Complicated by Gabriel Shalom

Cornelia and Holger Lund of the Stuttgart-based media art gallery Fluctuating Images asked me to contribute a music video for the “Vidos” DVD release to accompany the new solo album “Dos” from Michael Fakesch. The CD/DVD combination release is a tried and true format for Fakesh; in 2004, as a member of Funkstörung, he assembled a who’s who of international designers when releasing the “Isolated” DVD as a companion to the CD “Disconnected” album on !K7 Records.

Patrizia Kommerell and I had purchased some vintage microfiche reader equipment in 2006 for an installation project and had always wanted an opportunity to use the characteristic look and feel of the devices for another function. After scrapping several narrative treatments, we settled on a purely graphic concept which combined analog motion with digital postproduction.

Our production technique was to use the microfiche reader’s generously-sized viewfinder apparatus as a means for controlling the motion of graphic elements placed inside. The result was a number of single takes in which I danced the apparatus in time to Fakesch’s music, achieving a number of organic takes which would all contain a natural relationship to the rhythm of the song.

The video material was composited along with select pictures from our archives. We chose images which depict obsolete analog communications and media technologies, adding to the vintage flair of the well-established analog aesthetic.

The resulting unique visualization of the song clashed the electronic sounds with analog images in a satisfying manner, while also allowing glimpses of the video-making process to peek through the graphics.

Directed & Edited by Gabriel Shalom
Music by Michael Fakesch
Production design by Patrizia Kommerell
Produced by KS12