Follow director Henning M. Lederer (whose obsession with animating book covers we follow here), on his intricate motion journey for the track “I Exist Inside This Machine”, an audio collab between Max Cooper and Aneek Thapar.

Henning M. Lederer: “Max Cooper found this beautiful quote, ‘I exist inside this machine for a short while. Constrained by its structure, somehow feeling that I am more, but unable to comprehend. Then I am gone. What should I make of this?’, which resonated with his life experience in a way he wanted to express musically and visually.
 

“Digital devices everywhere, the capitalist machinery running ever faster, communication no longer making sense. It was a challenge to set up this complex system and find the right imagery and symbols to make it work.”

 
“We had tackled a connected theme 10 years ago for the music video ‘Numb’, so we chatted about how things have changed since then, and how we could update the story with the barrage of competing ideas and influences we live amongst now, and their connection to our system of consumption and development.

“My task was to visualize a view of the current time, a snapshot of the present, without knowing where we are heading next. The result: A complex, merciless, maybe even pointless conglomeration of visual stimuli – raising questions and wondering what is going on?

“Digital devices everywhere, the capitalist machinery running ever faster, communication no longer making sense. It was a challenge to set up this complex system and find the right imagery and symbols to make it work, using techniques and ideas I had developed over the past few years.”
 
 

 
Artist: Max Cooper
Record label: Mesh
Management: The Wild Seeds
Mastering: Chris McCormack at Blacklisted Mastering Ltd

Director: Henning M. Lederer

Sound Designer: Aneek Thapar