Futurenatural Films & Projects

	2016 2008 2007 2006 2006 2004 2002 2001 1998 1997 1996 1995 1995 1993 1992 1991 1987 1986	"ELASTIC SYSTEM" web application "HOW TO TALK TO IMAGES" multimedia project "10,000 COPYRIGHTED IMAGES" Digital animation, 6:56 mins, digital video "THE INTERNET SPEAKS" web application and online animation "THE MIMETICON" web application "FOREPLAY" Live Action, 17:14 mins, DV "PROGRAMMING WITH A PAINTBRUSH (HELLO WORLD VOL1)" Interactive essay on CD-ROM "THE BANK OF TIME" Desktop screensaver and web site, Macromedia Director and Perl "LMX SPIRAL" Live action and digital animation, 7:53 mins, videotape "PLAY TO WIN" Digital and hand animation, 2:46 mins, videotape "GRIDLOCK" Digital and hand animation, 1:32 mins, videotape "THE Z-SPLICER" Digital compositing technique, 3:25 mins, videotape "HELIOCENTRUM" Digital animation, 11:15 mins, videotape "CORPUS" Video installation, 4 monitors and video decks. "CORPUS" Digital and video animation, 6 mins, videotape "SUPERANIMISM" Computer animation, 3:20 mins, videotape "STUDIES IN RHYTHM" Computer animation, 1:40 mins, videotape "CELLS" Computer animation, 1:20 mins, videotape
All films are distributed through LUX distribution London or the British Council unless otherwise stated


		"ELASTIC SYSTEM" Web applcation, 2016-18 "The Elastic System" is an interactive portrait of the C19th librarian Thomas Watts which I made when I was artist-in-residence at the Brtish Library. In 1840 Watts invented his "elastic system" of storage for the Library which was a big innovation in early information systems. This portarit is composed of 4,300 books stored in the Library basements which have not been on public display since Watts time. Each book is connected live to the British Library's electronic database. When a book is requested it is removed from the mosaic to reveal a portrait of the staff who work in the underground storage basements - the hidden part of the modern requesting system. This work was part of an AHRC funded research project called “The Internet of Cultural Things”, a partnership with Dr Mark Cote (KCL) and Professor Jussi Parikka (WSA) with wide representation from the British Library including Jamie Andrews, Dr Aquiles Alencar Brayner and Dr David Waldock. The aim was to use digital data and the creative arts to transform the way people and public institutions interact. I wrote three blog posts on my research behind this project: /Where-is-the-library What-can-you-do-with-a-library Elastic-system-how-to-judge-a-book-by-its-cover Download the press release here.



		"HOW TO TALK TO IMAGES" A2 poster, 2008 This was a poster I produced for a show I did at the HTTP Gallery in London. It featured "The Mimeticon" and "The Internet Speaks" as two very different examples of artworks that search the same database of random internet images. The poster talks about how having access to vast quantities of imagery has changed the way we see and the back features an essay illustrated by the entire history of the Western alphabet, as an example of the evolution of visual language. You can download the poster from the links above. Or contact me for a print.



		"10,000 COPYRIGHTED IMAGES" Crime at the limits of human perception Digital animation, 6:56 mins, digtal video, 2007. A spin off from my previous search engine projects consisting solely of random images collected from the internet and displayed one per frame. An exercise in maximum velocity copyright infringement. Download the press release for "10,000 Copyrighted Images" here (.pdf 12K) For distribution enquiries contact me: richard at futurenatural dot net



		"THE INTERNET SPEAKS" - exhibition version "THE INTERNET SPEAKS" - word by word, desktop version Autonomous images, 2006. This is a spin-off from my "Mimeticon" project. It uses the same database of random images, but now stripped out of context and randomly displayed. Nothing added and nothing taken away. The first version displays one every 3 seconds, the second lets you step through them. It's like the tarot. Can you fool someone into thinking they are connected? Can you remember what the last image was? Can you guess how many images before you get an eyeful of porn?



		"www.MIMETICON.net" A Baroque search engine that uses pictorial alphabets instead of text. Web application, search engine, 2006. ”The “Mimeticon” is both a search engine which allows you to find images by visual similarity and an artwork about the history of writing. In a technique reminiscent of ASCII art, the user “draws” an image using letters selected from the history of the Roman alphabet stretching back to its pictorial origins in Egyptian hieroglyphics. This project applies image recognition to the visual history of the alphabet to demonstrate new forms of writing that go beyond the traditional barriers between words and images. This is a further development of my "Hello World" research, combining it with my usual vanitas interests. Funded by the New Media Projects Fund, Arts Council England and MAP, London. Download a press release for the "Mimeticon" here (.doc 36K)



		"FOREPLAY" Four characters find themselves trapped in a world of frustrated erotic encounters. A porn film without the sex. Live Action, 17:14 mins, DV, 2004. My most ambitious live action film to date. I am now taking some of the ideas and rewriting it as a TV comedy drama. Funded by the AHRB and supported by London Metropolitan University and the National Film and Television School. Download the press release for "Foreplay" here (.doc 53K) For distribution enquiries contact me: richard at futurenatural dot net



		"PROGRAMMING WITH A PAINTBRUSH (HELLO WORLD VOL1)" A multimedia essay on the impact of computer software on artists moving image Interactive CD-ROM, 2002. This was based on an essay I wrote about postproduction software in 1999 (see below). A few years later I sent it to the School of Design, University of Western Sydney and they commissioned this version for their research programme. Full of images and video documentation to illustrate the points, but I think I preferred the original essay. Funded by UWS and the Arts and Humanities Research Board, UK. Download the original essay here, 1999 (.doc 230K) (Originally published in Filmwaves no. 12, Autumn 2000) For CD distribution enquiries: contact me: richard at futurenatural dot net



		"www.TheBankofTime.com" Nominated for the BAFTA Awards, Interactive Art, 2001. "Growth through Idleness" An online screensaver that uses your idle time to grow virtual plants. Desktop screensaver and web site, Macromedia Director and Perl, 2001. This was my first full blown internet project and I was pleased to see how popular it was - nearly 10,000 online users alone. And it still works. Commissioned by New Media Projects, Arts Council England, 2001. Download the press release here (.doc 33K) Download bank statement here (.doc 32K) Here's a write up by Geoff Cox for the 'read_me: Software Art and Cultures' book, University of Aarhus, 2004. There's also an interview that Matthew Fuller did in 2002.



		"LMX SPIRAL" Nominated for the Videokunstpreis, International Award for Video Art, SWR and ZKM, 1998. A conceptual music video about our transition from the enterprise culture of the eighties to the lottery culture of the nineties. Live action and digital animation, 7:53 mins, Beta SP, 1998. A wildly ambitious film trying to capture the mood of a particular period. Could have done with better editing but still gets screenings. Commissioned by the "animate!" scheme. Funded by Arts Council England and Channel 4 TV. Download the press release here (.doc 34K) Download review of 'LMX Spiral' by Steven Beard (i-D magazine #180, Oct 1998) (.jpg 214K)



		"PLAY TO WIN" Career burnout is the only reward for a society of desperately competing individuals in this psychomania of constriction, repression, desire and conflict. Digital and hand animation, 2:46 mins, Beta SP, 1997. This was the second collaboration with animator Martyn Pick. "Play to Win" was originally made as an interactive TV programme commissioned by the LFVDA (now Film London) and Videotron TV Interactive (now Cable and Wireless). Download the press release here (.doc 26K)



		"GRIDLOCK" Based on a blend of traditional animation and computer graphics, the piece features a series of vigorous graffiti style figures struggling with a computer generated mesh or cage. Digital and hand animation, 1:32 mins, Beta SP, 1996. This piece was the first collaboration I did with the 'traditional' hand animator Martyn Pick after we met at the much missed "Hub Club". "GridLock" was originally made as an interactive animation commissioned by the "Emotional Computing" scheme, Arts Council England. Download the original press release here (.doc 22K) Download the interactive animation here: (Windows) (Mac)



		"THE Z-SPLICER" "Z-Splicing" is a new montaging technique which allows figures and scenes from different live action shots to be combined in "3D space" as though they are intangible entities. Digital compositing technique (demo), 3:25 mins, Beta SP, 1995. This research was commissioned by the “Hi-Tech Fund”, Arts Council England and Channel 4 TV. The animation consists of some test shots demonstrating the new technique. Occassionally I return to it but it is still 'under development' until a better way of capturing the depth data becomes available... Download the original proposal here (.doc 26K)



		"HELIOCENTRUM" A historical allegory about Louis XIV and the technology of leisure. Using a computer animated Baroque aesthetic, "Heliocentrum" is a cross between a political documentary and a Seventeenth Century rave video. Digital animation, 11:15 mins, Beta SP, 1995. This film was the last collaboration with Jason White before we went our separate ways (although we did some work on the 'Z-Splicer'). It was also the first commission from the "animate!" scheme, funded by Arts Council England and Channel 4 TV. Download the original Press Release here (.doc 30K) Download review of 'Heliocentrum' by Hari Kunzru (WIRED magazine, July 1997) (.doc 38K) Download review of 'Heliocentrum' by Steve Beard (i-D magazine #165, June 1997) (.jpg 285K)



		"CORPUS" A lyrical piece delving into corporiality and featuring the first appearance of the vanitas motifs that were to dominate my work from then on. Video installation, 4 monitors and video decks, 1993. Digital and video animation, 6 mins, U-matic SP, 1992. The animation was programmed and rendered while I was Artist in Residence at the old Computer Graphics Lab at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1991. The installation version was commissioned by Video Positive '93 (now FACT), Liverpool. It was also exhibited at "British Artists of the Nineties" show at Kunstwerke in Berlin in 1993. After this experience I pretty much gave up installations and stuck to screen based work - life's too short.



		"SUPERANIMISM" A 'cyber punk' animation exploring the new landscape of machine 'life' as it tries to escape becoming a mirror to human life. Computer animation, 3:20 mins, U-matic SP, 1991. This was the first project that Jason White and I worked on. We started it while we were on the MA at the National Centre for Computer Aided Art and Design at Middlesex University and didn't finish it until 3 years later. This was mainly because we had to write all the software ourselves and run it on old VAX mainframes. For this reason I still refer to it as 'computer animation' instead of the more hip 'digital animation' (and even though we were already using treated live action).



		"STUDIES IN RHYTHM" A generative animation based on the sine wave synthesis that models water patterns. Computer animation, 1:40 mins, U-matic, 1987. This was an animation I did during my year as Artist in Residence at National Centre for Computer Aided Art and Design at Middlesex University (what a mouthfull). This was the last rigorously 'non representational' work I did before I got bored with all that and moved back to figuration. Nowadays they call it 'ambient video'...



		"CELLS" A generative animation based on the interative transformation of cellular elements. Computer animation, 1:20 mins, U-matic, 1986. This is it - my first ever film, produced for my BA graduation from Winchester School of Art. WSA was very much a painters' college and no one had any idea of what I was up to. I spent most of my time at the nearby IBM Scientifc Research Centre where this was made. This was the first computer program I wrote as I tried to explore whether it was possible to mathematically automate the generation of images and effectively replace the whole of ones visual imagination. Not too ambitious to start with then...