Schtick can get you pretty far in life, but if there’s no substance or ideas to it, your schtick’s going to get found out.
Universal Everything’s schtick is highly polished, ultra-HD, very, very slick digital videos. The studio’s most recurring theme is walking creatures, a whole host of characters who stomp along the screen.
Some are procedurally generated, made by AI on the spot, constantly evolving and growing. Others are experiments in pushing CGI technology as far as possible. So you get a walking building, shedding its bricks and concrete as it goes, a procession of blobby robot fashion models and a cast of hairy monsters. One work acts as a mirror, the figure on the screen aping your own walk as you slink past.
It makes sense that a lot of the pieces here were made for furniture companies or department stores, because these all feel like ads for brands you’ve never heard of. The wall panels make references to JG Ballard and Bridget Riley, but guys, they had ideas, their art was about something. This is art about nothing. At best these videos are fun experiments in digital technology, but there’s not a lot going on beyond that. The whole thing is like a showcase for an animation studio, which is probably what it is.
Everything here is very pretty, very impressive, but there is absolutely no art to it. Their schtick just doesn’t have any depth or meaning. It schtinks.
