Friendly tower cranes, grinning street signs, and other adventures in augmented reality
In Sketches, the Russian graphic illustrator and motion designer Vladimir Tomin stitches together a series of short, reality-warping vignettes. Starting with mundane views of streets, stairwells and building façades, Tomin uses visual effects to manipulate each scene in surprising and subversive ways, suggesting a hackable digital universe that can be endlessly manipulated. In our emerging age of deep fakes, it can also be read as a pressing reminder of the power of even relatively simple editing technologies to augment video in convincing ways – or simply as the work of a master of the digital surreal. For more uncanny visual wizardry from Tomin, watch Outside.
Video by Vladimir Tomin
videoWork
Like a cheery Sisyphus, Fred dismantles an industrial chimney one brick at a time
12 minutes
videoHistory of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes
videoNature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
videoArt
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
videoArt
Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus
8 minutes
videoFilm and visual culture
Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation
5 minutes
