The Teletubbies become disturbing performance art in black and white

The Teletubbies become disturbing performance art in black and white

YouTube user Christopher Brown has uncovered an artifact of early ‘80s avant-garde culture depicting bizarre, dwarfish masked creatures writhing around in a deliberately artificial pastoral setting. Seemingly the product of some bygone Berlin art collective, the haunting piece of video art shows echoes of Klaus Nomi and early Werner Herzog. No, it’s actually just a desaturated but otherwise unadulterated video of the Teletubbies. Seemingly inspired by the visual similarity between the Teletubbies in black and white and the official video for Joy Division’s “Atmosphere,” which is filled with hooded figures traversing forbidding landscapes, Brown went ahead and took footage from an old Teletubbies episode, stripped out the color, and made “Atmosphere” the backing track. The result is downright eerie.

 
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