Alec Crichton art videos

Stephen Gillette alerted me to Alec Crichton abstract art videos.
I recommend the download options here (the videos lower on the page have a Download File option).
I like them.

Normally moving pictures are reserved for story telling ideas. I guess this is because 98% of people are only interested in people, not ideas or pictures. Just see how many gossip magazines are sold compared to art magazines.
But for those who like pictures, and who don't find abstract videos to be necessarily artsy-fartsy or pretentious*, you may be interested.

I've briefly messed around with short, abstract videos myself. They were meant, like I believe Alec's are, to be seen as pictures, only with motion and sound. Not like videos in the sense of having a narrative.

I believe it's one of art's functions to make us look at the world. Generally we only pay attention to people, and occasionally to cool cars. But if we really look at the banal things around us, a universe of aesthetics may open up.

* "Pretentious", by the way, is an interesting insult to direct at a work of art. The word means "Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified." So for one thing there's an instant assumption that it's unjustified. Which is in itself suspect, since art is subjective. And for another thing, only people can claim or demand things. A work of art can't. A person might be pretentious, a thing can't be. So a person using this term is trying to push the idea that the artist is dishonest and wants to climb over his station, without actually saying this in so many words. Instead the honest and direct thing to say is simply "I don't like it" or "I think it's crap".