Beware the Electronic Automatic Sound-Spectrograph Computing Digit Translator Playback Recognizer Machine
August 20, 2010 11:14 AM   Subscribe

Telephoneme: Even if your Alphabet Conspiracy succeeds and you destroy the books, machines have no minds of their own. They are easily confused by different voices and different accents. It is the brain of man that tells them what to do.

On the surface, this is a video, composed of smooth motion graphics by those makers of 4D softcore sweater porn at MK12, along with audio from the 1959 Alphabet Conspiracy film, which is part of The Bell Laboratory Science Series. Dig further, and you enter the world of sonic hauntology, where the edited audio resembles the spectral sounds of Robert Johnson (wiki/discogs), Little Axe (w/d), Tricky (w/d), Japan (w/d), Mordant Music (official site), Burial (w/d) and The Advisory Council (w/d).

Returning to the world of lights, you can view 130 clips from MK12 on Vimeo, including adverts-a-plenty, movie intros and end titles, and some music videos , both end products and behind the scenes. Plus: video game intros (including all eight Beatles Rock Band chapter intros), and odd clips for the sake of craft.

Credits for inspiration:
Original video: Metachat
Sonic hauntology and the Alphabet Conspiracy: Lucky Dog Audio Post blog
posted by filthy light thief (10 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
These are just wonderful to watch. I'm impressed.
posted by -t at 11:35 AM on August 20, 2010


©2010 Sparklemotion, Inc.

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to the Alphabet Conspiracy.
posted by axiom at 11:39 AM on August 20, 2010 [2 favorites]


Excellent post! Can't wait till I have more time to dig into all of it.

I added some extra tags; hope that's ok.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:42 AM on August 20, 2010


Interesting stuff.

Though I prefer the French remake of the Charles Bronson movie that I first imagined.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:47 AM on August 20, 2010


Thanks for the additional tags!

Also: Beatles Rock Band graphics, previously - covering the gorgeous intro video, which was made by Pete Candeland, not these chaps.

posted by filthy light thief at 11:48 AM on August 20, 2010


Probably the scariest monster in all of Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol was the Ant Farm under the Pentagon and the Telephone Avatar at the heart of it, the thing Graham Bell summoned when he first said into the ether, "Watson! Come here! I want you!"

Which, well, yeah. This. That. Boom.
posted by kipmanley at 11:55 AM on August 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


that was pretty trippy!

if you liked the music in this you might also like lacunae.
posted by egypturnash at 12:36 PM on August 20, 2010


That looks like the title sequence to potentially the best video game ever. Then I remembered I already played Bioshock and Fallout. Two games I hated. So maybe it's not the best opening sequence ever. Still going to bash my telephone with a nuclear powered wrench just to make sure.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:08 PM on August 20, 2010


OK guys, which link did you click on first?
posted by sidereal at 1:44 PM on August 20, 2010


OK guys, which link did you click on first?

1) Bell Laboratory Science Series
2) Alphabet Conspiracy
posted by DU at 6:11 PM on August 21, 2010


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