Around the end of the ‘90s, an art dealer friend of mine began bringing traveling exhibitions of Polish posters to town. It was eye-opening stuff—Eastern Europe has long had a tradition for outstanding poster art, its artists boasting stunning skills, married to an admirable obeisance to the visual legacy of traditional printmaking methods and jaw-droppingly inventive surrealist-influenced illustration. It was at one of those poster shows that I bought an item that remains one of my most cherished possessions: Istvan Orosz: Etchings and Posters, a slipcased, hand printed letterpress book from 1998, from an edition of only 750 (a second edition of 300 was made in 2000), published by the apparently now defunct GrafikARCHIVE Publishing of Kansas City, MO. From an archived mirror of the company’s web site:

This first book features the work of internationally renowned Hungarian designer ISTVAN OROSZ. Fold out pages, envelopes with small printed pages of art, several different types of paper; “a feast for the eyes and the hands” (International Paper). The book received the ADDY Award in 1999 for its imaginative presentation by the firm DESIGN RANCH. Slipcase, wire-O bound in portfolio form, 82 pages with numerous 1 to 3 color illustrations. Essays by Roberta Lord (US) and Andras Torok (Hungary).

 

 
Other books of his work are more readily available and affordable, but it’s sad that this one in particular is such a rare item, as it’s a wonderful way to experience Orosz’s work—it’s a very playful book for a very playful printmaker, who shows strong influences from the likes of Magritte and Escher. But there are deficiencies. The printing technique makes it impossible to show much of his poster work in full color, and it excludes, due to obvious realities, his anamorphs and his animations.

First, feast your eyes on a few lovely posters.
 

 

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Now, check out his anamorphic work. Anamorphoses are artworks that look indecipherable until viewed from a specific angle or in a distorting mirror, often a cylinder. Check out how, on top of just the basic anamorphosis, Orosz goes the extra mile and embeds a hidden portrait into the drawing, or uses the anamorphic drawing and mirror as an extension of a larger work. Stuff like this always amazes me.
 

Jules Verne
 

Edgar Allen Poe: The Raven
 

Anna Draws A Circle
 

Anamorphic Bodyscapes 1

Finally, enjoy a few of Orosz’s marvelous animations. If the stuff on the printed page suits your fancy, I don’t suggest passing up the opportunity to watch his work dance.
 

 
More after the jump…

 
We are small, but perfectly formed. The latest version of the Scale of the Universe.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

 
After a 3 year wait, artist Max Hattler’s beautiful animation AANAATT is now available on-line. Made in collaboration with musician Jemapur, AANAATT has been described as:

“...a classic in the field of Visual Music, and a unique example of creative ingenuity and elegant design.” - Robert Darroll

“An exciting experiment in the tradition of Oskar Fischinger (Komposition in Blau, 1935), Dwinell Grant (Composition No. 1, 1940) and Slavko Vorkapich (Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome, 1950s).” - Anton Fuxjäger

Hattler’s AANAATT explores:

“A strange world where experience, both familiar and unfamiliar, is cut-up, upside-down and otherwise displaced, as modernist shapes move and construct themselves in almost organic ways. AANAATT, a 2008 music video from artist Max Hattler is a sublime stop-motion animation that hearkens back to 40′s and 50′s abstract films through its geneological exploration of shape and movement with music.” - Jason Sondhi

Discover more of Max Hattler’s work here.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Surface World: Max Hattler’s short film ‘Drift’

 
Drift is a short film by Max Hattler, a film-maker and artist who is:

“interested in the space between abstraction and figuration in the moving image, where storytelling is freed from the constraints of traditional narrative.”

Max works across film, video installation and live audiovisual performance, and has collaborated with music acts including Basement Jaxx, Jovanotti, Jemapur, The Egg, Ladyscraper, and his dad’s outfit Hattler. Drift is a beautiful and mesmeric film, which examines the human epidermis in close-up, re-imagining our skin, its hair and pores, as landscape - growing, changing, living.
 

 
So, this is where I went wrong. If only I’d paid more attention and not watched all that Hanna-Barbera instead.

See the full size pic here.
 
Via Reddit
 

 
The talented writer and DM pal, Steve Duffy, has passed on this fun little, interactive “gadget” - your very own hamster, which you can feed, water and play with.

This lively pet hamster will keep you company throughout the day. Watch him run on his wheel, drink water, and eat the food you feed him by clicking your mouse. Click the center of the wheel to make him get back on it.

Click the edit settings link above to customize the hamster. When you are finished, click the “Add to Google” button.

It’s designed by Adam Bowman, a web developer who lives in Maine, and runs a fantastic website, which showcases his wonderful gadgets. You can find Adam’s site here.

For your own hamster check here, or play with the one below.
 

 
With thanks to Steve Duffy
 

 
If Angry Birds had a news channel, would it be something like this? Egor Zhgun‘s clever animation explains current and recent events in the Middle East by mashing Walt Disney’s The Three Little Pigs with those pesky Angry Tweets.
 

 
‘Inception’ in 60 seconds with Victorian woodcuts, part of the Jameson Done in 60 Seconds Empire Awards. And here are this year’s finalists.
 
With thanks to Simon Sellars
 

 
A taste of computer games gone-by. Escape From New York as long play from the the bogus 1999 C64 game. The full video, plus a host of others, are downloadable here at Archive.org (no 276).  And for all you need to know about the Escape From New York game check here.
 

 
With thanks to Clyde Lawson
 

 
The barely animated Henry Rollins and Tom Waits give advice on what to do when falling in love with a dead person.
 
With thanks to Tom Ruddock
 

 
Roger Mellie - the Man on the Telly first appeared as a cartoon strip in Viz magazine, a Derek ‘n’ Clive piss-take of more mainstream comics, set up by brothers Chris and Simon Donald in 1979.  Like many of the Viz cartoon characters (Sid the Sexist, The Fat Slags), Roger Mellie was rude, obnoxious, foul-mouthed, sexist, racist with serious drink and drug issues. A CV like that today would make Mellie perfect TV fodder.

According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, Roger Mellie was:

Born Roger Edward Paul Mellie in 1937 in North Shields, Roger was educated at Fulchester Mixed Infants, Bartlepool Grammar School, and the Oxford Remand Centre. Roger was hopeless at school, and was bottom of the class for every subject. He began his broadcasting career as a cub reporter on the news with Robert Dougall and shot to fame doing genital mutilation routines at the London Palladium. He was soon recruited by Fulchester Television, and became a popular TV personality. He also established his own production company, MellieVision, and it snowballed from there. He now spends most nights in Acton, where he often stays at his favourite lap-dancing club until gone three in the morning. He now lives in Fulchester with his 17-year old Thai wife, and 15 Staffordshire Bull Terriers. Roger is quite a colourful character: He has had five past wives (Two of which were ‘accidentally’ murdered), is an undischarged bankrupt; a convicted rapist; a hopeless alcoholic; a right-wing bigot, and a recovering cocaine addict, among other things. On one occasion in 2006, while requiring a liver transplant (due to chronic alcoholism), Roger became a hit-and-run driver: he ran over and killed a motorcyclist without stopping, later receiving the dead man’s liver for himself, then celebrating the successful liver transplant with a booze-up at the nearest pub.

In 1991, Mellie made the jump from comic strip to TV series, with Peter Cook providing the voice to the foul-mouthed TV star and Harry Enfield as everyone else. It works in places, but like many of Cook’s straight acting roles, there is a sense that Mellie would have been better if Cook had improvised more. But then that would have been Peter Cook and not Roger Mellie - the Man on the Telly.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Peter Cook Hosts TV’s Punk Revolver

 
More bollocks from Roger Mellie, after the jump…
 

 
Each year animator John Butler produces his own distinct Christmas image to send to friends. Rather than the traditional jolly Santa or nativity scene, John creates “a sinister festive image,” inspired by a work of classic science-fiction. This year’s image was inspired by John Carpenter’s The Thing and John has sent it to Dangerous Minds for all of us to share. Nice.
 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

 
Canadian animator Richard Williams is best known for his work on Roger Rabbit, but he’s been making inventive commercials in the UK and USA since the late 1960s.

Animation maestro Richard Williams (The Thief and the Cobbler, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) found great success doing animated commercials in the UK, but his greatest goal was to learn from the great animators of the past, like Ken Harris, Art Babbit, Grim Natwick and Milt Kahl, and pass their knowledge on to his own studio and the animators of tomorrow. Richard was successful in doing this and many animators who worked under the brilliant, mad perfectionist went on to found their own studios, and to work on the great Disney films of the late 1980s and 1990s.

Richard never quite finished his dream project The Thief and the Cobbler (viewable on Youtube in a Recobbled Cut), as it was eventually financed by Warner Brothers, who went cold on the idea and took the film away from him.

These days Richard is known for having written perhaps the best book ever written on animation- The Animator’s Survival Kit. Every animation student should have one, and probably does.

Enjoy these wonderful animations from Richard Williams.
 

 
Lots more groovy animated fun after the jump…

 
Using printed cardboard, two turntables, a projector and screen, Austrian student Clemens Kogler created this very groovy concept employing a modern take on the phenakistoscope technique which he calls phonovideo. With one exception, all of the animated paintings are based on album covers. The music for “Stuck in a Groove” was created by Richard Eigner.

The graphic illustrates how the process works. For a more detailed description check out the interview with Kogler at motiongrapher.

Kogler imagines deejays using phonovideo in performance.

Phonovideo is a VJ tool or visual instrument used to display animations in an analog way without the help of a computer. “Stuck in a Groove” is the first film made with this technique, it serves also as a demo for the technique .
In the future phonovideo could be used for live performances in cooperation with musicians, performers and other artists.

 
Like a waking dream you can’t control no matter how hard you try.
via Cyriak