The following essay was written for an assessment in Video Art and Culture

 

Come Into My Mad World:

 Exploring Existential Isolation through

the work of Michel Gondry

 

Video art and mass culture have always had a complex relationship. One platform that straddles the blurred line between art and commerce is music videos. They converge art, short film, advertising and micro narrative to create a specialised aesthetic and emotional sensibility (Weir 2004). Music videos provide visual artists an ability to explore social themes with a mass culture audience. Michel Gondry is a visual artist renowned for his unique aesthetic style, and rose to international fame through music video collaborations. Gondry’s music videos for Protection by Massive Attack (EMI), Mad World covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules (Sanctuary) and Come Into My World by Kylie Minogue (Capitol Records) are united by the theme of existential isolation. Before deconstructing these videos, it is important to explain the elements of music videos, to contextualise the theme and briefly reflect on Michel Gondry’s creative style.

 

Music videos arose from commercial interests. They were recognised by recording companies as a complimentary form of advertising that could be produced faster and generally cheaper than band touring (Weir 2004, 38). The launch and subsequent mass popularity of the MTV Channel in the 1980s and 1990s firmly entrenched this medium as a vital component of the music industry. It has also provided a mass media platform for video artists, allowing a dynamic meshing of video art and mass culture. According to Weir (2004, 39), “[artists are] plugging into the global distribution networks… an exponentially expanded public… Their responses to music video draw on alternating currents of irony, nostalgia, critique, camp and celebration, and develop the genre further in an art context, whether citing music video style, commenting on its form, or challenging our perceptions of the relationship between music and images.”

A music video is comprised of two elements, a song and images that combine to create an audio-visual text. Whilst both elements can be assessed separately as song and images, they only truly exist as a music video when experienced together (Gabrielli 2010). As a whole, then, they combine to create greater, or multiple, meanings than as individual elements. From this arises the concept of synaesthesia: the interweaving of sound and image is what fundamentally defines music video and constitutes its direct sensory appeal (Weir 2004, 40).

According to Gabrielli (2010) there are five aesthetic functions of the image. Firstly, the images may “paraphrase the verbal text of the song,” the images tend to be fairly literal visuals of the song title or lyrics, such as Nightswimming by R.E.M (Jem Cohen, 1995). Secondly, the images can “[facilitate] the comprehension of the lyrics,” often appearing as subtitles or lettering that may explain the lyrics or meaning of the song, No Surprises by Radiohead (Grant Gee 1997) for example. “Creating a further reading perspective of the song,” is the third function, where the images may develop independently from the content of the text. This often, but not exclusively, occurs with dance/techno music where there is minimal verbal text, such as Revolution 909 by Daft Punk (Roman Coppola 1997). The fourth function of the images with respect to the music is “to direct the expressivity of the song by creating a specific, guided atmosphere.” This provides the images with the power of altering how an individual may perceive the song. Finally, the images may “create matches with given parts of the song,” referring to how the visuals synchronise with the sound to provide visual punctuation. This visual punctuation may be shown by hearing and seeing drums being played, but it may also be shown through other visual motifs such as the various dancers in Michel Gondry’s video for Around the World by Daft Punk (1997).

 

 

The technology that has facilitated modern mass culture has for decades endured academic criticism. One of these criticisms is that of existential isolation, or “Alone Together” (Turkle 2011): in contemporary Western society, there is a cultural phenomenon where individuals, while inhabiting the same space, often feel isolated from others, or disconnect themselves to be ‘in a world of their own.’ This phenomenon emerged into mainstream debate with the proliferation of mobile media devices such as the iPod and smart phones; however it has existed in critical media studies theory for some time. Williams (1974, 19) describes it as “mobile privatisation.” The argument revolves around how society’s perpetual preoccupation with ‘being connected’ has changed how we multitask. This ultimately has instilled “multi-lifing”: a form of escapism where people, who maintain multiple identities (lives), ‘escape’ from their current or ‘real’ situation (Turkle 2011). There is a concern that technology has become an “architect of intimacy… connectivity offers the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship,” (Turkle 2011). The music videos for Protection by Massive Attack (EMI), Mad World covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules (Sanctuary) and Come Into My World by Kylie Minogue (Capitol Records) are united by the theme of existential isolation. Protection explores the isolation of individuals in the setting of an apartment unit. Mad World reveals emotional isolation and disconnection from the rest of society. Come Into My World suggests how the pop music industry is associated with promoting isolation through the fantasy created by glamour.

 

 

Michel Gondry is a video artist who is renowned for his thoughtful and visually unique style of music videos. He has worked with Björk, Daft Punk, The White Stripes and Beck, among many others. Gondry’s works often explore the convergence of dreams and reality, conscious and unconscious states (Hirschberg 2006), which invoke the audience to question their perceptions, not just of reality but what a music video should be. Gondry understands the appeal of disorientation, of the audience’s not immediately understanding what it is seeing. As explained by Hirschberg (2006), “He gets impatient when the events unfolding in a narrative are too organized, too emotionally tidy”.

Gondry has said of his work (Hirschberg 2006), “When I first started making videos, I didn’t understand the English lyrics. So I looked at the rhythms, and I replicated an abstraction, which made my videos closer to what the musicians usually meant in the beginning. I could never be exact in my work, and that was a good thing.” Gondry’s aesthetic style (Hirschberg 2006), is “a hybrid of imaginative fiction and emotional reality.”

The music videos for Protection by Massive Attack (EMI), Mad World covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules (Sanctuary) and Come Into My World by Kylie Minogue (Capitol Records) are united by the theme of existential isolation. They are also unified by Gondry’s signature use of a single continuous shot and use of visual leitmotifs.

Despite creating these videos prior to the mobile media device explosion that began with the first generation iPod (which was released in 2001, but still an emerging trend in 2002), Gondry has achieved a thoughtful and touching exploration of the human experience of isolation.

 

 

The music video for Protection (Gondry 1995) begins with the camera following a man and child into an apartment block. The video is a single continuous shot, with the camera moving between various rooms, mostly depicting a variety of domestic situations, but also include Tracy Thorn singing to the audience. The camera eventually finishes following the man back out and into his car, hovering on the empty child’s seat in the back. The various situations appear to be unremarkable and mundane. However, the viewer catches glimpses of the man dropping off his child, and how the child negatively interacts with her new guardian.

Gondry’s imagery in Protection has managed to thoroughly explore the theme of existential isolation. The first reading shows how the visuals paraphrase the verbal text of the song. Through including the scene of the father, his child and the mother, Gondry has provided a visual narrative that reflects that of the lyrics. The lines:

I know you want to live yourself
But could you forgive yourself
If you left her just the way
You found her

You’ve got a baby of your own
When your baby’s gone, she’ll be the one
To catch you when you fall

suggest a relationship that, while producing a child, has soured, and now they are learning to move on with their lives. However, through implicating the neighbours in the apartment block, particularly how little anyone is aware of the couple’s relationship, subtly shows the viewer how isolated we are in our own lives from those around us. The fact that the relationship has not been visually highlighted or singled out helps to anchor the depiction with realism. In this way, the video has also managed to create a further reading perspective of the song.

The song Protection is about the need for feeling safe and to heal from emotional wounds. The gentle, fluid camera movements, coupled with the subdued action reinforce this mood. Here juxtaposition on the theme of isolation is created: while everyone else is isolated (be that intentional or unintentional) from the former family, the members of the family need isolation in order to gain a sense of safety and healing.

 

Gondry’s (2001) video for Mad World is filmed from the roof of a building, looking down upon a group of people on the footpath. As the audience watches, the people move around and form shapes, including a face, stick figure, house, boat, car, dove and a dog. The movement of the people appears hectic at first, and then almost magically form a clear, animated figure. The camera pans up to the roof, where Gary Jules is singing and watching the people below, and back again. The video finishes by panning up the opposite direction to where Michael Andrews is playing the piano part of the song.

This cover of the Tears for Fears song Mad World is an incredibly sombre version, stripped down from electro pop to acoustic piano, ’cello and minimal vocal effects. The cover was recorded originally for the movie Donnie Darko, a psychological thriller, and emphasised the mood of eeriness and sadness in the film. Gondry’s video, however, gently shifts the mood of the song away from the eerie and more towards suggesting a disconnection rather than sadness. Again Gondry has employed very smooth, fluid and continuous camera movement to lend a more realistic feel to the scene. The theme manifests itself as focusing on how an individual may feel isolated from the world around them. The lyrics lament how “I find it hard to tell you / I find it hard to take / when people run in circles it’s a very, very / mad world, mad world.” The visual of the people flowing from shape to shape emphasise the lament. The fact that Gary Jules is watching the scene below him, apparently by himself at first reinforces the sense of isolation, especially during the second verse, “Went to school and I was very nervous / no one knew me, no one knew me.”

The Mad World video, ten years later, seems an uncanny premonition for the emotional isolation Turkle (2011) describes in her research on the social effect of mobile media devices in the wake of the digital age.

 

 

Come Into My World (Gondry 2002) was shot in Paris, and is a continuous shot that follows Kylie Minogue as she walks around a traffic intersection. Around her the streets thrive with activity, with Kylie at once observing the activity and walking as though oblivious to it. There is a clear visual leitmotif: corresponding to the repetitions of the refrain, the same long take is repeated seamlessly. Each time the chorus starts, we see Kylie in almost the same position as the previous round, repeating similar movements, while another image of her enters and joins in acting out the same path she previously took. By the end of the video, there are four versions of Kylie and four sets of the street life all carrying on oblivious of the others.

Come Into My World is a standard pop music love song. A surface reading of the lyrics reveals an invitation a prospective lover to begin a romance with the singer, specifically asking, “Come into my world.” However, the visuals suggest and reinforce a variety of meanings. The bustle of the street aid in engendering an energetic mood that reflects the pop beat, but the fact that the looped Kylies do not acknowledge each other raises questions over perceptions of reality. The glamour of the pop music industry is sometimes criticised for the unreal fantasy world that it creates for celebrities. The video suggests that “my world” is one of self-absorption; it is almost completely detached from what is occurring around her; it is a literal visual representation of “multi-lifing”. The way isolation is explored in this video is a departure from Protection and Mad World. Whereas the first and second music videos explore the emotional isolation an individual may experience while yearning to connect with others, Come Into My World suggests how pop music and mass culture may isolate individuals from their own empathy. Gondry’s visually rich video positions the audience to question how Kylie, as a symbol for mass culture, interacts with others and her own self.

 

Music videos provide a unique opportunity for visual artists to explore cultural themes with a mass audience. The synaesthesia of melding audio and visual elements to create new meanings is a powerful form of direct sensory and emotional appeal. Michel Gondry is a video artist with creative ability to make engaging videos with subtle explorations of cultural themes, such as existential isolation. The Protection, Mad World and Come Into My World music videos are unified by this theme and each in their own way explore a different facet of the human experience of isolation.

 

References

Gabrielli, Giulia. 2010. “An Analysis of the Relation between Music and Image.” In Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video, edited by Henry Keazor and Thorsten Wübbena, 89-109. Bieletold: Transcript Verlag.

Gondry, Michel. 1995. “Protection.” YouTube video, posted March 6, 2009. Accessed October 15, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epgo8ixX6Wo&ob=av2e

Gondry, Michel. 2001. “Mad World.” YouTube video, posted January 8, 2006. Accessed October 15, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

Gondry, Michel. 2002. “Come Into My World.” YouTube video, posted October 10, 2007. Accessed October 15, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErU5hKT2KMs

Hirschberg, Lynn. 2006. “Le Romantique.” The New York Times, September 17. Accessed October 21, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/magazine/17gondry.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Turkle, Sherry. 2011. “Alone Together.” TEDxUIUC video, posted February 19. Accessed October 4, 2011. http://www.tedxuiuc.com/TEDxUIUC/Talks_Sherry_Turkle.html

Weir, Kathryn. 2004. Video hits: art & music video. Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery.

Williams, Raymond. 1974. Television: technology and cultural form. London: Fontana.