MusicVideo/MixTapes typically treats all fave music video babies equally, except in this moment of contradiction in which proper gushing over the most frequently gushed upon fave music vid baby is in order. Revealing what music vid is declared number one fave baby whenever much social pressure is applied to pick one, or when someone creates a violent hypothetical scenario like, “what if someone were to hold a gun to your Grandma's head and make her hold guns to the heads of kittens and puppies and threaten to kill her if she doesn't pistol whip those kittens and puppies, if you don't name your favest fave music vid baby.” To avoid such scenario, I pick “Pursuit”.
GESAFFELSTEIN - "Pursuit"
Dir: Manu Cossu (maybe also Fleur Fortune) Prod: Division
But before we pursue “Pursuit,” the music video, let's pursue “Pursuit's,” creators, it's directors, it's production company, and this Gesaffelstein guy.
Gesaffelstein came up with his complicated to pronounce name by combining the complicated to pronounce German word, Gesamtkunstwerk, with the German name, Albert Einstein. The word refers to art that uses various art forms to form its creation. The Ger-man name forms in many minds when imaging a scientist, or science in general. Despite this science discipline being typically associated with seriousness, this image of Einstein making this silly face is perhaps, ironically, the very image many may imagine when conjuring the term "science".
This combination of various arts and sciences collaborating is the partnership that exists with every modern day music and video production. It is why the Academy that gives out those Oscar awards refers to themselves as the Academy of Arts and Sciences. The two form a symbiotic relationship. One advancing the other; a pursuit, if you will.
“Pursuit,” the music video, serves as example. The vid comes from the directing couple of Fleur Fortune and Manu Cossu whom have collaborated on many incredible fave music vid babies such as the M83 mutant child trilogy of “Midnight City”, “Reunion” and “Wait”, as well as on another Gesaffelstein joint, the music vid morality tale of “Hate Or Glory”.
GESAFFELSTEIN - "Hate Or Glory"
Dir: Manu Cossu (and maybe Fleur Fortune) Prod: Divison
All of which are produced by production company, Division, who have co-parented an incredible number of fave music video babies. In fact, if you're looking for a one-stop-fave-music-video-viewing-shop other than this music video/mix tape website, there's few better than Division's Vimeo page. They're so good at making cool music vids that even their ads and fashion design vids are also cool music videos. It seems Division is quite talented at producing, which involves uniting the creative team, which makes their title, “Division” either appropriate or ironic depending on the definition of division you think of.
In this sense another irony can be found on Division's Vimeo page. Manu Cossu gets sole credit for directing “Pursuit”. This is a discrepancy from all other sites I've seen on the internet that give directing credit to both Manu and Fleur, including Division's vimeo page in the past when I was visiting it frequently in the mid 2000 teens. This leads me to imagine that at some point in time there was a division between Fleur and Manu and the only website that is reflecting this division is extra ironically, “Division”.
Because “Pursuit” is an abstract art work, it allows for freedom in interpretation, and because Fleur is a girl and Manu is a boy, respectively, and because “Pursuit”, the music video, begins with a girl and a boy standing side by side until the boy leaves to check out a mysterious black box, an interpretation of this alluding to Fleur and Manu's relationship could be explored.
Transparently, I know nothing of Fleur and Manu's relationship and am not interested in exploring this interpretation unless it happens to be with Fleur and/or Manu themselves, but I bring this up in appreciation of the art's flexibility in allowing the viewer to make up their own story. I'd encourage viewers to make up their own story as to what the heck is happening in this video, and I'd like to humbly offer my own, for you consideration.
Since this music video only consists of 18 shots, this interpretation will be discussed shot by shot.
This tale begins, as most music videos do, with the first shot.
Shot #1
We begin with smiley, blonde-haired, blue-eyed childrens, that seem to be brother and sister or perhaps good friends. They are surrounded by all white space. Their world is essentially a blank canvas.
Shot #2
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy leaves the side of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl to examine a mysterious Black Box.
Shot #3
The mysterious Black Box is suddenly in the middle of a wealthy home hallway. The blonde-haired, blue eyed girl is turned away staring the opposite direction down the hall. The camera backward dolly reveals a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, now muscular teen gripping closed a metal fist.
I assess the mysterious Black Box gave the Blonde-haired, Blue-eyed Boy this nice house and nice metal-machine hand, possibly as a representation of desires for wealth, power, control, technology, and perhaps more specifically, technology as a means of gaining wealth, power, and control, also known as a weapon.
I believe the girl is turned away because she is either amazed by the wealthy home hallway, or possibly she disapproves of accepting such mysterious gifts from such a mysterious box.
This viewpoint inspires wonder as to what would emerge from the box if it were the young girl who opened it instead. This plot point recalls other well known stories like that of Pandora's Box, or Eve eating from the tree of knowledge in God's biography, The Bible, Old Testy style. Both of these stories depict ladies satisfying curiosities/desires by opening the box/eating the fruit and thus changing the course of human trajectory. These acts come with the narrative judgement that those actions were bad, and real women in general seem to get the blame from these fictional acts from these fictional women characters, making the distinction of the boy opening the box this time, all the more interesting.
Shot #4
The Blonde-haired, Blue-eyed, now Metal-fisted, Muscular Teen/Man is being knighted by what one would assume to be his female child companion from the vid's beginning. They are surrounded by people dressed in pilgrim looking attire. An attire typically associated with a puritanical organized religion, typically associated with belief in a higher power creator of existence. The "puritans" in "Pursuit" kneel in honor of their higher-power; the Blonde-haired, Blue-eyed, Metal-fisted, Muscular Teen/Man.
As they bow to this part human/part machine higher power the backward dolly reveals the power behind the higher power: technology.
It's my assessment this movement abstractly represents the rapid evolution/devolution of humanity into a perpetually war-ready, clone culture.
Shot #5
I assume that clones become an increasingly popular part of society because clones would explain why this group of people are standing motionless in formation in an empty warehouse looking like they're dressed for a wedding.
Because it seems like a wedding of the boy and girl from the video's beginning, and because the couple's sibling status is ambiguous, I'm reminded of stories of royal families practicing incest to create full bred bloodlines. Seems like cloning would achieve a similar goal.
Shot #6
Clone creation could be the reason these lab coat, hazmat suit wearing men are laboring over this large device. Perhaps this device creates clones. Or, it also looks like it could be a big jet engine for a big bomb dropping jet. Either way, these guys are making weapons.
Shot #7
This weapon making is made evident in this shot of military clones holding machine guns.
Shot #8
Perhaps the popular rise in clone culture is the reason the gold statue idle looks quite similar to the machine gun holding clones.
Shot #9
Perhaps cloning is also the reason this odd faced, perfect butt, gold fisted being is on display in front of a white backdrop, like she's this year's clone model. She's in front of all white just as the kids in the vid's beginning. Maybe this is to allude to this year's clone model being a new beginning.
Either way, this clone seems to be related to the reason why the women in the car are not too pleased with us. Yes, us, the viewer.
For the first and only time, we/the camera, become a character. We get acknowledged by the woman in the car with disgust and we get acknowledged by the woman standing outside of the car with angered curses that seem probably Russian, and spit.
I like to imagine in this moment we/the camera have assumed the identity of the once smiley, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy, now a full-grown, metal-fisted, elder man.
I like to make up the story these upset women are his escorts, the older woman smoking cigarettes at the front of the car is their handler. He's brought them all here to show off humankind's incredible new creations, like the new nice butt, gold-fisted, clone-lady-weapon, but the ladies in the car can see that it's destructive toward humankind and let their opposition be known.
Meanwhile all the other people in the room are lab coat, hazmat suit, science guys and an old man, marveling at the machine gun/bomb jet that is somehow floating. They give no attention to the upset women in the background, nor even the new clone with the nice butt.
This backward dolly, long take, takes up 1 minute and 11 seconds, making this shot the video's center point. Before this shot we've witnessed the rapid evolution of a society where techno-weaponry merges with humanity. After this shot we witness its total takeover.
Shot #10 - #14
As the dance beat drops we get to see people being human for a moment, dancing freely. Till it is revealed these free dancing humans are in a box, being monitored/studied by lab coat science guys. Then, seemingly surprisingly to the lab coat science guys, machine gun weapons float in to interrupt the free dancing humans. This seems to represent the weapons themselves taking initiative to disrupt humanity.
Shot #15
We're viewing a crypt of a woman. Perhaps this is the remains of the once smiley, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl from the video's beginning. The world she directly/indirectly helped create, continues on, possibly without any human women. I hypothesis this because this is the last shot of a woman.
Shot #16
Those that know will know this reflection-less figure standing in front of a mirror in this wealthy home hallway is the creator of this song, Gesaffelstein.
This shot could mean a few things.
One: Because he's in a wealthy home instead of a warehouse, this could mean that there is a part of society that still lives extravagantly. And because he has no reflection this may mean this part of society are vampires. Maybe not in the traditional sense of getting burned by sunlight and needing to feed on blood, but vampires in the sense they're sucking life energy from society.
Two: It could also be viewed this vampire part of society is lacking self awareness because they can't see themselves. Not only is there no mirror reflection but Gesaffelstein's character is all alone. There's no family, friends, nor strangers to reflect back providing self awareness. Without proper self reflection, its difficult to progress.
Shot #17
Also without awareness we more easily slip into states of fear. This is brilliantly, metaphorically depicted with this shot of a clone infinitely blaming itself. An infinite mirror of physically identical beings pointing fingers of blame in all directions.
This much mimics the floating machine guns from three shots previous, with both the guns and the men pointing offering similar psychologically damaging effects but coming in much different physical forms.
Shot #18 (final shot)
We end with the skeleton of the king. Possibly the body of that smiley, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy from this video's beginning. The boy that shaped society by pulling his desires out of a box, is now inside of a box.
That's it. The originators of this society are dead and now society lives on through clones and fear. Not the happiest of endings but it does provide for some good thought experiments like...
What are the parallels that can be drawn from the video's society toward our own?
And/or...
If you had the option to look in the box, what would you want to pull out of it?
Personally, I'd like to pull some authentic human connection out of that box. Minus the kids in the first shot, human connection seems to be lacking in the world of this "Pursuit" vid. Lucky for us there is a real Black Box in our real life existence. This Black Box exists in the form of the ability to manifest our desires by thinking, speaking, and acting them into existence. This is how the universe conspires to give us our desires. This can lead to danger if our desires come at the expense of someone else's.
There may be a person in our real existence that wants a gold/metal fist/hand, so they search for deals on cut-off-your-arm-and-attach-a-robot-hand-surgery, but why does this hypothetical person want this robot hand; wielding power over others or being helpful around the house? It only makes sense that our own happiness be at least somewhat connected to the happiness of others. So it would make sense that manifesting pleasure for others is the most assured way you'll manifest it for yourself.
Therefore, I'll take this Black Box manifestation opportunity of this open communication, and I'll ask the universe for loving human connection; touch, eye contact, and empathetic conversation. Thus changing finger pointing blame to hugs of love, dance disrupting floating guns to uninterrupted by floating gun dancing, and pulling desires out of mysterious black boxes, to telling our desires to loved ones so they may fulfill them for us.
To the metaphorical all Black Box we pray. A-men, and A-women.
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