you
it's impossible to escape the aesthetic
that we've created because it's like
trying to escape your own accent and
then I think forever that I'm trying to
escape it and trying to find a new way
of doing things it always creeps back in
and I think I've learnt to kind of
celebrate and enjoy listening to my own
voice
I'm Matt pike I'm the founder and
creative director of Universal
everything and this is pretty much the
area I spend most of my time in covering
up the sort of things we do in the
studio
although I started Universal everything
on my own it's grown to be four people
now and the way it works for us is that
we all meet up face-to-face and talk
through stuff and figure stuff out and
then we all go back to our own studio
caves and concentrate and to me that's
the best way of working you know and
then you'll get together and you're so
excited to show each other what you've
been making you know it's just a real
nice buzz in the studio
as a kid I was really obsessed with
drawing and painting and although I
super interested in the kind of organic
analog side of creation I was also
really intrigued as to how the computer
can really enhance what you can do with
your own hands you know I've always got
so many ideas I want to do and that's
what led me to do a lot of video based
pieces some of it was music video
directing some of it was identify MTV
some of it was advertising some of it
was pure video art and it was always
about us kind of being commissioned as
artists really more than designers we
really kind of try and take the essence
of a brand or an idea for a gallery and
try and amplify light but it's always
about somehow expressing it in a way
that hopefully has never been seen
before
when we first started working with
digital technology there was always this
kind of coldness to things and always
felt so detached from you know what you
see out here or how you interact with
people and one thing that I started
doing what I thought really kind of
added a layer to it which really
inspired me to think about
anthropomorphism and empathy and how you
can add that into work is you taking an
animal shape and you stick two dots on
it and it becomes alive suddenly at two
eyes you can stick eyes on anything and
suddenly becomes alive and it's such a
simple way of just bringing a soul into
anything and the same with adding feet
you know we work with 3d printing we had
this very complex kind of architectural
type structure as soon as you grow legs
on it it becomes this kind of cute
loveable character and I just love the
kind of graphic simplicity if that's all
it takes and suddenly you've got a heart
beat in an object
another project we're doing is a series
of video sculptures I guess we call it
where it's I mean using motion capture
which we've captured from a Tai Chi
master and using that motion data to
create these very human but abstract
sculptural forms that will be read in a
very realistic way so with the latest
video sculpture what I wanted to do is
to have the silhouette of the Tai Chi
defined by the lasers emitting from the
body so really only when it comes into
movement can you sense it presently a
human in there and for me that kind of
motion is really important that's the
thing that leads us all into the work
so what's interesting about this is you
know one it's paused it's effectively
kind of I don't know like a contemporary
architectural proposal but as soon as
you press playing bring it to life so
this is just a test about what we're
trying to do now is think about the
materials very carefully think about how
to create something which feels very
realistic it feels like you can almost
touch it or something but it's never
going to be attainable in real life
because it only lives within the screen
we often get really excited by sort of
emerging technology so things that when
motion capture became much more
accessible than it's something we're
starting to play with also went you know
three 360 panoramic filmmaking becomes
accessible then there's another thing so
we really like to sort of paint and
sculpt with these emerging technologies
and I think that's kind of what's
interesting for me is you feel like you
really are at the forefront of the
medium and it feels like you've got such
a blank slate and no legacy behind you
so you're not being dragged down by any
historical references or people's
expectations you know you've got the
whole world ahead of you
you
we were invited by Hyundai in Korea we
created a series of video sculptures so
we had motion capture of dancers
creating huge kind of permanent steel
sculptures through the gallery space we
shot very high-end thousand frames per
second footage dangling over the steel
foundries breaking all the set health
and safety rules to achieve something
that's never been shot before and what
we try to do is really emphasize the
importance of the human and the role in
the creation of things although a lot of
what you see is industrial and automated
the important part is that the human
spirit is in everything
a lot of the stuff we do is striking a
balance between expressing the human
form in a way so you can really relate
to it or you can really feel the pain of
someone battling in a hurricane and some
of it is more just sensing a presence of
a human in form so it might be then
hidden within a costume that's on fire
or made of rock or it might be then
abstracted into eternity by just seeing
their movement carving a shape across a
space but I think it's always a really
important part my work because it feels
like a reflection of the viewer you know
you can see yourself in the work and I
think that's really important and you
can do that by playing and painting with
the human form
-