The Virtual Space Theory

Following the post on the roles of architecture in music videos from the point of view of The Virtual Space Theory, I would like to elaborate on the difference between the roles of ‘background’ and ‘setting’. Basically, what marks that difference is whether the architecture is just located behind the performing band (or other visual subject of the video) while showing little or no interaction with it, or whether the architecture gives the impression that it actually surrounds the performers and defines the space in which they are located.

In the case of static images, the role of architecture as a setting is usually achieved by a careful choice of the image’s viewpoint, or by placing the architecture not only behind the image’s subject but also along the sides and even in front of it. A clear example of this is Tintoretto’s painting The Discovery of the Body of St. Mark, which presents its theme inside of an architectural setting as well as directly interacting with it. This may be easier to achieve in the case of an interior space, but a sense of an architectural setting can of course be achieved also in exterior locations.

Dynamic mediums such as music videos, however, have the added advantage of being able to use the dimension of time in order to provide a sense of setting. That is, even if at each single moment the architecture may practically be seen only behind the performers, the continuous movement of the camera’s point of view provides the experience of an architectural setting which the performers are surrounded by.

One of the simplest ways to achieve this is probably to just have the music performer walk through an architectural environment, and the most straightforward example of this I can think of is The Verve’s music video of their song Bittersweet Symphony. Filmed along Hoxton Street in London, its location is seen mostly out of focus and is of secondary visual importance, but it still provides an unmistakable sense of setting:

A more sophisticated example is the music video of Pharcyde’s song Drop, which was directed by Spike Jonze. Here too, the viewpoint moves backwards as the performers keep walking towards it, continuously revealing the urban environment they are located in. Yet the sense of setting is enhanced even further by their multiple interactions with it, as well as the playful effects that were made possible by filming the video in reverse:

Finally, probably the most ingenious example of providing a sense of setting by having a performer walk through it is the music video of Kylie Minogue’s Come Into My World. In this video, director Michel Gondry found a particular street intersection in Paris which allowed for a continuous shot going in circles, during which the singer interacts with her environment in different ways each time around. The result is a visual equivalent of a musical canon with city streets as its architectural setting, allowing for the discovery (and duplication) of further details of it on every round:

Presenting the above examples within a discussion about virtual space or architecture might seem unusual at first. After all, weren’t these music videos made simply by filming performers walking along a city street? Yet this is precisely the point of The Virtual Space Theory: It proposes that any pictorial image, even the simplest documentation, results in the creation of a new and separate place in virtual space. As such, the particular way by which an image is made therefore functions also as an architectural act – determining the nature of the place that will be seen through the image, regardless of its original filming location.