LUKE WYATT SAD STONEWASH - A Video Mulch

The video Luke Wyatt made for his Torn Hawk Tarifa track has been calling me, and en route for another gawp at it on Youtube I came across another amazing video he's done with the Tarifa track. It's a promo for a full length DVD called - best name ever - Sad Stonewash. Its VHS sentimentality is totally kitsch and surprsingly poignant, and major visual disintegration FX push it as far towards pixellated meltdown as it's possible to go without completely destroying the meaningful looks, sunsets and 80s dance moves. And the harsh metallic beats in the track, balanced by the balearic sunset melody, perfectly complement the sentimental/destructive feel of the video.

Luke Wyatt explained to AAVV how he works and what inspired Sad Stonewash:

 “I select video to appropriate based on its mood resonance or compositional zing. My VCR gets beat up with a size 13 docksider until it makes errors and the VHS tape spits up on itself. While digitizing the video I induce the computer to make mistakes by not telling it the truth about the data it is ingesting. I isolate the mistakes I like best, outline them, and send them back to my VCR, resuming the docksider attack, repeating this process until things attain an anti-sheen, losing any crisp edge, as if they had always belonged together. I then arrange the images in an order that must appear equally inevitable. I term the results of this technique Video Mulch. For this work, the following was on my mind: languid linen-suit sadness via the stylish poignancy of Michael Mann sunsets. A cold weather cousin sadness to that: the dour, grey, gothic sadness of a few old bands who played chiming delay guitar. Sixth grade sword obsessions (a dream of the sky), meet adult shoe and leg love (hangups of the earth). Both crowns and castles point to the sky (or space), pinnacles and minarets announcing heaven as the place kings should shoot for. Remember how the Voltron castle became a spaceship and lifted off the earth?”

check Luke Wyatt's website