In a world where technology permeates almost every aspect of our lives, it's inevitable that we'll eventually reach the point where we exist entirely online. And as the veil between the virtual and the real continues to thin, we'll soon be forced to a place where we have to remind of who we are outside the screen. We will have to force ourselves to remember our humanity.
This is the main concern of Tyler Holmes' bleak and depressingly true "To Accept" music video, where the queer Black artist wake up as a "base model" human, who is able to choose whatever online identity they want. Set in a brutalist and very 1984-esque compound, the goop-filled visual goes on to Tyler finally appears.
"Initially, it was just going to be about our online identities in the digital world with primarily 3D scans of [Tyler that are still in the video] and featuring bioplastics, which were filmed during an initial shoot," as directors Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stillwater explained. "But over the course of time, the pandemic, and our own lives the film evolved into so much more and we got ambitious. Bringing our additional film crew — Sebastian Galasso and Op Daeng Aiem Sa-Ard — really took the piece to another level."
And we'd have to agree, as "To Accept" is a powerful video that matches the song's minimalist electronics, programmed into soothing flutters reminiscent of a lullaby, lending an odd warmth to sonic and visual piece that's all about the future, technology and the digitization of self. But as Tyler sings about "betraying" their "entire being with the figure behind the screen," their ethereal vocals start to distort into what sounds like a short circuiting before deepening into complete shutdown.
Watch "To Accept" for yourself, below.
Photo courtesy of Tyler Holmes
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