Hasta La Ideas

In a new web-based video by rapper Yung Jake the process of viewing, blogging and tweeting about a new video by Yung Jake becomes the focus of the video itself. The self-referential e.m-bed.de/d is a quick-fire deconstruction of the social media game…

Multi-window browser-takeover pieces have been around for a while – Chris Milk’s Wilderness Downtown project for Arcade Fire is perhaps the most well known recent example – but Jake’s efforts hold a mirror up to the countless processes and actions that go into turning something into that holy grail of digital states: viral.

The fact that this very post is caught up in all that makes the video (can you even call it a video?) all the more apposite in terms of commenting on how we view, like, and share things on the internet.

The best way to experience e.m-bed.de/d is to click on e.m-bed.de/d/vid.html, let the coding do the work, and try and keep up with the references. It works best in Chrome or Firefox, apparently. Thanks to Marcus Leis Allion (@_MLA) for the tweet.

Jake’s Datamoshing video from May last year is worth a look, too. Again it references all the strange glitchy stuff that goes into making a strange glitchy video – “You don’t have bad internet,” he sings, “I’m just datamoshing…”.

See yungjake.com.

CR in Print

Thanks for visiting the CR website, but if you are not also reading CR in print you’re missing out. Our April issue has a cover by Neville Brody and a fantastic ten-page feature on Fuse, Brody’s publication that did so much to foster typographic experimentation in the 90s and beyond. We also have features on charity advertising and new Pentagram partner Marina Willer. Rick Poynor reviews the Electric Information Age and Adrian Shaughnessy meets the CEO of controversial crowdsourcing site 99designs. All this plus the most beautiful train tickets you ever saw and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at Thunderbirds in our Monograph supplement

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