Chairlift’s video for “Evident Utensil” uses a video effect identified by Young Master Kottke as “datamoshing”, in which artifacts from video compression are purposefully used to add a melting, psychedelic patina and transitions. A higher resolution .MOV makes it even more…clear? [Moar]
I really want to like this song, but something about it irks me. I think it’s the Ace of Base-style echoed chanting from the guy in the chorus. I’m all for nostalgia, but let’s please not bring that back. (Conversely, it would greatly improve my chances of working as a professional “rapster”.)
Kanye’s new video does this too:
http://vimeo.com/3256023
I’m less impressed by the Kanye version.
If you mute the Chairlift video, it’s actually really cool.
Argh! I’ve been thinking that weirdness would be a great visual effect to use… I’m just too damn lazy to surf the zeitgeist, I guess.
by far, THE WORST chairlift song known to man. had me seconds away from ejecting the cd and throwing it into traffic, then i remembered the skip button. tailor made for LSD.
I have this strange hankering for artifacts like this. Still waiting to discover somebody to exploit MP3 artifacts for music. Hmmm lovely errors.
Ah, datamoshing, I learned about that last semester in an art class I took all about the glitch. My teacher for the class, John Sastrom, is in a group known as I <3 PRESETS, he dose some amazing visuals with data corruption. Last show I went to was around this time last year, he started the show by going to the turbotax online site and corrupting his browser…
If anyone is in Chicago and has a chance to see them, I highly recommend it.
Having listened to this whilst watching the video, I originally couldn’t stand the lyrics. I now understand them and think they are great. Combined with the video effect of latent interlacing or ‘damoshing’, I see exactly what they are trying to get at, and given time there is a lot more to them than meets the eye.
‘ the most evident utensil is none other than a pencil, not a multi coloured stencil or a camera crew’
the idea is that with the high tech world of music, video and green screen filming, texting etc, the way in which we convey messages to each other has become somewhat distorted. How many times have you sent someone, or recieved a text that caused a complete arguement, one which was totally not needed, just because you couldn’t see each others faces when what was said was said? Nothing has any form or substance any more. Digital has taken over from analogue, and there are short cuts everywhere. With regards to this interlacing breakdown.
it looks like the effect when one is trying to fast forward digital footage like on you tube, and the video kind of catches up but not quite. A bit like watching low quality pop online, or even (po*n) !!!
The idea is that the singer is asking ‘how hard must i try, for you- ou-ou!’
i.e. How must she express herself?
We live in times where messages are degraded, and format has ended up in style over substance. Women have boob jobs to appear in porn movies, whereas our singer here has a pair of lovely shoulderpads for us to look at! Has anyone ever tried to do a life drawing of a nude person ( with a pencil )? It’s difficult but satisfying when you achieve a good result, and everyone in the room is in direct contact with one another, in direct agreement of sorts.
I reckon they are playing on these ideas anyway. Or trying to at least. The only thing that throws it is the late eighties early nineties sound. Just before the internet i suppose?
Video killed the radio star….