Glad to see the interactive music video ‘virus’ is successfully infecting more and more bands! Earlier in March, English synthpop band Hurts picked an interactive promo as winner for their video making competition. Though nothing very fancy or artsy technically wise, the vid allowed users to switch between the perspectives of the two protagonists, making the viewing experience definitely more interesting.

The Brits from Muse showed also signs of ‘contamination’ when recently releasing an interactive music video as a companion to their linear version of the Panic Station track. The promos, based on the visuals created by Deerstalker, are completing each other, together establishing a more immersive experience for the users. Even more, the same visuals can be seen projected in the Muse concerts thus ultimately giving fans a cohesive transmedial experience.

However, the most consistent interactive ‘bug’ could be noticed in Io Echo’s – Ministry of Love vid. Constructed as a psychedelic collage of techniques and having users interacting in different ways, this puzzle of puzzles can keep people engaged for hours. Created by the masterminds behind Arcade Fire’s The Wilderness Downtown, the promo lets users assemble displaced puzzle parts of the image, discover hidden visuals through the mouse cursor working as a selection tool, multiply the band members through mouse clicks, control the level of visual distortion within the image and even increase the amount of information received – every click bringing forward a new video panel. A true masterpiece of interactivity shaped as an ode to visual manipulation!

And if these cases are not satisfactory samples of the interactive music video pandemic, do check out our ever growing collection of ‘infected’ subjects!

By Maria Dicieanu