Michael Betancourt

Michael Betancourt is a video artist and journalist who writes articles about Motion graphics. He has a lot of background in glitch art and that is where I wanted to start connecting the dots. While Telefantasy's work is not specifically glitch art, the work that is being created could be identified as glitch by someone who is not aware of what specific analog computer/films can do those specific effects. Nonetheless, I wanted to look at Betancourt's work because he is taking this non-narrative and adding glitch to it to make it visually interesting even though it's "broken".

THE KODAK MOMENT

Antag|Protag

Helios|Divine

Telefantasy Studios

Lets start with my main muse, a place to start. Telefantasy Studios is located in Hollywood, California and is essentially a media lab/studio dedicated to analog equipment experimentation. Jennifer Juniper Stratford (JJ Stratford) is the studio director and has worked with big names like Odd Future and Gerard Way.

Established in 2004, the studio takes old analog equipment, video synthesizers, Amiga Commodores, and Video toasting software to create footage that resembles 80s Dara Birnbaum meets the Max Headroom incident mixed with new wave synth pop music.


Here are a few videos i'm going to be referencing in my journey.

Moca Lotion

TYPICAL MAN ON BEACH

MILLIONS

Introduction

I have very few designers that I am heavily influenced by, and most of those individuals are visual communication designers. However, Jennifer Juniper Stratford and her motion design studio Telefantasy Studios is just eye-catching beauty. Using analog film equipment that has been disposed of, equipment from cable and random access television, this studio takes avant garde style to a new level.

This blog's main objective is, "What is this and is there more of it?" That could possibly be the most simple way to define all of this, but ideally this blog should be an archive of this specific vintage 80s aesthetic and the artists who have either been pioneers in it or new contemporary artists who are defining it. (or both, since nothing is original)