something something true grit something going against the grain

June 15, 2017 12:38 PM

WoodSwimmer: A music video made entirely from sanding wood. "The sequences are cross-sectional photographic scans of pieces of hardwood, burls and branches."
posted by bondcliff (21 comments total)

This is the opposite of what I was hoping for, being a song made up entirely of sandpaper sound samples.
posted by 256 at 12:47 PM on June 15, 2017 [8 favorites]

Gorgeous! Makes me want to go dive into a tree
posted by oulipian at 12:57 PM on June 15, 2017

That is simultaneously cool and somehow super creepy. A lot of the sequences almost seemed liked images of mold growing or something else biological taking over.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:09 PM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm sure I've thought about doing this when I was stoned. Amazing to see it actually carried out so well and with such variety.
posted by bonobothegreat at 1:56 PM on June 15, 2017

It's so cool how when continuous variation in a spatial dimension gets converted into a temporal dimension, it looks like continuous movement, and you start spotting entities and patterns that aren't otherwise visible. The whole effect looks like the rippling surface of a liquid. It's fun to think of bodies of water such as oceans and lakes as 4-D objects passing through our 3-dimensional cross-section.
posted by painquale at 3:05 PM on June 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

What kind of wood/alien cerebellum is that at 00:38?
posted by gwint at 6:17 PM on June 15, 2017

Sandana Abraxasion. (I think a couple of those may have been sandblasted rather than sanded.)
posted by bz at 6:51 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Some of those are going backwards.
posted by Faux Real at 7:29 PM on June 15, 2017

This is the opposite of what I was hoping for, being a song made up entirely of sandpaper sound samples.

I feel the same. OTOH, I never thought sanding could be so sensuous and hypnotic.
posted by Samizdata at 8:56 PM on June 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have watched this so many times now and it is amazing.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 10:09 PM on June 15, 2017

As someone who has spent more time than I ever expected looking at textures and patterns in petrified wood slices, I find this fascinating and strangely familiar. If only sanding floors was this much fun.
posted by Secretariat at 9:29 AM on June 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've always had something of an obsession with texture, so this hits me just right. Kind of wish the music was stranger, in keeping with the images. Still, quite cool.
posted by metagnathous at 7:11 AM on June 17, 2017

Holy shit. This is tremendous.

A lot of the sequences almost seemed liked images of mold growing or something else biological taking over.

Sort of making the organic-to-inorganic jump for me: I had a strong sense of 2D cellular automata in motion from some of the frames.

But I really especially love all the steady lapping movement of wood grain moving along in time at a diagonal. I'd like to think that if I'd been posting this I'd have come up with "ambulatory waves of grain" at the time.
posted by cortex at 9:01 AM on June 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is like a wood MRI, and much more visually interesting than a brain MRI – though maybe if they did this with a real skull, and with all the nice lighting and everything... but even then, most skulls/brains would look the same, whereas there is such wild variation in any branch or limb, in the various woods and the grains, depending on the angles, etc... Also this is a great way to visualize the time it takes for a tree to grow and in which directions it takes, when it takes them, etc. Anyway, crazy neat stuff. THANKS FOR POSTING WOOD WATCH AGAIN A++++
posted by not_on_display at 6:38 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

> Holy shit. This is tremendous.

Wait, would you say it's... TREEmendous?
posted by Secretariat at 9:26 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Honey.
posted by cortex at 9:37 PM on July 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

> Wait, would you say it's... TREEmendous?

WOOD EYE?
posted by not_on_display at 10:13 PM on July 1, 2017

I'm going to go against the grain and say that you may be barking up the wrong tree
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:30 AM on July 2, 2017

Your abrasive replies won't wear me down, although I am gritting my teeth.
posted by Secretariat at 9:27 AM on July 3, 2017

apologies, perhaps if we can discover the root of the problem, you may find some re-leaf
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:51 AM on July 4, 2017

I would join in on this pun war with you guys but I'd run rings around you.
posted by bondcliff at 7:08 PM on July 4, 2017