Coldplay’s latest single, « Ink, » a sweet and mellow song about lost love, is easily the strongest track off their latest, Ghost Stories. However, the band saved the best thing about it for months later: This week, they released a groundbreaking interactive video to accompany it.
The most remarkable aspect of the choose-your-own adventure video: It’s actually 300 videos. Directed by design studio Blind, the video allows users to shape up to 300 possible outcomes, while following the story of a man in pursuit of his lost love. The experiment couldn’t be a more perfect fit for the song, because as Coldplay well knows, love can be lost in so many ways.
With this video, Coldplay joins the ranks of the cutting-edge artists working to push the boundaries of what a music video can be. Last year, Arcade Fire brought users directly into their video for « Reflektor, » utilizing viewers’ laptop and smartphone cameras. And two years before that, Danger Mouse and Danielle Lupi worked with pioneering interactive video artist Chris Milk to create a Minecraft-esque adventure for their song with Norah Jones, « 3 Dreams of Black. » Milk also recently created an interactive performance video for Beck’s « Hello Again, » featuring 360-degree cameras, binaural audio and facial tracking navigation.
All these creations have helped to turn music videos into exciting new artistic platforms. And if « Ink » is any sign, they’ll only get more immersive and awesome from here.
h/t Pitchfork