This article focuses on St. Vincent’s music video for her song “Digital Witness”, directed by Chino Moya. It can be seen here:
St. Vincent’s self-titled fourth album, released February 2014, is a bold, guitar-filled digital record. Described as a “party record you could play at a funeral” the album contains many upbeat tunes with haunting lyrics, and an overarching theme exploring how today’s society relates to digital technology and how its participants relate to each other. The second single off of the album, “Digital Witness”, in particular, is a scathing commentary on the usage and obsession with social media sharing applications that have become ubiquitous. 73% of online U.S. adults use social networking sites today, and with the burgeoning popularity of a variety of social media applications, a subculture created completely in virtual reality has infiltrated our physical realities as well.
In Digital Witness the overtaking of the virtual world into the physical realm is highlighted:
If I can’t show it, if you can’t see me
What’s the point of doing anything?
The record explores the culture of social media and digital sharing by underscoring the ironic dehumanization brought on by an increasingly ‘connected’ world. The music video for “Digital Witness”, directed by Chino Moya, showcases this dystopian society with its depiction of an industrial society devoid of any interaction between the “head” and the “heart”, not unlike that of the world created in Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis.
Both Digital Witness and Metropolis analyze the overwhelming forces of their time, social media and the post-industrial revolution respectively, that were ushered in for the good that they would bring to society and reveal them in a way that actually shows the net negative effects that they caused on our social consciousnesses.
One of the most obvious influences of Metropolis in this “Digital Witness” is that of the stark, Bauhaus architecture that is seen throughout the music video. The clinical edges and modernistic, maybe even futuristic, look of the environment in the video are an homage to the distinct style that came out of the Bauhaus school, as led by Walter Gropius. The repeating motif of three white, rectangular buildings that overlap each other is seen alternating between a zoomed out landscape with the forefront of small, marching workers and the sole focus of the shot. The sharp lines and sterile feeling that create the modernity of these buildings are truly products of the Bauhaus school of thought.
Following the era of Bauhaus, there are many ominous shadows of looming skyscrapers behind the camera that can be seen throughout the video. These implied skyscrapers never engulf the white buildings with their shadows, and more importantly signify the literal overshadowing of society.
More striking still is the deference to the works of Piet Mondrian, seen starting at 2:21 in the video, where the singer is standing motionless in front of a vast landscape. In the background, there are several carefully placed sharp rectangular buildings or possible crates featuring the colors of white, black, red, yellow and blue; colors most strongly utilized by Mondrian in his most popular pieces of compositions made in the 1930’s. The straight black lines on the buildings are a further allusion to the Dutch painter who contributed to the De Stijl movement and eventually influenced Fritz Lang’s making of Metropolis.
Both the Bauhaus’ and Mondrian’s influences cultivate the underlying theme of the dystopian future with Digital Witness as an updated tribute to Fritz Lang’s 1927 film, Metropolis. From the mechanical, in-step workers who trudge along or sit in silence amongst each other, the music video lends a modern eye to Lang’s Metropolis and contains many parallels. At 0:51 the singer is robotically bobbing her head in agreement, and throughout the music video her character is rigid and mechanical in a variety of settings. Her presence in the video is very much reminiscent of the schizophrenic Maria character in Metropolis: while sometimes sitting quietly in a corner receiving anxious glances from workers, she at other times seems to be commanding them as they all look to her for direction. Most importantly, the fundamental themes that are seen in Metropolis are viewed and compared to today’s society in the music video.
St. Vincent and Chino Moya capitalize on the idea of the “schizophrenic society” that inspired the creation of Metropolis in their own work. While Lang saw the creation of a divide in society ushered in by the dehumanization of the German Depression and the Industrial Revolution after the First World War that created a system of winners and losers in the 1920’s, Digital Witness brings this idea to 2014. The video portrays a futuristic but stark world; however, the workers are performing extremely archaic and mundane tasks: carrying large logs, rolling pieces of clay back and forth, and measuring with rulers. They work mindlessly, simply accepting their role as cogs in a larger machine:
Get back, to your seat
Get back, gnashing teeth
Ooh, I want all of your mindia
The paradox of society today when compared to the ideal, featured in Metropolis is at the epicenter of both the song and the video of Digital Witness. In a world where people are more connected than ever, we have become increasingly reliant on machines for social interaction and even just meaning in our lives.
The Aeschylean Universe premise that Fritz Lang uses as a foundation in Metropolis is particularly relevant as a backdrop to the music video for Digital Witness. Lang held the belief that dehumanization brought in by the Industrial Revolution, led to a constant struggle against loss of identity which could only be avoided through the enlightenment of society. In particular, Lang deemed that personal sacrifice and suffering is the only true way to gain wisdom, and he believed that citizens should act to be the Prometheus of their time: sacrificing themselves for greater good of society.
In Digital Witness, St. Vincent uses the ideals that Lang promoted through his film and projects them onto modern times, highlighting the lack of those ideals in current society. For example, Lang believed that, in following the sacrifice of Prometheus, people should avoid the sin of pride — simply googling “selfie” will provide a strong testament to the state of hubris in present society.
I care but I don’t care
Moreover, as seen in Metropolis, Lang promoted the idea of salvation through prayer, with the culmination and resolution of the film occurring in a Gothic cathedral. Sardonically, St. Vincent’s lyrics
This is no time for confessing
particularly underlines the contradiction that exists in our culture today with Lang’s views on how people should lead their lives. Social media has become a new outlet for confessors to air their sins as well as their daily activities and general thoughts on life. The stark contrast of the Aeschylean ideals promoted in Metropolis, and our current state of affairs represented by the lyrics of the song, is what makes the music video even more jarring and gives cause for reflection.
Furthermore, the appearance of automaton-like behavior that is seen throughout the music video is central to the message of Metropolis. The most striking feature is that with every scene change of the music video, the steady drum beat of the song is followed resolutely by the characters. From the minuscule, marching workers, to the bug-eyed rollers and even to the “family” sitting down for dinner, there is no human in the video that is seen acting naturally
What St. Vincent depicts is the everyday occurrence of people “zoning out” while sending a text message, going on a Netflix binge, or spending countless hours Facebook “stalking”. Instead of actually enjoying our physical realities, St. Vincent comments that people have become obsessed with doing things that are share-worthy and eventually enslave themselves to the small screens that fit into their pockets. The result is, in our physical world, we walk mindlessly staring into these digital portals with no attention to our outside surroundings thus becoming automatons.
People put the T.V. on
It looks just a like a window
One major enhancement that St. Vincent and Chino Moya added to their music video was the application of color. The pastel-based palette is seen with the strong monochromatic outfits and background sets. There are many scenes where the characters are wearing a similar hue to the background of that they are in; creating a sense of corporate conformity that implies the collective and non-unique nature of the workers. Nonetheless, in some scenes, the use of complementary colors, such as the red hair of the two workers in the green room in the culminating scene, is used strikingly.
Contrarily, instead of the optimistic and promising ending that Lang gives to Metropolis with the figurative joining of the “head” and the “heart”, St. Vincent gives no such hope in her video. In the culminating scene, the five workers that seem to be fixated on her, eventually revert back to their robotic state rather than becoming liberated. This continuation of submission reflects the overarching theme of the song itself.
Digital witnesses, what’s the point of even sleeping?
If I can’t show it, if you can’t see me
What’s the point of doing anything?
What’s the point of even sleeping?
So I stopped sleeping, yeah I stopped sleeping
Won’t somebody sell me back to me?
We are again experiencing a mental divide in our society built upon the illogicality that we have drastically increased our social interactions with one another, but only through digital technology which instead of enhancing our humanity has in many instances only subjugated us. Just as Fritz Lang saw the Industrial Revolution as the cause of the dehumanization of his society, St. Vincent and Chino Moya use Digital Witness to showcase the current obsession with digital technology as contributing to the mechanization and less humanistic culture of today.
