It’s a music video, but it only works on your computer. Scratch that, it only works in your web browser–that is, if you are using Google Chrome and have a web cam AND have a smart phone handy.
https://www.justareflektor.com/
This is Arcade Fire’s latest ‘Chrome Experiment,’ which they are promoting in advance of their new album, Reflektor, slated for an October 29th release. Similar to the interactive site introduced before the 2010 album The Suburbs, justareflektor.com requires input from the viewer for the video to work. In 2010, the viewer entered the address of the street they grew up on at http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ and the music video incorporated Google Streetview images from the address into the video. This time around, the band takes the interactivity to the next level.
Once a user clicks the start button on the site, they must grant Arcade Fire’s site access to their personal web cam as well enter an individual code on a landing page on a smart phone which they are then directed to hold up to the web cam to calibrate the ‘reflector.’
It’s a unique experience to be sure and relates well with the theme of the song. They lyrics point to disillusionment with technology and a culture that promises ever more connectedness:
I thought I found the connector
It’s just a ReflektorNow the signals we send are deflected again
We’re still connected, but are we even friends?
We fell in love, when I was nineteen
And now we’re staring at a screen
During the course of the video, the viewer can use his or her smart phone as a reflector to manipulate what is happening on the screen, including the speed and direction of the dancers, where the lighting is pointed (or reflected) and what part of the screen is in focus. For me, the most moving part of the experience was that I was continuously tempted to turn my phone around to see what was happening on the screen for two reasons. One, because I was holding my phone up to the web cam, the phone is consistently in the way of the video, leaving me to peer around my phone to see what is going on. Second, midway through the video, a mirror appears on screen and reflects your image back to you with the writing “Just a Reflektor” appearing on your smart phone screen. At this point, I was torn away from the video in order look at my smart phone screen—an effect I’m sure the artists counted on, since when you turn your phone around to look at its screen, both screens fade and read “Break Free.”
It’s well done and communicates its message—which in many circles has become passé—in a compelling and poetic way.
Watch the video and let us know what you think.
Justareflektor.com (make sure to open in Google Chrome).
Arcade Fire Website/Reflektor Pre-order
‘Standard’ Reflektor video:
