Popgun!

I recently started producing two videocasts. For those who wonder what the heck that might be: Videocasting is the process of filming and releasing a series of videos on the internet. – Just like TV without its limitations of time and format.

Commercial work

I did some old school [sic!] animations and title design for a documentary called »Meine Federtasche ist im Westen« (»My pencil case is in the west«) back in late 2009. It’s about a primary school role play on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

Sketches

While working on an opening for a videocast I was playing around with audio spectrums and expressions. On the way I made these four tiny sketches. Neither of the approaches made it into the final piece, but I thought I might show them here anyways.

Razzle Dazzle menu

Rearranging my several backup harddrives I stumbled upon some folders that contained a portfolio DVD of mine which I made in 2007 mostly with the intention to help me getting enrolled at Central Saint Martins. The DVD fulfilled it’s purpose and got forgotten afterwards until now.

Daadada Exhibition in London

Daadada is the forthcoming exhibition of the 2008/09 art scholarship holders of the renowned German academic exchange programme DAAD. It combines art work from recent postgraduates of The Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths, Slade School of Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, The Bartlett and the University of Westminster.

Crash

Crash is the title of an interactive multimedia installation that focuses on the ground zero of the recent financial crisis – the desks of bankers, brokers and traders. The installation puts the user in the panoptic position of a stock trader, who experiences and influences a particular representation of reality on his monitors.

The panoptic view on moving images

At least since the blueprints of Jeremy Bentham it is known that the view (and it’s direction) is a representation of hierarchies as well. One who sees much rules much. In sociology this coherence had been widely explored, e.g., by Michel Foucault, yet the panoptic representation of moving images as an progressing process has far [...]

This life is not a movie, or maybe

The subject of my final project at Central Saint Martins is what I would call Screen Realities. Primarily it addresses the electronic screens that had been invented with television in the early 20s of the last century and that are dominating our perception of the world nowadays (through the tele, monitors, projections and mobile devices) [...]

DEFA trailer nominated for German Design Award

The trailer Buchstabenschubser produced last summer for the DEFA foundation is nominated for the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany 2010 (Designpreis Deutschland). The 2 minutes long 35mm clip already won the 2nd Design Award 2008 of the Federal State of Brandenburg.

I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong!

The Vietnam War is remembered as the first war the United States lost and the trauma of the result for a nation. The conflict was different from previous ones in various ways. Some impacts on the western culture had been directly visible, monitored through the mass media. The ones on a subcultural level needed a [...]

Jewish Museum Berlin

3 by 17 meters projection surface, 5 projectors, 3 computers in a network and 34 interview clips in 4 different sizes. The installation that product designer and programmer Florian RĂĽhle and I produced for the Jewish Museum Berlin during the last two months can be seen at the prologue of the exhibition ‘Looting and Restitution’. [...]

The Metal Years

Brussels’ Natascha Mehlhop Gallery is exhibiting my solo show The Metal Years. It includes three videos and two series of poster prints, the Vietnam Pop Maps and a triplet of the 3D helicopter models used for 26/20 (SOL Where is it?). The preview of the exhibtion is going to take place on June the [...]

Vietnam Pop Maps

The idea, these three A1 maps are based on, is strongly connected with the research for my MA dissertation. It is based on the two main hypotheses that 1) the Vietnam War was the first pop war and 2) the Vietnam War was like a catalyst for especially the American pop music. This goes back [...]

CSM studio work

While I’m working in my first year with the Vietnam pop maps on something non-digital  I was kind of missing motion design a bit. The research on information design and map making led me to these two short animations. The above one is a representation of a structure of cohesive mountains in the Swiss Alps [...]

Ichisichisichisich

‘Ichisichisichisich’ is a music video that was produced by Sir ja sir in cooperation with comic artist Christopher “Piwi” Tauber for a competition of the German rap formation Die Fantastischen Vier. Their song of the same name was the second single of their 2007 album ‘Fornika’. Our submission reached the last 20 contestants.

Immergut Festival 2007

The Immergut Festival, named after its early main sponsor, a dairy company, in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is like the family meeting of the German speaking independent scene and the first festival of the year at the same time. Once a year about 5,000 fans meet at the little town close the picturesque lake district of Mecklenburg. [...]

26/20 (SOL Where Is It?)

In a reproductive world men and machines own a native faultiness. These immanent faulty designs separate the particular partner in the overall system, the human-machine universe. ‘26/20 (SOL Where is it?)’ visualises the isolation and the loss of power in an unlocatable space of faultiness. Thereby the consequence of an error, the accident, is excluded, [...]

It covers the hillside

‘It covers the hillside’ was meant to be a live visualisation for the Texan folk rockers Midlake. Unfortunately they never used it on stage. The basis of the kaleidoscopic film are about a dozen Creative Commons movies of the Prelinger Archive.
‘It covers the hillside’ 11/2006; 03:15 mins; PAL 16/9


About
This is the online portfolio for motion and design projects and related research of Nico Roicke. I'm a graduate of MA Communication Design, pathway Digital Media, at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. Also I'm part of the motion design studios Sir ja sir and Buchstabenschubser.

Beside motion graphics (or motion design, if you prefer) I'm the co-founder of the fanzine and weblog Jackpot Baby! - New digital pop culture (all texts unfortunately in German language) and I write for Berlin's finest Webblog Spreeblick - Pop, Politics, Products & Positions (German again). Go and catch up some of my latest tweets on Twitter (English and German, it's really hard to tell) or take a glance at some of my Flickr pics and Vimeo vids.