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When artists make music videos, the results are often hybrid experimental pieces that push both film and art in creative and interesting new directions. Marcel Dzama's music video for Department of Eagles, a collaboration with Patrick Daughters, reads like if Wes Anderson directed a World War I-themed ballet. We can always count on video art extraordinaire Sabrina Ratté to dazzle us with her spectral, synthesized sonic spectacles. Today's case-in-point comes in the form of “Reflections,” the Natalia Stuyk-directed video for London-born rock band Django Django, which was animated by Greek architect and artist Eva Papamargariti."Reflections," which premiered yesterday on Pitchfork.tv envisions the band as "other-worldly kinetic sculptures," according to the video's description. "The digital incarnations of the band’s performance were created through experimental use of motion capture and faceshift technologies," it continues, "which enabled Natalia and Eva to morph each band member and their very human movements, into an abstract sculpture of their own design." If that sounds heady, imagine it like Bananas in Pajamas, transported to the seventh dimension, or if the unmade instruments in the mind of Blue Man Group suddenly became self-aware, and decided to start a band of their own.However you decide to think of it, it's definitely filled with the anything-can-happen CGI architecture aesthetic that made Papamargariti's New Nosthetics video an exercise in virtual surreality, her GIFs "spatial and timeless," and her visuals for PBDY's 25-minute DJ mix an uncanny psychedelic odyssey. Stuyk's particular finesse for 2D and 3D music video direction comes into play here as well, resulting in a digital space that feels unreal and totally tangible, right down to the industrial fan blowing 3D polygons all over the place.Oh, and did we mention that the music video was shot at Framestore London, the home of the VFX studio responsible for Guardians Of The Galaxy's 1.2 billion polygon space city, the CGI aliens and levitating jet boots of Jupiter Ascending, and the time-bending aliens and superb special effects of Edge of Tomorrow? An important note is included in the video's description: "'Reflections' represents the most experimental and abstract use of motion capture technology the studio have seen to date." So yeah, there's that.
Watch "Reflections" above, head over to the websites of Natalia Stuyk and Eva Papamargariti for more from both artists, and stream Django Django's upcoming full-length, Born Under Saturn, on iTunes Radio (out May 4 internationally on Because and May 5 in the U.S. on Ribbon), and check out Django Django's tour dates on Pitchfork.Related:Animated Music Video Turns a Phosphorescent Garden into Rave CentralNo Sense Of Scale Is Necessary In Morphological Film "New Nosthetics"[Behind-the-Scenes] FKA twigs Takes You Inside "Glass & Patron"
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