George Jasper Stone & Dark0 - Superstars (Part One)

Growing up in the Peak District, artist George Jasper Stone found formative inspiration in the psychogeographic rupture of the area’s mountainous expanses of natural beauty by the steady crawl of industrial development. The molten sparks given off by this clash between nature and technology ignited his maximal approach to CGI and digital design, a practice that has seen the artist splitting his talents between brands, such as Valentino and Converse, and artists, including Namasenda and Drake. “I have a fascination with the contrast of industrial technology and the natural environment creating a sense of poetic bleakness that resonates within me on a personal level,” Stone explains. “My interest in these spaces is a source of inspiration and meditation. I find beauty and meaning in their bleakness.” In the first part of Superstars, a collaboration with producer and sound designer Dark0, originally commissioned for an exhibition at Trauma Bar Und Kino, curated by The Fairest, Stone takes both a micro and macro view of a world in which this kind of rupture has spread to engulf all life. “I began making the film because I was interested in using motion capture to animate the virtual camera and digital sculptures,” he continues. “It gave a sense of realism and weight to the movements, which really helped to create a more human feel to the virtual worlds. It was a technique that felt powerful to me for bridging a gap between digital and physical spaces and creating this connection between the two.” As Stone glides through these interconnected environments, from a personal, through a technological and ultimately out into a planetary scale, Dark0’s score, lilting ambience shot through with geiger-counter clicks and foreboding low-end churn, hints at the fragility of the systems Stone visualises. “I do feel like the way I approach building virtual worlds can suggest anxiety and unease about the future and the direction of society to its impact on the natural world,” says Stone. “There’s a definite tension for me about the natural and industrial, past and future.” You can find George Jasper Stone on Instagram. You can find Dark0 on Instagram, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.