film, ink, light.
visual artist
doka vision creates with an analogue heart
Dale Battin, Co-founder of Subvision, late 80's early 90's visual pioneers, has reiterated as doka vision.
His passion for pure analogue content in a digital world excites more than ever.
He works directly onto the surface of 16mm or 35mm film stock. A style known as 'direct to film' Animation.
Working over a light box and under magnification each frame is manipulated.
Inking and scratch techniques, along with custom developed techniques, using the finest quality India inks, yields a filmic, timeless, analogue aesthetic.
The synchrony of pigment and light interaction, along with the molecular interaction between Ink and surface is captured in a Lab scan. These files are further edited using digital editing software. Always protecting the analogue integrity.
Drawing inspiration from early pioneers of this technique such as Norman McLaren, Len Lye, John and James Whitney, Dale has created over 1500 new loops.
These animations can be mixed live, with realtime sound interaction, or custom visuals can be created.
latest showreel - Jon Hopkins, Everything Connected
All Videos
doka showreel - Burial, UK.
doka showreel - Burial, UK.
doka showreel - Versa, Saint.
doka showreel - Versa, Passing Light.
doka music video - Versa, Transcending Space and Dub.
doka music video - Valita, Vines.
more showreels...
Personal Bio....
On leaving art college and moving to Bristol in ‘the rave summer of love’ 1989, I began creating, mixing, and projecting visuals for the UK’s exploding rave scene.
There were no visuals in clubs/raves at this point. Video projectors were in their infancy, and unavailable for club and gig events.
We had to improvise by running hand inked and scratched film loops, a technique known as ‘direct to film’ animation, through banks of 16mm film projectors. These visuals were caught on a succession of suspended net screens throughout the venue.
As SubVision, we supplied our visuals to the blossoming UK club scene. We were resident at Bristol’s super club of the time, Lakota. From our top floor Lakota base we worked at the major raves, clubs and gatherings of the time. Including Fantazia, Universe, Obsession, Helter Skelter, Dreamscape, Ministry of Sound, aswell as working with bands including The Orb, Prodigy, Tricky, The Shaman, Orbital, Primal Scream and later Prince.
By 1992, bulky 3 lense video projectors were becoming available. Alongside this was the advent of 3D computer software, we had the first version of 3dsMax, to further enhance our shows. We worked with the ‘Virtual Light Company-VLC’, who built the first realtime ‘sound to light’ graphics generator, known as the ‘Virtual Light Machine-VLM’.
Our images were now a real-time mix of 16mm film loops, 3D computer animation, and the VLM.
The VJ was born
I left the visual scene in 1996 to pursue a more earthy lifestyle!
I became a furniture maker, renovated a barn with my beautiful partner Becky, and we created two wonderful children Charlie and Hester.
It was only when my daughter asked if I could create animation content for her band’s first single in 2017 that I once again opened the film canisters to begin a new adventure.
doka vision was born
for recent live work please see links below...
This was my first live event back VJ'ing since 1996. It involved live mixing and custom lighting design for 28 hours over 3 days - we received the Boomtown 2019 award for best immersive environment in a small venue. This was created with all brand new footage that i've been working on since 2016. It involved ink and scratch loops on 16mm and 35mm film stock. We had 4 static and 1 roving camera mixed in live to a large stage LED wall. Shown through vj software, mixing desk and video projector with real time live audio visual effects.
I hope people enjoy loosing themselves in the analogue beauty of these visuals as much as i enjoy creating them
for stills artwork click link below...
contact...
links...
https://vimeo.com/dokavision
'except for blending with the void, there is no way to understand.'
A dōka poem by Marihei Ueshiba.