15 CRAZIEST Moments From Bjork's Digital World Tour
You may be familiar with Icelandic music-maker Björk's totally bizarre but literally unparalleled work. Whether or not you like the creations of this mad forest creature of a performer, you have to acknowledge that she's insanely innovative. Her latest creation, Björk Digital, took over the world, with a sell-out world tour and digital shows in New York, Sydney, Tokyo, and London. It was a love letter to our digital world and mind-meltingly combined music with technology. The tour was a 20 year retrospective of the work of this totally future-focused and unique public figure. Björk has been quoted saying “an artist's work is to put soul into technology”, and her ambition to create something that's totally beyond anything we've experienced before has left us reeling. In keeping with Björk's characteristic multimedia hybridity, the Digital tour came at us in a vast array of forms; objects, instruments, costumes, music, virtual reality, an App, a school and of course, performance. The vision of Björk Digital was literally galactic, not only in terms of its worldwide presence but through visuals referencing space travel, created through by the world's leading digital technologists, all following Björk's otherworldly aesthetic. Was there a method to the exhibition's madness? Björk seems to think that contemporary life is pretty crazy, and we don't disagree. She sings in 'Human Behaviour': "be ready to get confused / There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic / To human behavior". So our confusion is legit and totally intentional on Björk's part. Let's review the craziest moments in Björk Digital, the latest and greatest creative outpouring of one of the planet's maddest and most innovative cultural creators.
15 The entrance to the exhibition was a giant pulsating mouth
A premonition of what was to come, the entrance to the world of Björk Digital was a giant mechanical replica of the singer's mouth. In the virtual reality video Mouthmantra, Björk worked with director Jesse Kanda to capture insane footage of the interior of her mouth while she sang the title track. The teeth and tongue in the video writhe like some kind of deep sea or alien creature. The exhibition is created by Björk, together with her fellow Icelander, writer Sjón Sigurdsson. It is also curated by the famous Klaus Biesenbach, curator of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) gallery and Director at MoMA PS1. Biesenback was also responsible for the now legendary performance artwork The Artist Is Present by Marina Abramovic. He says of the singer: Björk is an extraordinarily innovative artist whose contributions to contemporary music, video, film, fashion, and art have had a major impact on her generation worldwide,” said Biesenbach. “This highly experimental exhibition offers visitors a direct experience of her hugely collaborative body of work.” A huge array of technicians and artists collaborated to produce the experience, through which ticket holders were led like Charlie entering Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in timed groups.
14 Björk traveled the world as a live avatar
Part of the reason that visitor numbers were controlled was to give them the time and space necessary to engage with the numerous cinema rooms, bizarre musical instruments, and iPad apps, as well as the virtual reality experiences. Björk's Vulnicura album was released “on all major VR platforms”, on which most of her fans will be uncertain about exactly how to receive her work. This was never more apparent than when Björk gave a live press interview at London's Somerset House as a digital avatar, operated from her native Iceland. This incredible overleaping of the boundaries of space (and to some extent, time, the avatar being ageless) was just barely technically feasible. It was a fascinating moment not so much because of the technical advancement that it demonstrated, (we're all pretty accustomed to Skyping our families around the world and with the ever evolving world of video games), but actually the musician's vision of a future that embraces virtual reality.
13 A new evolution of Björk's first App, narrated by British naturalist David Attenborough
Never one to rest on her digital-forest fairy laurels, Björk is ever pushing the boundaries of the possible, and her vision is vast. Her last album was released in the form of an iPhone App, enabling her to integrate her "sonic structures" with visual constellations, games, and other media. The internet's polyvalency seems ripe for the manipulation of this rapacious artist, never one to be pigeonholed into this universe. The honeyed tones of British naturalist David Attenborough brought an edge of legitimacy to Biophilia, the original App/album Björk released in 2011. The app lets you navigate around a constellation of different media, from the songs themselves to information and visuals inspired by the natural world. Music is made into virtual space in a fairly convincing way. The App was also commissioned by MOMA and is the first artwork in this medium to enter the gallery's collection, marking a moment in the development of both technology and art.
12 There was a LOT of Virtual Reality
The bizarre Björk's latest fascination is with virtual reality videos. Whether they land you on an Icelandic beach, surrounded by a host of Björks singing Stonemilker, teleport you into an alternate reality with an alien, exploding Björks, or within the singer's mouth as she sings Mouthmantra, they are all totally innovative and totally bonkers. The possibilities of VR are still in development, and the result of donning the heavy headsets is slightly (OK very) disorientating, but not a million miles from playing an arcade game once you become accustomed to the device. Björk's creations, already hallucinogenic, are even more so viewed in virtual reality that the world's top digital artists and coders have collaborated to create. Björk Digital's VR experience was cleverly sequenced so that the viewer gradually became increasingly immersed in an alternate reality, which was occupied by a seething proliferation of Björks. Even Beyonce hasn't replicated herself in digital reality -yet.
11 We listened to crystal-clear soundscapes
Jay-Z has his own headphones, and Björk is similarly conscious about the technology that governs how her creations are consumed. Björk Digital was top and tailed by cinema rooms, kitted out with high-def projections and top of the range Bowers & Wilkins sound systems. We watched a phantasmagoria of videos from the musician's 24-year career, including the recent Stonemilker film by Björk and Andrew Huang. In the center of the room, a projection of the video was brought to high definition life with electronic backing from a surround sound setup. The crisp and volcanic-scale sound in these rooms did contrast somewhat with the less advanced VR technologies in the other rooms but gave a sense of what might be possible with them in (probably) a few years' time. The alien-looking landscape of Iceland found echoes in the realization of the cinema rooms, which drew visual parallels with watching an unearthly display of the Northern Lights. The collaboration with Chris Cunningham on the robotic-erotic film All is Full of Love was especially mind-blowing, showing what can be achieved through mastery of a new medium. It's on YouTube, but it's not the same.
10 Björk Digital was almost as disorientating as 2016, but in a good way
Björk Digital featured an immersive exhibition of digital and video works that propelled us into a parallel reality from our own. The musical artist collaborated with some of the world's leading visual artists and programmers to create the exhibition, which was like nothing we have ever seen before. Constantly challenging the status quo and pushing the boundaries of the possible, Björk's Digital experience invited us into an experience that was not a festival, not a gig, not an exhibition, a school or a website, but some kind of mad matrix of all the above. A little like music, which is almost formless, Björk Digital amassed a huge variety of ways of connecting with audiences. Engaging with Björk's work through the latest virtual reality technology and theatrical experiences that were simultaneously public and private, we were simultaneously stunned and flummoxed, but we liked it. It is such a crazy experience you can't even describe.
9 We were plunged underwater in Björk's immersive film Black Lake
The Digital exhibition included Black Lake, another MOMA commission, which quite literally plunged viewers underwater. Filmed in the highlands of Iceland and directed by the Los Angeles based Andrew Huang, we were wowed by the latest production from the pair, who also collaborated on Stonemilker VR. This earlier work transported the viewer into a private performance of the first track on the critically acclaimed Vulnicura album. This vid caused a sensation when it dropped, visualizable in 360 degrees, it made history in being the first fully immersive music video to come into existence. This new way of consuming music enabled viewers to enjoy a one to one recital of the track, in an intimate performance by Björk, as the two of you look out over the windswept beaches of Iceland. It was just one more earth-shattering experience in the array recounted in Björk Digital, and may even have been topped by Black Lake, a version of which is viewable online.
8 We learned about music on a Digital Education Platform
Not satisfied with the number of divergent platforms bridged by the Digital exhibition, Björk has also made the leap into teaching. The creation of a Digital Education Programme that brings play back into the learning experience, has been extremely popular with children in schools across Scandinavia. Teachers are using the online platform to teach children about the basics of music making, biology and coding through play, and games incorporating sound and visuals. Overwhelmed yet? We were. Although the current website is a little clunky at times, that could be because we are still adapting to it ourselves. It offers a fascinating window onto what could become an internet-hosted school of the future. Maybe. For now, Icelandic children, in particular, are having their minds expanded by the interdisciplinary learning center, where it has become a serious part of the curriculum. We're not uncertain whether the rest of the world will follow, but how soon. Björk has said (perhaps) prophetically: "Out of all of my projects, this one is growing the most."
7 Performances featured futuristic headgear
Björk's performances feature a helluvalot of masks, incorporating an array of materials and otherworldly designs that transform the face of the singer. This whole 'alternate self' thing takes the Lady Gaga meat dress phenomenon to a whole other planet. Sure, Lady Gaga has said that she felt like she didn't fit in and refers to her fans as 'Little Monsters', emitted from the mothership that is 'Mama Monster', in her Artpop album. But Björk's transformations are (maybe it's just because of the whole Scandi thing that's so hot right now), way weirder, and we love it. As wearable tech grows in popularity and feasibility, with Apple products slowly getting picked up by the mass market, the headdress thing really might have a future. Will there be a time when we wear Google glass-descendent headsets and headphones? Weird as these headpieces are, wearable tech is already in our stores, and Fitbit already feels so last year.
6 Digital reality became synonymous with reality
Björk has seized on virtual reality (VR)'s rising star across the movie, gaming, sports, fashion and even the "other" industries. Her soundscapes are enhanced by immersive video, so viewing them on YouTube is just the tip of the Icelandic iceberg. Use of VR technology is expanding at an almost alarming rate, with Zuckerberg buying the leading headset company Oculus Rift for $2billion in 2016. Thomas Metzinger, a philosopher at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany has predicted: "Virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will hit the consumer market [in 2016] and suddenly millions of people will be using them. VR can induce strong illusions of embodiment, where you feel as if you own and control another body. We do not know what the psychological consequences will be." Despite the views of academics, Zuckerberg thinks it will be about a decade before VR is fully embedded in the mass market. So we really might be seeing a vision of the future in Björk's alien creations.
5 There was a live, virtual performance from Tokyo
Björk performed her song “Quicksand”, one of the hits from the album Vulnicura, as a virtual reality 360-degree live stream, delivered from Tokyo. You may have been wondering when Tokyo was going to pop in relation to the Digital project, which clearly takes inspiration from the lurid, illuminated and wacky world of that city, distinct from others in Japan. The singer performed from within the Miraikan (the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Tokyo, watched by thousands around the world. She wore another crazy headpiece, the 'Rottlace' mask I pictured above), which was 3D printed and designed by MIT Media Lab Professor Neri Oxman. The Digital exhibition in Miraikan was a collaboration between Björk and the Dentsu Lab Tokyo and preempted Björk's tour to London, Paris, and Houston. But Tokyo's live streamed kick off performance felt appropriate, as it is a center for highly adaptive, futuristic-seeming ways of living, and embraces the disembodiment that can accompany cosmopolitan life like no other city.
4 The costumes were beyond
We've grown pretty desensitized to weird clothing these days. It seems like seriously weird fashion is one of the stopping points on any celebrity singer's route towards stardom and self-realization. But Björk has ALWAYS been weird. You can spend ages looking at them and still not understand what they are made of, how and by whom. Like the rest of her creative output, they are made in collaboration with other artists and technicians, and they're like nothing you've ever seen. She might have taken inspiration from a weird sea anemone, an axolotl (everyone's favorite real life Pokemon) or a dandelion for the above visual. We don't know. But we are entertained. When catwalk fashion is pretty frequently weird and otherworldly anyway, Björk's costumes strike us as somehow appropriately weird, and entirely suitable given her alternative, futuristic vision. We don't think we'll be wearing them any time soon, but they're fun to look at.
3 We REALLY want to visit Iceland now
No one knows why they occur, but they flash brilliant colors in the night sky, illuminating it in eerie green, electric pink and waves of deep purple. The northern lights, like one of Björk's light shows, are a magical and mysterious spectacle that dazzles the inhabitants of Björk's native Iceland regularly. What's more, there are hardly any inhabitants. Google says just over 300 thousand, to speak of in Iceland, to which so much of Björk's output is a distorted love letter of sorts. Its landscapes stretch away from you like the craterous surface of the moon as you peer around the virtual reality video for the singer's latest track. It is filled with natural hot springs that you can rock up and bathe in. Waterfalls thunder and glisten down its dramatic chasms. Basically, it's like nothing else on planet earth, and we're considering moving there and living forever with Björk in perfect, alien happiness.
2 THAT video about Björk's emotional relationship with a cat
We appreciate that, unlike a lot of artists (Kanye) Björk doesn't take herself too seriously. We'd totally forgotten about the 2005 video "Triumph of a Heart". We know that Björk has been quoted saying that she's not down with "normcore sexuality", but this was hilarious. After the whirlwind of virtual reality experiences, the Björk Digital exhibition finished with an opportunity to play on Björk's latest app or watch the endless loop of Björk videos projected onto the ceiling. "Triumph of a Heart" was totally surreal, but it commented on very real shifts away from traditional family roles by some modern women. Björk has been quoted saying: “For my generation, the best proof that women can do what they want, was just to go out and get things done. That's always been the best way for me to be a strong woman. But in the past three or four years, there's been a new wave of feminism, especially with girls in their 20s.” We don't all want to express our freedoms as women in quite the same ways as Björk, but we're really glad that we have them.
1 Björk Digital blew our tiny minds
And now no music festival or performance experience can compare. Yes, Björk, you spoiled us with your frenetically outlandish, technologically extremist creations. OK, so some aspects of the show were underdeveloped (like the VR visuals in some places and website controls that are less than intuitive). But that was inevitable when the scope of Björk Digital was intergalactic, and technologically boundary pushing. You can't be at the frontier of entertainment and digital technology and get it right ALL the time. Even Apple has made missteps. For a one-woman show (albeit with a legion of collaborators) Björk Digital was astounding, and definitely, one of the most innovative creative productions of any musician in recent years, if not for the songs themselves than for Björk's openness to heterogeneity and almost manic genre-mixing. While only Björk would wear a giant pulsing headdress that looks like an octopus crossed with a glow stick, it might not be so long before something akin to her vision of digital life becomes our reality.