INTENT
WHAT IS ALL THIS, ANYWAY?
I Promise 2 Be You is a collaboration of premier video artists and electronic musicians, seasoned with that which is behind Door Number Three, and presented as an episodic mix of the contributors’ unique artistic signatures.
The principal energy infusing iP2BU comes from the co-creator of the norm-busting animated video short ‘Gina and TL,’ an Official Selection of the Second Annual Sundance Online Film Festival.
Each episode of iP2BU is an artisanal creation highlighting a variety of thematic styles; curated odysseys which maximize the synergy of video animation and symbiotic musical scores. Evocative synthesizer music and ephemeral moving images conjure a punch-packing emotional experience … a new vaudeville for the digital mind.
EVOLUTION OF iP2BU
While working as an international distributor of synthesizers during the 1990s, Geoff Farr spent long nights in European hotel rooms watching the only television programs that required no translation: short experimental videos backed with electronic music scores. Farr says German television was an especially rich medium for an American insomniac interested in creative new videos.
“I watched endless hours of shows like ‘Flomotion’ and ‘Man vs Machine,’ Farr says. “There was another program called ‘Space Night’ that ran videos from NASA archives, accompanied by some really interesting electronic music artists. The shows were compelling.”
Farr surmised that others would find the offerings equally entertaining, and attempted to secure United States licensing rights for the programming.
After it became apparent that such rights would be challenging to acquire, he decided to create his own compilations of original experimental videos, and called the show i Promise 2 Be You.
Enlisting the aid of musician and film editor Bill Black, with whom he had collaborated on the ‘Gina and TL’ project for the Sundance Online Film Festival, Farr began to assemble what would eventually become two complete seasons comprising 9 30-minute episodes each.
Farr had trashed all the original content, graphic elements, and master tapes in a frenzy of housecleaning. As a result, he had to gather the library of lost assets from past colleagues.
Farr tapped New York motion graphics company C-trl, whose principals Dev Harlan and Nika Offenbac created the main show elements. “Dev and Nika understood immediately what I was doing,” Farr says.
With the show’s architecture in place, Farr harvested work from video artists across the planet for the show. Standout segments came from artists Sean Capone, Yoshi Sodeoka (aka C-505), Davy Force, Sue-c, Optical Light Pipe, Motomichi Nakamura, and Ben Sheppee.
In April 2023 Farr received a text message containing one of the iP2BU bumpers from collaborator Todd McKinney. Farr says, “As soon as I saw that message, I realized how much I missed the iP2BU universe … I had to revive the show.” But the resurrection wouldn’t be easy, because Farr had, only six months before, trashed all the original content, graphic elements, and master tapes in a frenzy of housecleaning. As a result, he had to gather the library of lost assets from past colleagues.
Now, with Season Three content safely squirreled away in a fireproof vault near the Crab Nebula, original contributors, along with new video artists and musicians, are confident of media security and onboard for the new season.