If his music videos are any judge, I wouldn't be surprised if Aussie musician Gotye has now overtaken both children's television and Dr George Miller as the main supporter of young, upcoming animators in Australia.
Over the past few years Gotye has worked with an astonishing array of animators, commissioning them to create both music videos and visuals for his live shows. The ever-surprising union of music and animation has grown to become one of the most interesting ongoing collaborations in the Australian creative industries.
This creative union was celebrated in August last year when Gotye headlined the GRAPHIC Festival, playing two shows at Sydney Opera House with massive screens playing visuals for each song -- with some videos commissioned by the festival specifically for the shows. We've covered several of these collaborations here before, notably his music videos by Oscar-shortlisted directors Ari Gibson and Eddie White.
Today I'm posting a video which I consider to be a near masterpiece, as well as the 'news' in this story, a new clip that few outside those who have been to Gotye's live shows have seen.
The first is a hypnotic pulsating black & white video by Melbourne animation studio Rubberhouse (specifically Greg Sharp and Ivan Dixon with help from Jake Winkler) for the song Don't Worry We'll Be Watching You. The second, new clip, is by Jeremy Dower, for the song In Your Light. Less is happening here as it's designed to be played on screens during the live show, but it's just as hypnotic, with its strange, dancing, multiplying bacteria.
Last week I spoke with Darcy Prendergast who did the stop motion animation for Gotye's Eyes Wide Open music video, directed by Brendan Cook at PictureDRIFT. Darcy was putting the finishing touches on Gotye's next official music video, for the song Easy Way Out. An ambitious mix of live action and stop motion animation, the video features a set that took Darcy seven months to build. With this sort of ambition and talent given the chance to flourish, let's hope Gotye's fascination with animation continues for a long time to come.