Goodbye 2015, hello 2016. As in every year’s end, the daily psychedelic video is proud to present you with the only list of the best psychedelic videos of the year. This year’s list was meticulously selected from a list of over 500 videos which were featured on the DPV in 2015, and it’s more colorful and hypnotizing than ever.
How to watch these videos
We recommend dedicating a psychedelic evening to watching these videos on big, sharp screens, with good speakers and in a receptive, psychedelic state of mind. These videos are not for intended for standard YouTube watching. They can be viewed this way, but they are much better when you let them take you on a journey. They are about the total and ultimate experience, letting go and merging with the shapes and colors on the screen.
Over the years members of the DPV have arranged many psychedelic video screenings both official and for friends. It is always an amazing-mind blowing experience. If you arrange a similar psychedelic videos screening, please take a picture of it and post it on Facebook, tagging our Facebook page.
When I was done dying – Dan Deacon
Nine of the world’s trippiest, most psychedelic animators collaborated on “When I was done dying”, including Jake Fried, Chad Vangaalen and Anthony Schepperd. The result is a fantastic mixture of styles that still works superbly as a unified piece. (Original post)
Janzliker – Micah Buzan
Michah Buzan says he doesn’t do drugs, yet his videos are hyper-psychedelic journeys to alternate realities. In this one, Buzan created a mesmerizing and disturbing rendition to a song by Pala Leda, which he says, is open to interpretations. While he works by himself and draws by hand, Buzan’s creative output over the past couple of years puts him at the top of our list of psychedelic video artists you should know. (Original post)
Diffusion – Kouhei Nakama
What if people could have patterned skin like animals. Kouhei Nakama says they will have it, and this is how it might look. (Original post).
Dry Lights – Xavier Chassaing
Choreographed light meets organic landscapes in this spectacular video of an electric desert which comes to life. (Original post).
Don’t hug me I’m scared – Episode 4
The psychedelic web (quasi)children show Don’t hug me I’m scared released two new episodes this year. Episode 4, which makes some pointed critique on life in the era of computers, is funny, witty, psychedelic, and terrifyingly true. (Original post).
You Could Sunbathe in this Storm – Alicia Dunseath
Alicia Duneath’s graduation film from the London College of Art utilizes an masterful mixture of techniques, looking at the way we shape and are shaped by the world around us. (Original post).
The less I know the better – Tame Impala
The psychedelic Tame Impala does it again, and this time in a raunchy high-school tale which features a sexy teenager, a hot basketball player and a gorilla. We won’t tell you anymore but be sure not to miss the lusciously psychedelic colored body around 2:30. Psychedelic perfection. (Original post).
Inner Space Artifacts – Ben Ridgway
Ben Ridgway’s Inner Space Artifacts transforms “artifacts from inner space” into “moving digital structures.” These are glowing and shining alien-droid structures you want to move into. (Original post).
Berg – Kanahebi
A group of bio-luminescent psychedelic sea-creatures dance in an underwater cave, demonstrating great beauty and jellyfish finesse. (Original post.)
Crystal – by Delorean (Directed by Joan Guasch)
“Created from two 3D scanned characters, ‘Crystal’ is a psychedelic trip through different stages in a relationship.” Joan Guasch creates a confusing world of torn bits and pieces which float in space, advancing and receding in perfect harmony. (Original post).
People on the Sand – TRACA
Nicholas Tracanelli doesn’t want to go where people are slow. He only wants to be with people like him. An amusing psychedelic pop song. (Original post).
Ex Animo – Wojciech Wojtkowski
Wojciech Wojtkowski created an award winning and amazing hand-drawn universe of grotesque creatures and absurd scenes mixed with some powerful chamber music. (Original post).
Abstract 44 – Morgan Beringer
Morgan Beringer’s Abstract 44 is a work of psychedelic avant-garde. The abstract moving color streams might remind one of an abstract-impressionist painting which has been awoken to life, and while some of you watching this at the office might find it difficult to see what the fuss is about, in the right state of mind, this video can draw you in and take you on spectacular journeys. (Original post).
Days of High Adventure – Open Source
Days of high adventure is a spectacular fractal trance universe of numerous (elf?)machines doing their thing. Join the party. (Original post).
Julius Horsthuis – Our Fractal Brains
Fractal master Julius Horsthuis gives a lesson about the ways fractals relate to the ways we perceive and think, in an especially stunning classroom. This video was not featured on the DPV yet, but we had another spectacular video from Horsthuis which you can check out here.
Ink Mapping: Video Mapping Projection on Tattoos, by Oskar & Gaspar
In 2015 the world’s first live event of tattoo mapping was held in Lisbon. Tattoo mapping is a technique which brings tattoos into life by projecting animated tattoos on them. Oskar & Gaspar created a spectacular video which documented the event and went viral on the web. No aftereffects were used. (Original post).
Subconscious Cinema – Dreamscience
Dreamscience masterfully edited a collection of well-known cinematic scenes into a powerful and disturbing video which manages to deliver a strong message while drawing from the collective unconscious of popular culture. This is how cultures dream. (Original post).
Understanding Perception – Beau Lotto
Neuroscience professor Beau Lotto explains how our perception tricks us into seeing not what actually exists, but what was useful for us to perceive in the past, and suggests how technology might enable us to challenge this perceptual fallacy. Director Steve West did a tremendous job translating Lotto’s words into a beautiful animation. (Original post).
Grocery trip – Pouff
You cannot talk about 2015 in psychedelic video without mentioning Google’s Deep Dream artificial neural networks. When allowed to think in loops, the Google neural network algorithm dreams up crazy realities and lays them on top of our ordinary reality. 2015 was the year in which we learned how machines dream, and for some weeks the internet was swarming with Google Deep Dream videos. Some saw this as an interesting perspective on how human consciousness creates its own reality, while others considered this a proof that droids, too, dream of electric sheep. From the many Deep Dream videos out there we selected Pouff’s video which demonstrates how — for a machine — a walk in the grocery store might turn into a psychedelic mirage. (Original post).
Some forgotten 2014 gems
While we try our best, we can’t help but miss some of the fresh psychedelic videos out there on the web, and sometimes these get featured on the site a year or two after their release. So, same as every year, he are some of the best videos of 2014 which we missed in last year’s list.
Pasarinho – Rainer Scheurenbrand
YouTube user Juan F created this beautiful video clip to Rainer Scheurenbrand’s Pasarinho. A good contender for the title, the best Ayahusca music clip ever. (Original post).
Draft Culture – Dorian Concept
Rhythmically moving Kaleidoscopic drawings in this video to Dorians Concept’s “Draft culture. (Original post).
Saint Joan – Husky
Lucinda Schreiber directed and animated this beautiful music-clip to “St Joan” by Husky. The animation is fairly simple compared to some of the things you see on the site, but it works great together with the song. (Original post).
Zuma Teaser – Sam Mason
The spectacular Zuma teaser takes the viewer to alluring imaginary worlds which might remind one of the works of Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Too bad it’s so short. It left us wanting more! (Original post).
Intrinsic Gravity – Still
This spectacular op-art demo video won the first place in the Ghetto Scene 2014. (Original post).
Other Earth – Pouff
Pouff’s other earth video might just be the best fractal video ever produced. We’ll let you judge for yourself. (Original post).
Conact – Vladimir Tarasov
Finally, a trip back in time. Vladimir Tarasov’s “Contact” from 1978 is an old Soviet psychedelic gem which tells the story of a painter who is contacted by an shape-shifting alien. Almost as an instinct, our painter imagines the alien as a scary and belligerent creature, he runs away from him and only later, when he lets go of his fear of the unknown, does he find out this alien other can become his good friend. Drawn in s a style somewhat reminiscent of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, the film won a couple of 1979 awards. (Original post).
Want to see the best psychedelic videos of previous years. Here you’ll find:
The best psychedelic videos of 2014
The best psychedelic videos of 2013
The best psychedelic videos of 2012
The Daily Psychedelic Video 