Venturing inside Dalí's Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus

February 3, 2016 10:09 AM

Dreams of Dalí is a 360º video that takes you inside Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet's "Angelus" into a surreal world, featuring some notable motifs from other paintings , such as Weaning of Furniture Nutrition (1934), Lobster Telephone (1936) and First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain (1973), set to a soundscape with audio of Salvador Dalí and a bit of Halo of Flies by Alice Cooper.

Fast Co. Create has a bit more on the 360º video, including comments from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, who made the video for The Dalí Museum's Disney and Dalí: Architects of the Imagination exhibit.

posted by filthy light thief (10 comments total)

Re: Dali's fascination/obsession with Millet's "Angelus":

Various interpretations of the relationship between the two peasants have been made, such as colleagues at work, husband and wife pair, or (as Gambetta interpreted it) farmer and maidservant. Salvador Dalí insisted that this was a funeral scene, not a prayer ritual and that the couple were portrayed praying and mourning over their dead infant. Although this was an unpopular view, at his insistence the Louvre X-rayed the painting, showing a small coffin over-painted by the basket.

posted by the painkiller at 10:15 AM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Via Presurfer; Dalí and Disney, previously.

The video is something of a spectator-only "rail ride" video game, where you can passively look around the world as you move along the track. You can also pause the video (hit your space bar, if you have a keyboard) and look around the scene from your current vantage point.

I was hoping for a more extensive list of audio sampled for this, and my search for snippets of words I could understand only lead me to a transcript of The Delirious Rock, with words by Dalí and abstract/ambient music by Angus MacLise. But I did come across a transcript and video of Salvador Dalí talking to Mike Wallace (slightly better quality video on YouTube: part 1, part 2) about genius, the subconscious, weakness, old age and luxury, death, religion, and dreams.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:20 AM on February 3, 2016

that was very cool. now I want it as a fully playable game, like Journey, but weird.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:58 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have not played computer games in ages, so my point of reference was Myst. Journey looks like fun.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:45 PM on February 3, 2016

I was certain the song that starts playing around the 3 minute mark was John Lennon, but it's actually Halo of Flies by Alice Cooper. That's like the one 15-second stretch where anybody could mix those guys up! (Anybody know WHY there's a snippet of an Alice Cooper song playing? Is there some association between Dali and Cooper?)

The video is a genuinely dreamlike artifact. I think Dali would've been pleased.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:03 PM on February 3, 2016

yes journey is awesome, sometimes I re-play it just to de-stress
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 5:18 PM on February 3, 2016

Good...but I wish more people were obsessed with Max Ernst than Dali. Who knows what could happen?
posted by kozad at 8:19 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Anybody know WHY there's a snippet of an Alice Cooper song playing? Is there some association between Dali and Cooper?

Yup, they spent a time together in April of 1973, which lead to the creation of a hologram of Cooper either sings into or bites off the head of a “shish kebabbed” Venus de Milo statue. Cooper wears a real diamond tiara, and there is a plaster brain stuffed with a chocolate éclair and real ants suspended behind his head. Sick Things UK, an unofficial keeper of Alice Cooper facts and information, has more on how the two met.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:23 AM on February 4, 2016

I heard a story where a spy got away because she managed to call for help on a lobster telephone and the people trying to detain her didn't realize that it was a real phone. Apparently those things actually work.
posted by w0mbat at 1:50 PM on February 4, 2016

Dali is one of my favorite artists, and he has been for many years. I didn't think it was possible to see anything new when it came to Dali, but I have to say, this video was incredible. I'm familiar with all of the works and painting incorporated into the video, but I just never imaged...that it could be integrated into 3D like landscape, or that you could hear the phone ringing, or the elephants making sounds, it just added something magical.

Part of me would have loved to see part of the Searching the 4th Dimension integrated into this...would there be objects disappearing into and out of the video? Voices?

Thanks so much for posting this. This is one of the occasional gems of a post that sometimes really makes metafilter worth it.
posted by Wolfster at 8:17 PM on February 5, 2016