The US filmmaker Conner Griffith is known for experimental works that offer perspective-shifting explorations of everyday scenes and objects. For Still Life, he compiled and choreographed a dizzying dance of more than 1,000 engravings from the 19th century – from flowers to teapots to amphibians. The resulting short explores the philosophical notion that, as Griffith puts it, ‘we live in a world of objects and a world of objects lives within us’. Meticulously crafted in both sound and imagery, the resulting short forms an impressive and enigmatic meditation on consciousness.
Director: Conner Griffith
videoMedicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
videoEngineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
videoFilm and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoPhilosophy of mind
‘Am I not at least something?’ A surreal dive into Descartes’s Meditations
3 minutes
videoArchitecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
videoMaking
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
videoBiology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
videoHistory of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes