Kanye West Is Running for President of the Galaxy in Arecibo's 360-Degree "I'm Cosmic" Video
Kaleidoscopic road trip visuals.
Arecibo’s “I’m Cosmic” has a lot going for it: the song itself is icy and frantic, a warehouse-filler that’s equal parts nostalgic and futuristic. The music video’s aesthetics, meanwhile, pay homage to cult classics like Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Back to the Future. Formally, the 360-degree music video is used to claustrophobic yet visually stunning effects: viewers can sit back and enjoy the kaleidoscopic road trip or they can explore the surrounding environment as it whips past them. Easter egg cameos include news of Hillary Clinton’s newly adopted alien child and a holographic billboard announcing Kanye West’s campaign for the title of Galactic President.
The video was created by director Alex Tennyson of typeone.org and Isobel Mascarenhas-Whitman of ImageFiction Films, who told Dazed that the primary inspiration was to explore “the physical lack of control that the audience has in a 360-animation and the concept of ‘Taking Back Control’ that seems to have permeated politics in 2016.”
Check the video out above. We recommend viewing it on a mobile device; try playing the track at half-speed for a completely different tune.
