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Warning: this film features rapidly flashing images that can be distressing to photosensitive viewers.
This impressively researched work of digital art from the UK filmmaker Daniel McKee features more than 2,000 flags sourced from Wikipedia and meticulously arranged, yielding a vibrant exploration of the intersection between political symbolism and design. Featuring an eclectic mix of flags – modern and historical, familiar and obscure – the animation offers a brisk and sweeping overview of how states, individuals and institutions have represented themselves over time. Whether viewed in its dizzying entirety or clicked around at random, the video is a thoroughly enjoyable primer in vexillology.
Video by Daniel McKee
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Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
6 minutes
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
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Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
16 minutes
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
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Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
18 minutes