This Video Might Hypnotize You

Ready to have your mind blown? Check out this crazy, surrealist, strangely mesmerizing dance video, created by French art studio Adrien M/Claire B using “slit-scan” photography.

From what my technologically unsophisticated brain can gather, the slit-scan technique originally involved inserting a moveable slide with a slit cut in it between the camera and its subject, which elongated and fluidly distorted the resulting image. (Fun fact: When the Starship Enterprise goes to “warp speed” on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”? That’s slit-scan photography in action.)

These days, of course, you can do it all digitally. But whether the method is old-school or new-school, the result is some mind-bending, Salvador Dali-esque stuff. And the way these artists have incorporated the effect into their dancers’ choreography is haunting. It’s as if you’re viewing them from underwater. Take a look!