and play this wonderfulness on a loop:

Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don’t want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren’t so sure.

Written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers, narrated by Ed Asner and animated by Mike Konopacki.

All Republicans who make less than six figures a year need to be strapped into a seat and forced to watch this pitch perfect piece Clockwork Orange-style…
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.18.2012
02:07 pm
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Bizarre animation depicts victory of the people over the ‘ideological vomit’ of kings
12.17.2012
07:45 am
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The Observer
 
Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn has the very cool policy of accepting short film submissions to play in between movies; this beautiful, surreal animation short by Abbey Luck, The Observer, really caught my eye.

A curious citizen triumphs over the reign of a greedy king by spreading the word of a new way of life. After the passive village-folk are poisoned by the king’s ideological vomit, the Observer seeks truth in a mysterious forest.

This unique look of this film was created by cutting acrylic glass sheets into shapes with a laser cutter and layering them on top of a custom-made light box.

 

Posted by Amber Frost
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12.17.2012
07:45 am
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A Fabulous Collection of ACME Products: As used by Bugs, Daffy and Wile E. Coyote
12.07.2012
04:53 pm
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Looking for that unusual Christmas gift? That difficult birthday present? Something for the person with everything?

Then look no further - for here is a fabulous selection of ACME products, so beloved by Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and of course, Wile E. Coyote.

These beautiful images are guaranteed to raise a smile, and I wouldn’t mind a few hanging on my walls. This fine selection has been collated by dystopos, and you can see the full range here
 
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Via b3ta
 
More of these fabulous ACME screencaps, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.07.2012
04:53 pm
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It’s A Bad Brains Christmas, Charlie Brown
12.06.2012
04:58 pm
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I meant to post this festive Bad Brains meets the Peanuts crew video last year around the holidays but somehow spaced on it. So here’s a big “THANK YOU” to Lawrence LaFerla for reminding me!
 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.06.2012
04:58 pm
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‘Rich people feel things more deeply than the common man’: Mr. Burns explains the Fiscal Cliff
12.04.2012
06:16 pm
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Still feeling the pain from Mitt Romney’s loss—not even Karl Rove can comfort him—Mr. Burns explains how that fiscal cliff thing works in this PSA from The Simpsons.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.04.2012
06:16 pm
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3-D View-Master: Vintage adverts & images of Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound
11.27.2012
03:38 pm
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Vintage adverts for the 3-D View-Master, that delightful stereoscopic device through which thin cardboard reels or discs of images were viewed. I can still recall the pure pleasure of viewing these brilliant-colored, photographic images that made the everyday world seem slightly anemic. The stills of Alpine scenes, with pink roses blossoming around a snow-capped chalet; a copper-haired Gulliver (who looked like my neighbor’s biker son) tied to the ground, his hand pin-pricked by Liliputian arrows; pink puppet pigs escaping a drooling, sharp-fanged wolf; Huckleberry Hound crash landing on the Moon; Yogi Bear having his portrait painted; or, Jerry as a Musketeer (Mouseketeer?) probing Tom’s nasal cavity with a sword; The Flinstones; Droopy; London by day and night; Edinburgh Castle under a summer’s sky. It was a delightful portable world, one which my inner geek wanted to join.
 
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More from images of Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound, after the jump…
 
Via Pop Culture Safari
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.27.2012
03:38 pm
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