Rendering Rhythm and Bodies in 3D

GIF from MELTMIRROR’s video for Sima Kim’s “If You Feel Like Me” (2016) (GIF by the author for Hyperallergic)

With bursts of neon cones and discs against a black void, clips from graphic artist MELTMIRROR’s newest music video suggest what Kandinsky might’ve come up with had he been able to experiment with 3D modeling. Created using Cinema 4D Studio for South Korea–based producer Sima Kim’s electronic track “If You Feel Like Me,” the graphics sync with the glitchy remix of a clip from Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine.” In a smartphone-inspired vertical video format, a rippling pink Mobius strip unfurls; globs of what looks like Mercury turn into dancing limbs and muscles; and the cryptic message “DELAY YOUR PERFECT HEALTH” flashes between strobing colors. It’s partly a synesthetic visualization of relationships between sound and color, shape and rhythm, and partly a reflection on the fusion of the digital and the human, with abstracted anatomical renderings turning into floating cyborg bodies and back.