Individual collectivism in the digital age
Remember when the first pop videos were launched? The music experience was enhanced and a whole new industry was born. During the last decade not much have happened and most videos (the technique is dead but the word has survived) walk the same road hoping that ‘more of the same will be better’. Those of us working with communication know that this isn’t the case.
Aaron Koblin an artist specializing in data and digital technologies and Chris Milk have taken the music video or rather the digital age to a new era. They have among other things been working with Radiohead’s video ‘House of Cards’ and for the Johnny Cash Project where participants can draw their own picture into a collective whole to make different versions for the video to ‘Ain’t no Grave’. Now they have taken the digital technique to the next level with ‘The Wilderness Downtown’ a music video for Arcade Fire’s song ‘We used to wait’ a collaboration with Google where they really use the potential of todays web browsers. The video is truly adapted to the viewer since you before it starts type in your address, and during the video you are asked to draw a post card that’ll choreograph the video. The address you typed take you via Google Maps’ Street View to a truly unique experience for the observer and now we’re talking of real customization using the screen as a multiple screen. Captivating and truly amazing!
So as the old seminal thinker Marshall McLuhan said back in the 60s: ‘The media is the message’ maybe it’s been changed by these guys to: ‘The interface is the message’