You see those animated illustration-videos quite often again these days, so here’s a very nice one for your viewing pleasures:

Blackbird from Thomas Frenzel on Vimeo.

“The Blackbird video is a music visualization project by Katja Schweiker and Thomas Frenzel. Both are working with an experimental approach on intermedia projects, striving for content generated designs.

This artwork was done for Michael Fakeschs audio-visual project called VIDOS—a collection of music visualizations based on Michaels latest album DOS. The video‘s design is based on visual samples that quote Michaels auditory style and mixes analog with digital elements—metaphors of the real and the immaterial. It‘s about trying and failure—trying to leave behind, trying to live in a forward-turned way, trying not to resign or surrender, trying to get aware.”

Greetings to Kai.

Transmediale is over and has been as always an inspiring experience! One of the most exciting events was the Generator.x project. It’s a project of Marius Watz which deals with the role of software and code in current art and design. The had a very atmospheric performance night, moreover a workshop and an exhibtion. Learn everything about the project on the website or watch the short videofeature I shot.

PROLOGUE, the world’s first adress for title design finally has a website!

Did not post any Motion Graphic Projects for a long time, but this one has to be spread!
Noah Harris does the beuatiful on air design for E4.

Amazing combination of RealAction, Stop Motion and CGI. What I truly adore is the feeling of non-perfection which gives the idents a very authentic but playful atmosphere.

At the Flip Animation Festival in Wolverhampton they’ll have a panel on the effects of YouToube on the Animation business.

“This panel discussion will look at the impact of new and emerging online platforms and tools and will ask what the opportunities are for animators and filmmakers and can online distribution and exhibition lead to professional commissions?”

It’s already over one week since I returned from the Video Vortex Conference in Brussels, but I’m still deeply moved by the amazing weekend! Thanks again to Stoffel, Maria, Andrea, Bram and the whole team at ARGOS for inviting me and organizing this exciting conference!

I will post some stuff I saw in Brussels within the next days but I’ll start with a selection of abstrakt short films I curated and that was shown at a screening evening at the conference. It’s called “Visual Poems - Abstract video works on the net” and you can see it online at the ARGOS Blog. There you’ll find the short films of the participating artists and some short interviews.

Participating artists are Mate Steinforth, WeWorkForThem, Alec Crichton, Devoid of Yesterday, Curt and Defasten.

“Abstraction has been an important theme in the arts for over a century. Concerning the moving image there has been a strong tradition of abstraction from early experimental films to video art. The exploration of form has always been the exploration of the rules and functionalities of the particular medium.

20 years after the invention of the Internet moving images invade the medium. YouTube is already causing about 10% of the internet traffic worldwide, videos are seen by millions of users. But what is a typical web video? Are there already existing rules and thematical focal points in the YouTube world? Critics complain that you only need someone hurting himself in your video to get the big click on YouTube. Serious content or artistic expressions don’t arrouse enough attention and get lost in the digital nirvana.

So what about abstract or poetic web videos? Aren’t they objecting the rules of the medium by not impressing the viewer with fast food entertainment? Or are they by contrast indeed exploring the rules of the new medium by addressing issues like fragmentation or postmodernity?”

New Work from WeWorkForThem, Video Projection at Tosays Art Festival 2007, The Hague, Netherlands.

Weworkforthem were one out of 24! artists and collectives who performed live at the festival.

Artist collective Pleix is rockin the music video and advertising scene with one of the most unique and significant visual styles out there right now.

See there brand new ad for Sony HD (via Nerdcore):

YouTube DirectLink .
And if you haven’ t seen it watch BIRDS:

YouTube DirectLink .

Motion Designer Matthias Steinforth from Hannover, Germany, has updated his personal portfolio Mateuniverse.

He is working at Psyop NYC for some month now and has some impressive new clips on the site. His portfolio gives some inside views on project development by showing some pitches and stills additionally to his motion pieces.