1.YOU HAVE A VERY VARIED, YET DISTINCTIVE AESTHETIC THAT CAN BE EASILY RECOGNIZED, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO CLASSIFY!
WHAT WERE YOUR EARLY GRAPHIC INFLUENCES/INSPIRATIONS AND WHAT ELEMENTS OR EXPERIENCES HAVE BEEN KEY TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR STYLE?
Hi guys! Thank you for your questions and your interest in my work. Let’s get started! Here my main influences:
In the 80s: whilst growing up in France, I was very inspired by the vast amount of Japanese anime on TV, especially the Cobra series (funny that it was just on kids TV back then in France, where it would be rated 12 or 15 here in UK now) and films like Videodrome, Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead 2, 2001, The Thing, Altered States, Blazing Saddles, Monty Python films and such like.
In the later 80’s & 90’s whilst living in different parts of the UK during my student years, I was really into rave graphics and visuals like
Stakker Humanoid and FSOL.
I was massively into MTV’s Aeon Flux series and non verbal films like Baraka, Koyananskatsti, Atlantis and such like. The Day Today / Brass eye have been quite important as well in terms of absurdity and “OTT-ness”, especially the Brass eye Infographics.
Then in late 90’s & early 00s once I moved to London I was massively into Ryoji Ikeda / Dumb Type / Semi-conductor Films / Ukawa.
In terms of key experiences, I’d say it was seeing Daft Punk live multiple times in the mid 90’s & their Audiovisual show in the 1997 tour. That was definitely the main experiences that pushed me to do what I do into the audiovisual world.
It was like a “smack in the face”. So bold, minimal and sync-ed to the music, it totally blew me away. I remember thinking back then, I wanted to blow people away in the same way someday.
2. IN YOUR WORK WE CAN SEE A BIG VARIETY OF IMAGE PROCESSING RESULTS, DOES THIS EXPERIMENTATION GO HAND IN HAND WITH AN EXPERIMENTATION OF THE TOOLS YOU USE TO CREATE THE VISUALS AS WELL?
Good question, that I’m not sure how to answer as I don’t really think about it in that way. I’d say I very much differentiate my live & studio work. To me, my live visuals are technically made in similar ways to how my friends make music.
I position myself in the same category as lighting/laser designers, in a sense that I’m there merely complementing/enhancing the audio experience.
As in my studio work I very much try to recreate the kinda vibe of an anime intro or 80s music video, which in my opinion were far more entertaining. For me, it’s all about visual impact and entertaining the audience.
3. HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE “AUDIOVISUAL ART” AND HOW DO YOU POSITION YOURSELF IN THIS SPECIFIC CULTURE?
This is a tricky question for me, as I find it hard to categorize anything I see on my computer screen or at a party as art. For me it’s more like graphics or entertainment.
Call me old fashioned but for it to be Art is has to be in an art context (whatever that is), and as my work isn’t in galleries or such like (yet) i don’t really consider myself as an artist.
Actually I find the words art/artists are used way too sparingly in this day and age, so I’m not really sure as to where I fit in all this. I’d rather not think about it and just carry on doing my thing & let other people define me as they see fit…
4. YOUR CAREER DEVELOPED ACROSS DIFFERENT FIELDS AND MEDIA SUCH AS ADVERTISING, FASHION, ELECTRONIC MUSIC, VIDEO CLIPS, AND SO ON.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CONCEPTUAL AND AESTHETIC LINKS CONNECTING ALL YOUR VERY DIVERSE PROJECTS??
I’m very much into specific/custom made/location-based designs. My ideas tend to be finding a way to best fit the “where” and “what”.
My concepts are very driven by discussions (or lack of) with the artist/clients, which is why my work tends to vary in style (or quality, if the client/artist has too little input or dictates too much)
5. YOU HAVE WORKED WITH MANY DIFFERENT MUSICIANS AND SINGERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS.
COULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS OF VISUALIZING A SOUNDSCAPE AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKING WITH ABSTRACT CONTENTS LIKE ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND THE MORE EXPLICIT NARRATIVE OF POP AND HIP HOP CULTURE?
Firstly I figure the possibilities and limitations and work within those boundaries, then I discuss with artist/client to figure a rough direction to aim for, it then it generally snowballs from there.
I generally try to deliver what the artist/client & target audience wants, but not necessarily what they expect, so I tend to avoid the obvious options.
I don’t think I approach a project that differently depending on what genre of music it is. I just try and do whatever feels right for that category of music, BUT the workflow is vastly different depending of the type of artists they are.
Some artist are way more approachable than others regardless their music genres and when I can bounce ideas back and forth with them that is when I can go deep into what they truly want and get the best results. I can’t say the same when there’s a sea of management/label/producers between me and the artist.
