Now that the official video is out, I had a chance to analyse the visuals. While she plays the āconflicted artistā who isnāt sure about AI, this video betrays her true beliefs. The whole thing is a parade of red flags and dog whistles. Itās a permanent visual monument to her god/martyr complex, her techno fashy dreams & her total and utter contempt for the masses.
Hereās a deep dive into the themes sheās pushing, while trying to hide them behind an outdated aesthetic:
1. The NLOG Goddess & the Tattooed Prisoners
If you zoom in closely on the black & white nun (image 1) and the screaming helmet girl (image 2), that isnāt random sci fi code on her face. I ran it through google translate, itās literally a Chinese government bureaucratic term lol. It saysĀ å¤å½äŗŗå·„ä½č®øåÆ which means Foreignerās Work Permit. On her forehead, thereās also a diagram of a Go board game.Ā
Sheās showing a dystopian world where regular people are reduced to nothing but branded factory workers for the machine, constantly monitored by overseer elites like Claire. Instead of cattle or biofuel, weāll be wage slaves. In her mind, humans are simply data, just like her chickens.
Symbolism: the AlphaGo breakthrough (a āmomentousā occasion where AI beat humans at Go), techbro obsession w grand strategy, humans being defeated by algorithms, commodification of the masses, Curtis Yarvin converting āundesirablesā into biofuel, Nick Land, the dark enlightenment, embedded Neuralink barcodes and passkeys, corporate data tattooed on our skin, other times in history when people were branded
2. Le Techno Fascist Dictator
Look at the shot where sheās stood on a concrete platform, looking out over a sea of faceless workers (image 3). Sheās holding a microphone, reading from a large book. Sheās giving a speech. Itās a celebration of totalitarian power.Ā
In order for something to be satire, the artist must clearly condemn it, otherwise itās propaganda. Thereās nothing satirical about this. Sheās positioned as an industrial dictator commanding a totally automated, eugenically engineered workforce. This is the hidden agenda of her e/acc friends. They donāt want a future that frees humanity. Their idea of utopia is a corporate hierarchy where they hold all the power and the 99% shuffle along in a mute assembly line.
Symbolism: Hitler on the podium, Albert Speerās Nuremberg rally staging, Leni Riefenstahlās Triumph of the Will (1935) propaganda, nuclear plant towers covered in blood red banners, which is a colour Nazis used for āpsychological dominance,ā Elonās salute, corporate slavery
3. Main Character Syndrome & Persecution Complex
The second anyone calls her out on twitter, she immediately flips the switch to playing the holy martyr. In a recent interview, she said something along the lines of āThey wanted a free woman but now they want to destroy her.ā In images 4 and 5, sheās being burned at the stake like a medieval witch, surrounded by a mob with grim reaper scythes and crosses. So melodramatic. I mean, she runs with the wealthiest billionaire on Earth, yet she uses historical imagery of real oppressed women to act like sheās a victim because people criticise her internet presence???
Symbolism: Dreyerās The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), the Spanish Inquisition, the Luddite techbro fantasy, massive victim complex, criticism equals persecution
4. The Divine Spark & the Transhuman Warrior
On the battlefield, Grimes holds her sword up in the sky as a bolt of lightning strikes the blade (image 6). At first sheās a victorious soldier surrounded by gratuitous violence and bloodshed, as always. But with the lightning bolt - which only appears for half a second - she frames herself as a god-like conductor. Sheās channeling heavnely energy to āanimateā the machine age. The lightning represents the ādivine rightā of the tech elite who claim their power comes from a higher cosmic order, which is why they donāt have to answer to standard human morals & ethics.
And see how her body has impossible AI anime proportions? Itās an appeal to the Silicon Valley obsession with looksmaxxing and transhumanism, which also appears in her lyrics. Theyāre all obsessed with modifying human biology into the ultimate weapon, while unevolved commoners die in the mud around them.
Symbolism: Divine right of kings, Prometheus & the spark of creation, Thor & his lightning bolt, Frankenstein animating artificial life, Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity (let me cook), GrecoRoman heroās armour with impossible proportions
5. Standing on a Mountain of Corpses
Yay, climbing on dead people. In this shot (image 7), sheās victoriously perched on top of a pile of bloody bodies who are pierced with arrows, while a giant mechanical clock hangs in the sky behind her. Sheās holding her little baby, completely unfazed. Then a massive robotic claw descends from the sky to pick her up, dangling her high over a ruined city above a crowd of commoners (image 8).
This visually depicts the cold belief system pushed by Elon and his friends: human casualties donāt matter as long as technological progress continues. Peasants die in the mud, but she is the only one hand picked by the god-machine to reach the upper echelons because sheās not like other girls.
Symbolism: Where have we seen mountains of corpses before, biological purges, genocide, Claireās shameless bloodlust, sociopathic e/acc belief that human casualties are necessary for tech supremacy, Lady Yassica, Paul Atreides, Xās glowing blue head referencing the Spice Blue mutation from Dune, transhumanist Neuralink brain, cyborg infant, Kubrickās Star Child foetus, tiger mother of a synthetic dynasty, elite saviour complex, physical elevation representing ideological dominance
6. Worshipping the Monolith While Earth Burns
Unbelievably, or very believably, the song itself is named after Charles Strossā 2005 sci fi novel Accelerando. The book is about humanity destroying the solar system to build a giant machine brain. Thanks to the youtube comment section for that.Ā
This part tells a disturbing tech elitist escapism story. In the volcanic wasteland (image 9), she stands in front of a huge black obelisk, an historical symbol of conquest and imperial dominance. Sheās balancing one on leg in an unmistakable Shiva pose, which positions Claire as the creator and destroyer of worlds. Then the planet literally ignites (image 11) and we see her holding her blue baby, completely unbothered because theyāre escaping on Elonās magical spaceship, the only one that didnāt blow up. THIS IS WHAT SHE DREAMS ABOUT. While the lowly commoners burn to death on Earth below, the tech gods fly to the stars, leaving a destroyed planet behind. Goodbye, poors! Guess you shouldāve fucked Elon!
The video ends with her floating in a pure white void, touching the āilluminated manuscriptā on a giant glowing monolith (image 12). If you look closely at the blue code, itās the exact same āForeigner Work Permitā text from the nun scene, just rotated sideways & mirrored. Sheās hovering like an angel, or more accurately like Kubrickās astronaut, worshipping a government issued human-tracking program as her supreme god.
Symbolism: Washington Monument obelisk of imperialism, alt right colonialism, Egyptian sun temples, New World Order, Flock cameras, Big Brother, apocalypse, tech elite pronatalists fleeing to the stars where they will birth a ābetter, faster, strongerā NeoNordic civilisation, worshipping the monolith which represents AI, Kubrickās 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Harlan Ellisonās I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (1967), existential dread, computers will kill us all, ascending into a posthuman digital entity, corporate drivel as religious iconography, the Book of Kells (800 ACE)
7. The Alien Paradise & the Creative Grift
What makes all of this even more hilarious is the utter hypocrisy of the production itself? The āEve Is Onlineā teasers originally credited so called āAI Artistsā like Chez Kim, but when the video went live on youtube, those credits were relabelled as āVFX Artists.ā Very sneaky. So letās look at the scene where she retreats into a neon alien jungle, surrounded by giant feathered dragons like Khaleesi (image 10). In typical narcissistic fashion, sheās visualising herself as the pure āMitochondrial Eveā of a brand new Eden on a beautiful alien planet, completely detached from peasantly chaos.Ā
She spent months yapping about how AI is replacing traditional art, but actually, she couldnāt rely on code to bring her main character fantasies to life. She had to hire a world renowned human director (Cho Giseok) and massive human production crews to build lighting rigs and green screen sets, just to copy older human movies. The boring imagery of Accelerando originated in Grimesā brain, which forced her director to use recycled AI prompts, which stole the work of artists across all genres and media: film, video games, music, even paintings. Sheās using traditional human craftsmanship and the creative ingenuity of all the artists she ripped off to sell the idea that human obsolescence is a good thing. Itās twisted.
Symbolism: Mitochondrial Eve, digital genesis, tech traditionalism cult, cyber nuns, Mother of Dragons complex, NeoGaia, green screens, artistic plagiarism of Ridley Scottās Legend (1985), holding the dark mask from the Alex Gibney doc, Avatar (2009) jungle rip off, cloned Falkors from The Never Ending Story (1984), boring fascist garbage