Art & Video Reel 2022 - William Bottini

2022

Hello! Here is a sample of my personal art and video work from the last two years. The projects in this reel were all led, directed, and largely produced by myself, often at home during the pandemic. Looking back, I have a few things I would like to bring to your attention.

First: collaboration. A few years back I committed myself to creating work in partnership with others. Working with others fills my life with meaning; it's very important to me. My fiancé Shanna Polley is the most important collaborator in my life. Over the last few years we have worked on a shared vision for the visual and sonic world of her band, Snakeskin, and, in particular, her current multi-album project, Legend Sound Forever. This vision is just now coming into focus in our work together on her upcoming album, Summoning Suit.

Marissa Paternoster, Quinn Konemann, and Sarah Weitzman, as well as the record label State Champion Records, have also been important collaborators in the past year. Though I have experience owning the process for making art and design and video from start to finish, it is really gratifying to also just lead a single part of the process, and leave other aspects, such as photography, illustration, or screen printing, to others. I am really hoping to continue working with these people and others in the future.

Collaborators are listed in the credits below. Please check out the links in the list to learn more about the specific projects. Thank you!

Second: mediums and tools. I usually tell people that I'm an "artist" when asked. Otherwise, I struggle because I'm uncomfortable with most labels. I'm many things, including a writer, director, creative director, artist, designer, filmmaker. I'm also a grip, cinematographer, craft services, producer, runner, etc. Working largely independently, I have to be many things. And because my interests are broad, and led by ideas, my choice of medium is also really broad. I wish, sometimes, that I could just pick one thing and make my life easier, but I follow my ideas wherever they lead me. As a result, my reel includes work in the following mediums, tools, and roles:

Writing, directing, lighting, visual effects, compositing, 3D modeling (in Maya, Blender, and the VR tool Gravity Sketch), 3D filmmaking in Unreal Engine, sound design, graphic design, calligraphy, typography, motion graphic design, animation, motion capture, pattern design, print making, 3D printing, physical fabrication, AI art, photography, illustration, and more.

My interests as an artist, and at my day job, require a high level of technology literacy and engagement with new tools, so I am always thinking about the tools of production and how to engage with them in novel ways, such as tool-breaking, or intentional misuse. My thesis was about this topic if you want to learn more!

Finally: themes. Seeking, revealing, beauty, discovery, playing, and loving all come to my mind when I look back at this work. Though these themes have specific meaning in context, I do feel that they represent me in general. Seeking: there is this constant movement toward... something. Something which is probably unknowable and unfindable. Revealing: but in art, we can find the unfindable. Kenya Hara coined a word, "exformation," which is the opposite of information. It is that which reminds you of how little you really know. Revealing: Tim Morton's "hyperobjects" also seem relevant here. Hyperobjects are objects which reveal themselves in small pieces, phased out over time, across dimensions that you cannot fully perceive, such as climate change. Nonetheless, they still reveal themselves. Beauty: there is beauty in discovering that your eye is a "pale blue dot" in the sea of unfathomable, unknowable mystery that is the universe. Playing and loving: Slavoj Zizek writes that in a world where nothing is what it seems, where traditional forms of knowing and meaning have fallen apart, LOVE is the only thing that matters. For me, playing is a form of loving when it is done with someone I love. I am sure many other artists could relate to the idea that making is their "love language," or, at least, a language of companionship. This is really true for me and it is why collaboration and sharing is such an important part of making to me.

Below you will find stills from my reel as well as a list of credits and portfolio links to some of the projects listed here. Thank you for visiting!