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for me my tracks in my head are like 3d
structures that I think sort of walking
around in and you know fiddling with
certain tracks that just got these crazy
neon Pink's in them in my head and other
ones have got kind of deep reds and
blacks and stuff so this is the closer
that comes actually able to see that
because the crystal footage of mixing
liquid voltage are at a microscopic
scale the person viewing the footage
doesn't have any concept around what it
is or where it came from and I think
that's one of the powers of using this
type of abstract where did you
it takes the person away from reality
we had decided amongst ourselves that
yes we could sort of look at this
generative software approach yeah
processing the CG driven work which was
my initial thought when I sort of was
given the brief of a dance album but
then once I'd spoken to John and once I
sort of learnt more about processes that
he was going to create the sounds we
knew it had to be something tangible
something real and that was important to
me because the album was made without
any virtual instruments it was all real
sense and real acoustic instruments and
then computers just to treat these
things and put them in some sort of
order a few ideas were pitched but it
was this one image that I sense that
John really sort of got excited about
and immediately start asking what what
is that like what's going on in this I
loved the fact that these images are
clearly not computer-generated you can't
tell what they are they just look real
so we began working with Linden who's
biochemist based down in Philadelphia to
create these images inspired by the
interactions between different elements
and chemicals and sort of photographed
those microscopy is the use of a
microscope with high-power lenses which
allows you to loot a very small objects
typically sub millimeter scale I'd
always wanted to have access to a
microscope because of the creative
potential I'm fascinated with microscopy
of all organisms and the world around me
in terms of you know the image scales
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the images themselves of food dyes
crystallizing over a period of time
under a microscope some of them just a
few minutes some of them a few hours
some of them have been left for a few
days they've been put through a spectral
microscope to really bring the colors
out and those were the images that we
ended up using
so I first worked with Lyndon it was
just over a year ago on this set
actually for a music video for a British
composer called Ryan Teague it took me
approximately three months to build the
equipment that you see here and it
turned out to be one of the most
spectacular pieces of work I've worked
on for many years actually it was
awesome because it looks so home but the
images we got we were shooting it as
fractions of a millimeter across these
sort of hairline crystals they're
incredible yeah there were beautiful was
so so good so I always had the thought
in my head with this record that I'd
like to make a short video which
presented the arc of the album because
one of the central things in this record
and all my records actually is that they
are supposed to be listened to if
possible in one go I wanted to show that
in a short clip after a few
conversations with Lyndon we realized
this would be something that we could
probably capture using stop motion and
time-lapse
we've talked in the past around using
microscopy and specifically fluid
movement and crystallization events to
try and represent music in a unique way
so having discovered that the true
crystals crystallized really quite
easily by accident one by one I worked
through them to see how to create unique
shapes and forms but what's quite
surprising is that there's nothing out
there in terms of imagery of these
crystals it's very few people have even
looked to these crystals and let alone
actually fill them in timelines so that
the microscope consists of a light
source at the back the light enters the
scope through the back it is projected
through a condenser system where some of
the optics reside it then passes as a
cone or white through the sample on the
stage and this is where the crystals are
created on a flat surface at one slide
and this is where the camera is fitted
the images are collected directly in the
camera and actually are also collected
onto the PC and the camera can be
controlled from the PC as well their
depth of field on a standard microscope
especially at very high magnifications
is in the order of fractions of a micron
it's quite an advantage to be able to
blow up the image on the computer screen
to achieve the most beautiful crystal
shapes
I wasn't thinking specifically about
filling dancefloors but just what it is
about particular rhythms which make
people get kind of hypnotized if it you
know they're in a club situation and
trying to find the visuals to go with
that it's quite difficult thing really
also one of the ways that I make sounds
is to investigate kind of microscopic
levels within sound so I'll record
something and then quite often boosts
the treble loads to find out what's
lurking in the top-end that you can't
see here and then drop the speed so that
becomes the sound you know and you kind
of end up exploring sounds in a yes of
unrealistically microscopic level so it
sort of resonated with everything I was
trying to do technology it's so flexible
now you can use it to embrace the real
world and to kind of amplify what's
actually there starting with things that
actually exist and then using technology
to explore them in ways you wouldn't be
able to otherwise it's really important
for me that there was that then real
world aspect there's a lot of
physicality and real-life stuff that
goes into my work you know I build a lot
of sets I destroy a lot of things and
make a lot of things that's what
hands-on quality that was really
important for me what I really like to
do with typography is to take this a
plane classically designed typefaces and
juxtapose them with these organic
processes and what I'm sort of being
asked to do now is sort of think about
these processes how we can apply them in
a different way I was really excited to
have the opportunity to use some of the
techniques that I've used over the many
years having the opportunity to put them
to some unique music who is really
viable to me because otherwise this sort
of work would just be within my own view
and the public would not see it
in terms of the creation of the visuals
for the album and for the video itself
what we could do was to just go with it
because well you can set these things in
motion you can't ever hope to predict
the outcome and Lyndon put it really
well you said yeah I don't know if you
know but the slides are a quarter inch
by quarter inch and I'm zoomed in about
a thousand times on that and I have to
sort of pick a point and just leave it
overnight and hope that I get something
most of the time you're just chasing
something unknowable you know and you
really are down to that really that
nightmarish stage where you think I
don't know what I want till I see it
it's this kind of mood and this kind of
emotions I'm kind of flow some kind of
flicker we don't really know how else to
describe it and you just have to rely on
linden sort of ability to interpret that
I've seen so many events under the
microscope I sort of have a bank of
ideas already sitting there what I love
about it these things that you could
describe his mundane on the surface if
you magnify them ten thousand times
they've become incredible in place I
love to imagine linden in his lab sort
of exploring these microscopic worlds
and just getting lost in them I believe
science in itself as an art so I view
the world as a scientist but also from
perception of art everywhere I look
there's beauty and that includes all
scales from the microscopic up to the
universe that that I can view through a
telescope to me it's all one continuum
art
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