Afternoon Animation: Surge Through An Iridescent, Geometric World With "Gradient Forest"

Visual and graphic artist, Vince McKelvie, makes GIFs and 3D forms using digital rendering software that morph (literally and figuratively) familiar notions of sculpture.

In the past, he has made interactive animations for the front page of Rhizome, as well as a first-person puzzle game called Rave Plays: Depth. Now, the artist is back with an interactive music video for artist // Y E Λ R S //, called Gradient Forest, an iridescent, geometric world that makes viewers feel like their computer is undergoing a psychedelic epiphany of motion graphics.

When you hit play, your screen surges through a landscape of colorful patterns and shapes like you're a digital bird or animal racing through a new environment. After the initial onslaught of sparkly, electronic pop and the visual sucker-punch, the site tranquilizes itself and allows users to upload their own mp3 or explore the "forest" with their mouse.

The whole work is stimulating without being exasperating or seizure-inducing. As McKelvie once told KQED, "GIFs are the Polaroids of animation, they're instant gratification." The gratification undoubtedly exists in this music video, as well. If this is what the internet's forest looks like, then we want to see its ocean or coral reef. Check out the project, here.

@zachsokol