The Liver & Gallbladder (Anatomy & Physiology).pptx
Afrika shox
1. Afrika Shox
Leftfield ft. Afrika Bambaataa
Directed by Chris Cunningham
Case Study: By Jessica Doran
https://vimeo.com/73638261
2. GENRE + AUDIENCE
• 'One characteristic that applies more frequently to electronic music is that, although, as
mentioned, electronic music has a reputation for being cold or clinical, this is also a very broad
genre; and because electronic instruments allow an individual or small group to create music that
otherwise might require a larger group, it is a genre that allows for both incredibly personal,
experimental, or ambitious music projects.' Piers Hollott
The electronic genre creates the connotations of a more
urban and busy society and so it would suggest it's audience
to be of a similar background. For example; in Afrika Shox
Cunnigham deliberately uses cultural signifyers such as the
Starbucks sign, in order to enhance the city life, attracting a
more urban audience with a setting they recognise and can
relate to. Another way in which the genre is immediately
established within 'Afrika Shox', is the way lighting is used to
suggest the metallic nature of the city. The picture itself
throughout the video continues to be tinted slightly grey in
order to maintain the robotic nature of the electronic genre
and the emotionless yet chaotic city.
3. GENRE + REPRESENTATION
This theory seems to apply to Leftfields 'Afrika Shox'.
The director of the video, Chris Cunningham, has
perhaps used the cynical nature of the electronic
sound/genre to explore what could be seen as a more
personal or sincere subject such as slavery. The
electronic sound of music works perfectly to discuss
such a topic because it creates an ironic contrast
between the third world and the first world, suggesting a
sort of alien nature to the New York setting and also
suggesting the robotic/emotionless nature of the people
who live in a privelidged society yet remain careless for
those less fortunate. The white race in the video seem
to play the part of the robots when they reflect such a
lack of empathy for a man who we assume may be a
symbol for the black slavery in America or perhaps even
a Veteran from Vietnam due to his attire. The electronic
feel of music therefore creates a sort of distopia for this
lost man against a robotic society. In specific,
Cunningham makes it clear to the audience that the
only person willing to help the lost and quite litterally
broken man of the video, is Afrika Bambaataa . Afrika
Bambaataa becomes the sort of oracle of the video and
as he looks down on the black man on the floor, a bright
white light blurs beside Bambaataa to represent him as
the godlike figure of the video. This creates a sort of
prophetic irony as the only person willing to help the
black man is Afrika Bambaataa, of the same ethnicity as
opposed to any of the white people who had ignored the
man prior. For this, the electronic genre emphasises
Cunninghams narrative perfectly. It suggest the
segregation of this man against the urban sounding
music, emphasising his lost character against a
judgemental and programmed society.
4. VISUALS - CUTS
• To begin with, the video cuts from shot to shot very
quickly in order to show a level of chaos to which then
emphasises the single black man as lost and
confused in the robotic setting. However, Cunningham
directs it so that the pace of the cuts then slows down
once the mans first arm shatters to the floor. The
director deliberately creates a moment of recognition
between the black man and white man to which shows
the white mans carelessness over what has occurred.
From here onwards, the cuts then remain at a steadier
pace. This creates the connotations of the black man
finding his way around the city and allows the camera
to focus more on his injuries and the fact that the
society makes him an outsider when he infact wishes
to be a part of it perhaps. This can be seen for
instance when he finds a dance group in the
underground. Here, the white group begin to do a
robotic dance to which emphasises the African man
as not being 'programmed' like them. The robotic
movements of the white dance group here simply
reinforce a sense of standardization that they have
created for themselves, their emotionless attitude
towards his broken body and their attempt to exclude
the African man.
5. VISUALS - SOUND
• Visuals and sound/music are also predominantly linked
throughout the piece in order to display the shattering of the man.
Every time a body part shatters to the ground, diegetic sound is
enhanced against the actual music to create a poignant moment
within the narrative. It could be seen to suggest the moment in
which cunningham wishes to emphasise as most integral. As the
audience plays the part of the society looking down on this
ominous black man, Cunningham enhances the shattering of him
in order to show what we are doing/what the society within the
video is doing by ignoring him. It acts as a metaphor for whatever
the man symbolises e.g, slavery or a vietnam soldier and a cry for
help through the enhanced sound which is ignored by everyone in
the video.
6. VISUALS - LYRICS
• Lyrics are used throughout the video to link with visuals and allow the audience to
recognise and relate to the narrative. Within ' Afrika Shox' specifically, Cunningham
continues to create irony through the combination of lyrics and visuals. Where Afrika
Bambaataa asks the man 'do you need a hand?', Cunningham deliberately makes it
obvious to the audience that the man has no hand in the first place when he cuts to a
shot of the black man helpless and shattered on the floor in confusement. This ironic
sentament acts as a sort of wake up call for his audience, suggesting that the man is
incapable of responding to a simple question because the people around him ignored
his plea for help and allowed him to shatter in the first place. We have a veuristic view
of the man and seem almost like a prey upon him, hence emphasising the inequality
within the video and the metaphor of discrimination that the African man may stand for
in this shot/throughout. In addition here, Cunningham uses theatre practitioner Berkof
Brechts Gestus technique in order to make his audience laugh at something sincere
and cynical. The situation that the black man is in is horrid, yet we are made to laugh
at Afrika Bambaataa's ironic statement and so the director puts his audience into the
position of the robotic society and essentially make us ignore his pity for a second and
laugh instead.
7. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES:
• Throughout the entirity of the music video, Chris Cunningham fills 'Afrika
Shox' with intertextual references to suggest what the African man is
representative of, and the atmosphere/symbol of the urban city setting. A
strong intertextual reference to which creates the suggestion that the
man is perhaps representative of peoples attitudes towards slavery, is
the referencing to Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Within this novel, there
is an extract which discusses the disenfranchised. In Afrika Shox, we are
discussing a similar attitude, with the treatment of slaves. For example;
in Chapter 4 Shelley writes ' I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature
open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs'. The
author discusses 'the creature' as alien to the speaker and unatural.
Cunningham takes this same view for the way he portrays how the white
people of the city react towards the African man. As Shelley describes
the 'agitated limbs' she makes it sound frightening and monstrous,
similarly to how people react to the African man within the video. The
African man in the video is weak and in need of help and so his limbs
seem also 'agitated', similarly to how Shelley tells us of 'the creature'.
Cunningham therefore perhaps uses this reference to label the African
as an outsider within an urban/white societies eyes and explore the
same ignorance perhaps explored within Shelley's novel as she makes
Frankenstein speak of 'the monster' as inequal, describing it as inhuman
and as 'a creature'.
In addition to this, another line within Shelley's 'Frankenstein' supports this intertextual
reference. Where she writes 'one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me', the
speaker of the novel acts/references once again as the white people and first world
society in 'Afrika Shox'. The speaker takes the monsters actions as a threat where she
says 'to detain me', when in fact it may have been out of weakness or companionship.
Similarly in 'Afrika shox', the African stretches his hand out for help from the white man.
Two white men look at him wearily and confused and don't help him but walk away,
similarly to how Frankenstein then 'rushed downstairs' in Shelley's novel, deserting the
creature as if it's a threat because it looks different to himself.
8. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES
•
Another intertextual reference to which Cunningham
makes within 'Afrika Shox' is the reference to The
Matrix. The entire Matrix trilogy can relate to Afrika
Shox specifically due to it's links to geometrical
shapes and the metallic world that enhances the
trapped distopia that the lost African is thrown into.
The actual concept of The Matrix however is what
specifically seems to be referenced through
Cunninghams direction. Morpheus explains to Neo
that 'You are a slave born into a prison in your mind'.
This strongly references the idea that the African is
isolated, he is a slave in the sense that people are
making him below them. However, this prison that he
is trapped in (quite litterally as he plays the china doll
of the video, eventually shattering to pieces) is only
created within the peoples minds and the 'social
norms' in such a society because in reality the urban
and very much modern setting of New York (noticable
from the shot of the Twin Towers) shows that slavery
is in fact illegal, as is racial discrimination (however it
does still occur). This displays Cunninghams concept
of discrimination as something that humans create
within their own minds, it is not something we are born
to believe and through this he emphasises how we are
all equal, the white people within the video just choose
9. INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES
• Having touched on how the Twin Towers represent the time
period of the video, they also act as a strong reference to
capitalism. The very first shot we witness is a mid shot of the
Twin Towers and immediately emphasises the video as an urban
New York setting. The twin towers of New York's World Trade
Center stood as the symbol of American economic might and by
using them to begin the video, Cunningham introduces a
metaphorical link to capitalism that excludes the African.
Morover, the towers in the video act as binary opposites against
the idea of capitalism and exploitation of the third world to which
the white people throughout the video clearly uphold. For
example; it is the first world society that causes the Africans
body to obliterate and shatter. He is surrounded by a booming,
capitalist city which breaks him litterally, for instance, the white
breakdancer kicks his leg off and in the end he is shattered by a
passing taxi. Hence, symbollically representing the components
of a capitalist society breaking the third world. Also
demonstrating the sequence of events to which all adds to
showing the metaphorical exploitation that the twin towers first
introduce to the video.
10. DIRECTOR + INFLUENCES
• It would seem that Cunninghams motif
of a sort of distopia world can be seen
in many of his video's. Here, in
Portishead's 'Only You', Cunningham
once again translates to his audience
a blurred conception of the world,
similar to the robotic portrayal he gives
within 'Afrika Shox'. Instead, he uses
the slow pace of Portishead's song to
create more obvious connotations of a
dark and strange world. This is
different to Afrika Shox however,
where Cunningham doesn't make it so
noticable to the reader that the world is
a distopia, but a robotic and urban
planet that doesn't welcome outsiders.
The same robotic motif is also featured
in others of Cunninghams music
videos, such as Bjork's 'All is full of
love' where he litterally turns Bjork into
a robot.
Bjork:
https://vimeo.com/43444347
Portishead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=TmDkzVvherk
11. DIRECTOR + INFLUENCES
• 'Cunningham remains a relentlessly experimental film-maker with a slightly
deranged imaginative streak shaped by the sci-fi films and electronic music
he devoured in his youth. He has the air of a contented outsider, someone
who is obsessive about what he does but unbothered about its commercial
impact. Chris Cunningham is a very contemporary kind of pop artist, an
almost invisible presence whose influence on the mainstream is virally
pervasive. The frenetic, wildly inventive videos he made for Aphex Twin
("Windowlicker", "Come to Daddy") and Björk ("All Is Full of Love") redefined
the form and have been plundered relentlessly by less gifted directors. For
the latter, he made Björk into a robot. His very disturbing short film, Rubber
Johnny, made in 2005, again using an Aphex Twin soundtrack, features "a
hyperactive, shape-shifting mutant child". It remains an all-time YouTube
favourite, which perversely brings him close to despair. '
• http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/18/chris-cunningham-interview-
sean-ohagan
