Harry Smith was a pioneering experimental animator, music anthropologist and all around kooky artistic genius.
“Heaven and Earth Magic” was created to be played on multiple projectors with live music, or DJs accompanying the film. The late William Moritz wrote a wonderful article on Harry’s unique persona and artistic pursuits which is archived on the Center for Visual Music website:
A contemporary 6-person group from the UK whose sound was inspired by double dutch jump roping chants. Some serious energy, and videos very much of the retro persuasion. If that’s sounds like a good time to you, then let’s go!
This drug abuse educational film portrays an animated fantasy based upon the characters in “Alice in Wonderland.” The film shows Alice as she toured a strange land where everyone had chosen to use drugs, forcing Alice to ponder whether drugs were the right choice for her. The “Mad Hatter” character represents Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), the “Dormouse” represents sleeping pills, and the “King of Hearts” represents heroin. Ultimately, Alice concluded that drug abuse is senseless.
Creator: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Public Health Service. Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration. (09/25/1973 – 05/04/1980)
Series: Moving Images Relating to Addiction and Mental Health, compiled 1973 – 1980, documenting the period 1966 – 1971
Production Date: 1971
Instant Cinema (1962/audio from 2007)
Cineblatz (1967)
Irresistible Attack (1995)
They are a tidal wave of delight.
Prepare your machinic mind for a journey through these fractal-architectural dreamscapes. A 12 part series of loops by generative artist Tom Beddard, I’ve picked my favourites below (most are silent, keep your tunes going!)
One of my very favorite animations, Tusalava, was created by New Zealand artist and animation pioneer Len Lye. Originally silent, this version has been re-scored by Allessandro di Paola. Works well silent or with music, but stay with it. The ten minute slow-moving meditation on abstract almost cellular forms is quite moving.
“Unfolding in extreme slow motion, Tusalava depicts the emergence of two opposing figures from a striated matrix of dot-like configurations, most likely inspired by Australian Aboriginal art. Later in life, Lye described one of the figures, which is vaguely humanoid, as a “totem of individuality” and the other, which is wormlike, as a “witchetty grub,” an important Aboriginal food source he had never seen but was the subject of a dance he admired featuring sinuous writhing movements akin to those he made use of in his film. Throughout Tusalava’s ten- minute duration, the witchetty grub invades its totemic counterpart with a pair of tentacular protrusions, struggling to absorb it in its entirety before being thrust aside by the totem’s last-gasp explosive death throes.” Luke Smythe, Len Lye: the Vital Body of Cinema,OCTOBER 144, Spring 2013, pp. 73–91. © 2013 October Magazine, Ltd. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. retrieved from http://www.mitpressjournals.org, January 26th, 2015
The Daily Psychedelic Video 