Michael paints, alongside creating audiovisual artworks under the name Overlap in collaboration with Anna McCrickard. Overlap are known for atmospheric audiovisual performances, installations and limited editions. Their music is also available online.
 
Michael's painting practice draws on and complements his audiovisual work, the multi-perspective viewpoints and textured surfaces of the canvases variously appearing as rock formations, weather patterns, or satellite views - recalling the landscape tradition of the sublime.
 
"I think of my painting process as ‘alluvial romanticism’.  Whether working with the liquid dynamics of paint or live visual mixing (VJ-ing), avoiding immediate interpretation is important, aiming to create works that give something different each time you return to them, like a favourite walk.  For both the visual and musical pieces, the right texture seems to trigger a legitimate motif – with the music it's a kind of melodic minimalism, which like the painting is very much about distillation - hopefully arriving at something which whilst easy on the ear/eye, has plenty of triggers for the imagination. In a world of ubiquitous, immediately interpretable imagery, a crucial purpose for abstraction is something universal yet personal, that’s not at the speed of words." 

Recent Overlap works explore the relationship between still and moving imagery, through use of discreet picture planes, obscuration techniques and implied motion within transitions. The view is in movie time but limited to flat photographic space, seen through a perceptual keyhole more akin to memories and dreams. 
 
They have developed a way of abstracting and combining imagery which has a musical or painterly logic rather than a narrative or conceptual based one, performing from Glastonbury to the V&A, their live visuals (VJ'ing) accompanying numerous music acts including The Chemical Brothers, Deadmau5 and NYPC. Overlap have released multiple albums and EPs, collaborating with musician Andy Dragazis (Blue States) and vocalist/violinist Eos.

Select screenings, installations and live performances include: the ICA, BFI and Tate Britain; British Ambassador’s Residence, Beijing; visual remix of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour for the film’s gala premier at London’s BFI; Riders on the Mall/ROM; MUSZI, Budapest; Digital Graffiti, Florida; STRP Biennale at Strijp S, Eindhoven; Light Fantastic, House of Nobleman at Frieze; Splice Festival, London; B-Seite Festival, Mannheim; Videoformes, Clermont Ferrand; ISEA, Hong Kong; and Digital Decade 5, London.