SpecialGuestX conceives the new OK Go video with a choreography with 29 robots and 60 mirrors

The American band OK Go, recognized for their innovative video clips, releases 'Love', a visual piece that redefines the boundaries between art and technology. Behind this feat is SpecialGuestX (SGx), the Spanish innovation agency responsible for the precise integration of 29 robotic arms and 60 mirrors that create a kaleidoscopic spectacle captured in a single continuous shot.

SGx is the technology innovation division of the award-winning creative agency SpecialGuest, based in New York and with an international presence. His work is situated at the intersection between engineering, art and experimental narratives. With an approach that mixes technology and aesthetic sensibility, the agency has collaborated with brands such as Google, Meta, IBM, Carvana, Spotify, Snapchat, among others.

The technical and creative challenge of the video clip Love It was extraordinary, requiring more than six months of work. The SpecialGuestX team had to create a unique robotic programming system, developed specifically for this project. As the business innovation magazine points out Fast Company, each of the 29 industrial robots, provided by Universal Robots, needed to be programmed with millimeter precision to move the mirrors in perfect synchronization with the music and the movements of the band.

El videoclip, co-directed by Damian Kulash, Aaron Duffy and Miguel Espada, was filmed in an old train station in Budapest, requiring 39 takes to achieve perfect timing. The creative team, which included directors and programmers from SpecialGuestX, worked closely with the band to achieve this perfect fusion of technology and art. Andrew Geller orchestrated, as executive producer of 1stAveMachine, this ambitious project.

Damian Kulash, vocalist of OK Go, explained to Fast Company that “the idea was to create something that seemed magical and that was physically impossible to do without technology, but maintaining a human and artistic element.”

Multidisciplinary team

The collaboration involved a multidisciplinary team that included creative agency SpecialGuest, production company 1stAveMachine, and technology partners such as Universal Robots, Ray-Ban Meta. In fact, OK Go members used Ray-Ban Meta glasses to capture behind-the-scenes footage, offering a unique perspective into the creative process.

The most notable aspect of the project was the level of technical innovation. The team developed custom solutions to synchronize robotic movements with music, creating a perfectly orchestrated choreography between humans and machines.

Miguel Espada, co-director Ok GO and Co-Founder at SpecialGuestX, points out that "during the filming of Love, we applied fundamental principles of computer science by developing a distributed system in real time. All elements—robots, music, light, camera—depended on a single centralized control system that synchronized each movement of the robots with millimeter precision, thanks in large part to the URs. In the end, the most exciting thing was seeing how these abstract principles could come to life in such a visual and human way."

OK Go – Love

Making of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQufZQMXUhY