“We walk the night with eyes wide open.” I love this song, and I love this video. Besides the very obvious (and if I may add very accurate) environmental commentary, this is a great example of building a world out of the things we ignore around us. And that is what I like most about this video. They are taking about an idea, doing social commentary in a way that no one feels attacked, and how? By intentionally creating a new reality based on our greed (the little robots trying to squeeze every last ounce of water form the planet until all they can get is sand, for example) and more importantly, showing us the final result of that kind of behavior (try explaining that in words to a politician).These things happen around us everyday, but we respond to them very differently, why? Because of the way they’re being said. I think this is why I usually gravitate towards fantasy, symbolism and magical realism. because you can tell many truths about the real world by creating an alternate one. But how to do this? Easy: Open your senses, not just your eyes. Dare to utter the magic words: What if?
The moment we ask, what if things were different? What if we could only see the things that aren’t happening around us? What if we woke up one day to find time running backwards? What if your dog is really an ancient god sent o protect you from some terrible monster? What if the world we see is just a curtain hiding the truth?
What if (add your own impossibility here)? The moment we dare to ask these questions is the moment we stop being slaves to convention (what we consider “real” or “normal” or whatever), the moment we can really start creating something that is truly ours. In this case it was a music video, but think further. Think stories, books, poems, movies. There are so many impossibilities out there, why not explore as many as you can? And why, you may ask. Why go through all the trouble of imagining, creating, thinking about worlds that we know don’t exist? Well, first of all, because it’s fun (seriously). But more important, because by exploring the improbable, we usually find the answers we don’t dare to look for in the real world. And in my opinion, that alone is worth the expedition.
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