Björk is back with new video for her
new single Hollow from the Biophilia project. The It’s Oh So Quiet singer has collaborated with biomedical animator
Drew Berry to create the video for a partly-scientific representation of the
haunting song.
Of the video Björk says, "It's
just the feeling when you start thinking about your ancestors and DNA that the
grounds open below you and you can feel your mother and her mother, and her
mother, and her mother, and her mother 30,000 years back. So suddenly you're
this kinda tunnel, or trunk of DNA ... All these ghosts come up so it ended up
begin a Halloween song and quite gothic in a way ... It's like being part of
this everlasting necklace when you're just a bead on a chain and you sort of
want to belong and be a part of it and it's just like a miracle."
On blending his scientific work with
Björk’s music director Drew Barry comments;
"The
"Hollow" music video is a powers-of-10 exploration of the microscopic
and and molecular landscapes inside Björk's body. The animation was constructed
from molecular models of DNA and proteins derived from various forms of
scientific data such as x-ray crystallography.
My work is usually defined by
goals of didactic science education and accuracy, so this is the first time
that I've strayed fully into the world of art, with the opportunity to mess
around with the scientific data to create a whimsical and playful journey.
Inside
a cell nucleus the audience encounters Björk's ancestral spirit — her ghost in
the machine — that watches over her genes as they flow from one generation to
the next. The spirit manifests as a large molecular complex which was modeled
from a three-dimensional head scan of Björk. The inspiration for the face
came from the 'fruit face' paintings by the 16th century italian artist
Giuseppe Arcimboldo who took objects such as fruits, vegetables, or books, and
arranged them in such a way that they formed a portrait."
Well there
you go then.... that’s as clear as, um, mud then..!
