Music: director Ben Jones has collaborated with experimental rock band Battles on a riotous animation-hefty movie that concerns society’s addiction to “screen time”.
Dot Net is the initial in a series of moving-picture collaborations among filmmakers and Warp Records artists, showcased by means of Channel 4’s Random Acts strand of arts programming.
“Ben Jones and I went to Massachusetts College of Artwork together in the 1990s and I’ve been a huge fan of his work as each a solo artist and a member of Paper Rad ever because,” commented Dave Konopka, bassist and guitarist for Battles.
“I have usually thought that there would be a excellent synthesis of Ben’s experimental animation and Battles’ technicolour sounds – a joining of two types that I have been wanting to make take place for years,” he additional.
The film, which lacks an apparent narrative, is a riot of brightly coloured moving graphics and animation, intercut with footage of site visitors admiring artwork in a gallery.
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When Battles initial approached Jones to collaborate, he had not too long ago finished operate on a solo demonstrate. Pieces from the exhibition characteristic all through the Dot Net video.
“By means of his incorporation of a reside-action gallery scene intercut with his authentically a single-of-a-variety animation, Ben produced a video for Dot Net that is a single of my favourite Battles video collaborations and absolute joy to view over and above again,” commented Konopka.
Alongside the imagery of digitally-produced three-dimensional shapes, the movie focuses on men and women apparently absorbed in games on tablets or smartphones, appearing to transport the viewer into the moving globe of the game itself.
At one particular point the action cuts to footage of two men and women enjoying table tennis, later echoed in a graphic Pong-type representation of the game. The film even appears to break the fourth wall in the direction of the finish, as a man appears to peer out of the display and at the viewer themselves.
“The exploration of the digital territory in between abstract graphic consumer interfaces, polyrhythms and human interaction was a paramount inspiration of this video,” stated Jones, who has also produced demonstrates for Grownup Swim and Cartoon Network.
“Prodding and proving the causality of passive engagement vs hyper-addiction concerning the influence of ‘screen time’ (using the video and audio of an iPad or iPhone or and so forth.),” he extra. “In the finish we stored returning to this jump off: is this a dope music vid to have on your Apple watch? Yes or No?”
The film will be broadcast as component of a half-hour programme on Channel four in 2016, which will also attribute additional collaborations amongst Warp musicians and directors.
Dot Net is taken from Battles’ album La Di Da Di, which was launched on Warp Data on September 18.
