BATTLESTATIONS!!

Ready, Set…BATTLESTATIONS!!
New Video by Toban Nichols


SAN FRANCISCO– Toban Nichols presents a new video work entitled "BATTLESTATIONS!!".
Debuting exclusively on the internet embedded in six popular networking sites with a
high quality version playing at the artist's website: www.robotobe.com

Starring vocal talent Lesley Staples, veteran British actress and co-star of the film Calendar Girls opposite Helen Mirren. And featuring the legendary local personality Renttecca as "The Brightly Colored Block".


Invited to describe “BATTLESTATIONS!!”, Glen Helfand writes…

“Battlestations!,!” the latest work of digital video by Toban Nichols, is a collision of modern fairy tale and found digital debris. With colorful, abstract visuals and voice over, this short movie points to the idea that there are salient, picaresque narratives, and anthropomorphic characters that can be excavated from the video ether.

Extending a throwaway snippet of found footage—degraded digital noise on an old VHS tape— Nichols reveals visually provocative material in the form of vibrantly hued pixels that invade an expanse of blue. This monochromatic expanse, the dulcet toned, British accented female narrator informs us, is a fictional landscape populated by calm folk. They’re bedazzled by the arrival of brightly colored pixels, who for all intents and purposes, act like aggressive developers.

They insert saloons, espresso bars, parking garages and flavored gelatin outlets into the minimalist expanse.
War erupts, and storybook land is infused with whiff of cartoon computer game violence. “Battlestations!!”
is informed, in equal measures, by fairy tale theater, classic computer games and color field painting.
It’s ultimately a media critique in which pixels come alive and reality, in the guise of barely visible
footage of urban settings, struggles for recognition. Nothing is quite what it seems.
———

The video can be seen in it’s entirety for 2 full weeks, at the following online locations
before moving on to PixelPops 2008, Metafest and the Disposable Film Festival.
To view the video in it’s entirety, visit any of the sites listed below.

http://robotobe.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/rocketrobos
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-RCSL24hAHFU/battlestations/
http://www.perpetualartmachine.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user='robotobe'
http://video.saatchigallery.com/artist/profile/30778/Toban+Nichols/TobanNichols.html
http://www.new.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=26939071166
http://tobannichols.uber.com/video?anonymous=1&create_view=1