Daft Punk: Around the World 

(1997) 

by Michel Gondry is meant to be a visual representation of the song; each element in the video represents a different instrument.

Michel Gondry's music video for the song features robots walking around in a circle on a platform (which represents a vinyl record), tall athletes (as described by Gondry) wearing tracksuits with small prosthetic heads walking up and down stairs, women dressed like synchronized swimmers (described by Gondry as "disco girls") moving up and down another set of stairs, skeletons dancing in the center of the "record," and mummies dancing in time with the song's drum pattern.

According to Gondry's notes, the androids represent the singing robot voice; the physicality and small-minded rapidity of the athletes symbolizes the ascending/ descending bass guitar; the femininity of the disco girls represents the high-pitched keyboard; the "itchy" skeletons serve for the guitars; the mummies represent the drum machine.

Around the World was Gondry's first attempt at bringing organized dancing to his music videos. "I was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don't think choreography should be shot in close-ups." The sequence, initially developed by Gondry, was further expanded and streamlined by choreographer Blanca Li. Costumes for the video were designed by Florence Fontaine, the mother of Gondry's son. The flashing lights were operated by the director's brother, Olivier "Twist" Gondry. As Michel Gondry stated, "It all came down to a family affair."

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

 

Daft Punk: Around the World, *****, choreography, pop, Video Clip

Reading

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward (2010) – The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video by Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena (eds.) brings together different disciplines as well as journalists, museum curators and gallery owners in order to take a discussion of the past and present of the music video as an opportunity to reflect upon suited methodological approaches to this genre and to allow a glimpse into its future. (transcript Verlag)

Notation. Calculation and Form in the Arts (2008) is a comprehensive catalogue (in German) edited by Dieter Appelt, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Peter Weibel which accompanied an exhibition of the same name at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin and the ZKM | Karlsruhe. (ZKM)

 

SEE ALSO

VJ: Audio-Visual Art + VJ Culture (2006) edited by D-Fuse. A major change has taken place at dance clubs worldwide: the advent of the VJ. Once the term denoted the presenter who introduced music videos on MTV, but now it defines an artist who creates and mixes video, live and in sync to music, whether at dance clubs and raves or art galleries and festivals. This book is an in-depth look at the artists at the forefront of this dynamic audio-visual experience. (Laurence King Publishing)

Alex Rutterford is a British director and graphic designer working mostly on music videos. He studied graphic design at the Croydon School of Art and graduated in 1991. His most well-known works include the videos for Gantz Graf by Autechre, Verbal by Amon Tobin and Go to Sleep by Radiohead. (Wikipedia)

Massive Attack World Tours (2003-2010) by United Visual Artists. UVA and Massive Attack have an ongoing artistic relationship. Up to date UVA have created four world and festival tours for the band, the 100th Window Tour (2003) being the first. UVA created a new stage set with a wide, sculptural LED screen as the centrepiece for the fourth tour in 2008. Perfect synchronisation between the music and the visuals was made possible by United Visual Artists’ custom d3 software. (United Visual Artists)

Futures (2006) by Robert Seidel shows crushed things, completely abstracted… finding together and building up to something we all have seen before… Like our true wishes and desires they shape over time and get clearer… followed by the next longing… Innuendos, artifacts and the rough synchronisation add subtle emotions to the uncertain process that build the morbid tableaux of all possible futures… (Robert Seidel)

Tina Frank started up her own business as a designer in 1995 and was soon referred to as one of Austria’s shooting stars in web design. She designs packing for music. Many of her cover designs, especially those for music labels Mego/ Editions Mego (AT), Idea Records (US) have been published in numerous design reference works and are considered influential. The book Graphic Design for the 21st Century (Charlotte & Peter Fiell, Taschen Verlag) listed her among the top 100 graphic designers worldwide. (Tina Frank)