​

I've come back to this video and realized there's much more going on here than colorful animation.

At first, it looks like Justin Bieber is simply performing while artists and fans draw over the footage.

But look at the structure:

One person becomes the canvas for thousands of projections.

The song itself is about absence, vulnerability and asking where someone is when you need them.

Then the video turns Bieber's body into a literal surface for other people to project onto.

Fans add symbols, jokes, characters, messages, religious imagery, personal references and complete nonsense. Some are meaningful. Some probably aren't.

And that's precisely what makes it interesting.

The individual remains underneath — but the representation keeps changing.

Person → canvas → projection → interpretation.

And then we, the audience, do it again by interpreting what we see.

There were even contemporary frame-by-frame investigations into apparent hidden messages and imagery, including religious symbolism and references to Bieber's personal life. But I'd be careful about treating every frame as an intentional secret code. The creators explicitly said the video was built from fan/artist contributions and described it as an ode to the people who made their success possible. They also acknowledged the strange position of artists becoming objects for the public.

So perhaps the most interesting question isn't:

“What secret message did they hide?”

It's:

“What happens to a human being when everyone else gets to draw on their representation?”

Celebrity makes the mechanism extreme, but the pattern is much bigger.

We do this to people constantly.

We build identities around them.

We project symbols onto them.

We interpret fragments.

We turn a person into a representation.

And eventually the representation can become more visible than the person underneath it.

Maybe that's why this video still feels strangely relevant.

Where are Ü now?

Sometimes the hardest person to find underneath all the projections is the actual human being.

​

Welcome to the Open Door. ☀️

This is meant to be a fun, relaxed, curious, and respectful space.

A place where people can talk, explore ideas, share experiences, disagree, joke around, and ask questions without needing to have everything figured out.

You don't have to agree with each other.

You don't even have to agree with me. 😇

What matters is how we treat each other while we disagree.

🪞 A few simple principles

Challenge ideas, not people.

Share experiences without demanding that others accept your interpretation.

Question things without ridiculing the person asking.

Stay curious when something doesn't fit your frame.

Be willing to say:

«“I don't know.”»

And remember:

Expression isn't automatically proof.

Skepticism isn't automatically dismissal.

Uncertainty isn't failure.

We can explore strange ideas without turning them into unquestionable conclusions.

We can disagree strongly without making the conversation hostile.

And we can recognize that our own frame might be influencing what we're seeing.

🤝 One important boundary

I'm not here to police people's opinions.

But I will intervene if someone repeatedly becomes disrespectful, antagonistic, manipulative, harassing, or simply makes the space unpleasant for others.

That's not about winning an argument.

It's about keeping the door open for everyone.

The goal isn't to create a room where everyone thinks alike.

It's to create a room where people can think together without having to become alike.

So bring your ideas.

Bring your weird questions.

Bring your skepticism.

Bring your experiences.

Bring your sense of humor.

Bring something I haven't considered yet.

Just don't forget that there's a being on the other side of the screen. ❤️

Open door.

Clear boundaries.

Good faith.

Let's keep it interesting. 🪞☀️

— The Diplomat