group_inou “EYE”

In this music video, the two members of groupinou travel over a maze of connected streets captured by Google Street ViewTM. It is made of impersonal images recorded by various people and businesses around the globe, and follows groupinou through a world that infinitely expands over longitude, latitude, and temporal axis.
This work pertains to groupinou’s album MAP, which contains the track used in this music video. It was created by combining a rigorous optimization process that utilizes various digital tools with a process that involves meticulous frame-by-frame creation. Furthermore, the project’s production tools and methods were released to the public as open-source material. Although based on a simple idea, the resulting video is a manifestation of the artists’ enthusiasm, imbued with qualities that defy time and technological trends.

In this video, the artists focus on the “seams” between Google Street ViewTM images, constructing a visual world that benumbs the separation between reality and fiction. Instead of basing on Google’s system, the concept is to bring out the flaws of its “view”. The fact that it is independent of the platform gives the idea an exciting possibility. While technology is being used to its fullest extent, human characters were hand-composed onto each frame. This mixture of old and new technology is revealing of the artists’ refined aesthetic sensibility. group_inou “EYE” is a fine work that contains, within surprising visuals and compelling video effects, a critique of the current visual culture. (KUDO Takeshi)