Sam Tozer on VFX and 'Impossible Lenses' in Brett Graham's Whangamārino

How do moving image artists work with visual effects? In this follow up podcast to CIRCUIT Cast 123: Brett Graham, interviewer Kathryn Graham speaks to Sam Tozer from LOT23. They discuss Sam's work on Whangamārino, a six channel video by Brett included as part of his installation The Wastelands at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Sam discusses the process of working with Brett, the digital challenges of adding visual effects to documentary footage and working through ‘impossible lenses’.

List of topics:

0:20 How did you first get to know Brett? Sam discusses making one of Nat Tozer’s works (Erotic Geologies (2024)) and forging a mutual connection with Brett via Gow Langsford gallery, and the inclusion of a Fred Graham sculpture in the video.

2.30: Sam describes the original documentary footage which Whangamārino is based on.

3.25: The unusual size of the six screen video installation - “11 times wider than it is high…immediately really exciting”.

4.00: What was the process of choosing not to use the original footage?

4:30: Sam discusses ‘impossible lenses’, and the difference between showing The Wastelands in Venice in 2024 versus the 2025 Auckland Art Gallery installation which features the video work Whangamārino.

6:00: How LOT23 work with artists - technologically and learning about the artists' kaupapa, looking at previous works, examining narrative and aesthetic threads in existing works - “so we’re part of a continuum”

7 :00: The technical challenges of making a work “12 times wider than it’s high” at a resolution of 11,500 pixels wide

8:25: Brief discussion of unusual screen sizes in projects with Lisa Reihana and Nat Tozer

10:00: More discussion of working at large scale, Kathryn makes anology of working on a mural and the impact of scale on the viewer

12:30 Sam discusses beginning with grass, rock and trees as "touchpoints for a scale reference” Different lens sizes with a virtual camera. The process of creating natural environments. Using NASA Lidar data, using images of the actual sites in Brett’s video.

15:00 Working with Brett - suggesting inclusion of other details, thinking about depth of field “you get to play God with it…to create something larger than life…that is hyper real”.

18:00 “There’s all sorts of Easter eggs of meaning…” Discussion of Brett’s personal references to whenua in the work.

19:30 Ends