Gotye and His Collaborators

Overview

As part of ACMI’s Spectacle: The Music Video Exhibition and Melbourne Music Week this one-off event sees a panel of Gotye’s collaborators come together to dissect some of the video clips that have defined this artist’s rise from local talent to international star.

In 2011, a video clip transformed Wally De Backer into a worldwide phenomenon and household name; two years later Somebody That I Used to Know has clocked up close to 500 million views online. Throughout his career these videos have played an important role in Gotye’s commercial success, but more importantly have offered representations of a visual diversity that reflects the scope of this artist’s own distinctive sonic palette. Like his songs themselves, each one manages to dream up a whole world — whether it’s the fragile wasteland of his early hit Heart’s a Mess or the frantic, full-blown animation of State of the Art.

This event will focus on the journey that each video takes from initial concept all the way through to final production, with host Megan Spencer joined by filmmakers Natasha Pincus and Andrew Goldsmith, as well as Ivan Dixon and Greg Sharp from the animation studio Rubber House.