Cyriak Harris, known

mononymous A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

ly as Cyriak () and his

B3ta B3ta (stylised as b3ta) is a popular British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by ''The Guardian''. It was founded in 2001 by Rob Manuel, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson. B3ta's main feature is a newsletter featuring ...

username Mutated Monty, is an English freelance animator, artist, composer, and author from

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. He is known for his

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

and bizarre short web animations with the frequent use of the

Droste effect The Droste effect (), known in art as an example of ''mise en abyme'', is the effect of a picture recursively appearing within itself, in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear. This produces a loop which in ...

. Cyriak is his real birth name.

Animations

Cyriak has been a regular contributor to the British website B3ta since 2004. His YouTube channel was launched in March 2006. Cyriak's YouTube account features a compilation of his animations, which have been popular throughout the

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and noted by ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

's'' Eliot Van Buskirk. Most of his videos are made with

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and

FL Studio FL Studio (previously known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. FL Studio features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. The program is avail ...

. Cyriak's animation "MOO" has featured on the front page of ''Wired''. His 2009 video "poo pants" features an animated sample of broadcaster

Alan Titchmarsh Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster, TV presenter, poet, and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through a ...

singing a repeated refrain (a pitch-shifted excerpt from children's music artist Ann Austin's "The Poo Song") from the bowls of a series of toilets, some of which fly through space. As a freelance animator, he has been commissioned by the

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, and a music video for

Grand Popo Football Club Grand Popo Football Club was a French electronic music group of a DJ television presenter/chat show host and producer/ classically-trained pianist who studied at the National Conservatory in Paris, respectively. The duo apparently adopted their ...

, among others. Cyriak made the "Spaceology" animation in the third episode of the fourth season of the TV series ''

The IT Crowd ''The IT Crowd'' is a British sitcom originally broadcast by Channel 4, written and directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry. Set in the offices of the fict ...

'' and the "Goth to Boss" animation in the sixth episode. In 2015 he created the opening credits for the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series ''

W/ Bob & David ''W/ Bob & David'' is a comedy sketch show created by and starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross that premiered on Netflix on November 13, 2015. The sketch show consists of four half-hour episodes plus an hour-long making-of special entitled "Be ...

''. Cyriak has directed a number of music videos, including videos for

Bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

's "Cirrus" and

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Loui ...

's "Ratchet" in 2013,

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's "Putty Boy Strut" in 2014,

Run the Jewels Run the Jewels, also known by the initials RTJ, is an American hip hop super-duo composed of Brooklyn-based rapper and producer El-P and Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike. They released their critically acclaimed self-titled debut studio album ...

’s "Meowpurrdy" in 2016, and Sparks' "The Existential Threat" in 2020. His videos "Baaa" and "meow mix" have amassed more than 100 million views. Other popular uploads on his channel include "Welcome to Kitty City," "Cycles," and "7 billion."

Music and other activities

Long before Harris started creating animations, he composed a considerable amount of surreal music. On 19 August 2008, Harris uploaded a music video of the song "My Territory" by

. It features a landscape that has been made entirely out of a woman's body, and is a metaphor for consumerism and the treatment of the female body. On 9 September 2009, British illusionist

Derren Brown Derren Brown (born 27 February 1971) is an English mentalist, illusionist, painter, and author. He began performing in 1992, making his television debut with ''Derren Brown: Mind Control'' in 2000, and has since produced several more shows fo ...

, live on UK television, claimed to predict the National Lottery numbers. Cyriak uploaded a possible explanation, to his YouTube channel, which gained half a million views within a week and attention from national press. In September 2010 he appeared at "Flash on the Beach" in Brighton and in September 2014 appeared at "Reasons to be Creative", also in Brighton. On December 2013, he released the

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"Going Down" for the 1994

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.'' In March 2018, he started working on a partly

crowd-funded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance. In 2015, over was rais ...

book ''Horse Destroys the Universe''. The book was published in September 2019. It is about scientists who experiment on a horse named Buttercup until they are given superhuman intelligence, until they eventually become an omnipotent being and destroy the universe. On 8 February 2020, Cyriak showcased his music for the first time, as he performed as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

at the Zanzibar Club in

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Awards and recognition

On 3 December 2009, Cyriak was announced as the winner of the 2009 E Stings competition, run by television channel E4, with £5,000 for his video ''Recursive Culture''. In 2006 he also received a special mention in the results of a

Photoshop contest A Photoshop contest, or sometimes Photoshop battle (often abbreviated to PS Battle), is an online game, in which a website or user of an Internet forum will post a starting image — usually a photograph — and ask others to manipulate the image ...

run by the technology series '' Click''. In 2012 and 2014 he was awarded with two

Cacowards The Cacowards are an annual online awards ceremony which honors the year's most prominent " ''Doom'' WADs", video game modifications of the 1993 first-person shooter ''Doom''. Such modifications may be single levels, level packs, or " total conve ...

, an annual online awards ceremony which honours the year's most prominent modifications of ''

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'', being recognized for his outstanding level design and sophisticated technical approach to achieving complex sequences and impressive comedic timing.

McDonald's advertisement feud

In 2016, Cyriak accused fast food chain

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

of plagiarizing his animated video "cows & cows & cows". The studio that animated the advertisement,

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-based Juan Solo, openly admitted that they used Cyriak's work as "reference". After Cyriak's tweets about the theft went viral, the advert was pulled. The original video, featuring dancing cows, had received more than 67 million views.

References

External links