Ok Go Op Art

The Writing's On the Wall (Ok Go)

Term used as an abbreviation of ‘optical art’ to refer to painting and sculpture that exploits the illusions or optical effects of perceptual processes… Op artists thus managed to exploit various phenomena: the after-image and consecutive movement; line interference; the effect of dazzle; ambiguous figures and reversible perspective; successive colour contrasts and chromatic vibration; and in three-dimensional works different viewpoints and the superimposition of elements in space.

Frank Popper
Grove Art Online
MoMA website

                     Ok Go has created a genre of music videos that reflects the DIY aesthetic of Silicon Valley geek culture. Their videos are clever Pop Art creations, fully embracing its commercial and industrial ethos. In contrast to the tortured, agonistic style of Romantic rock heroes, they leverage their ability to create viral hype to get corporate sponsorship.

                    Their videos are characterized by long, continuous takes of complex and precise choreography, which produce the mesmerizing effect of a sleight of hand magic trick or impossible Rube Goldberg contraptions. They're made even more clever by the imposition of low-tech gadgetry and traditional camera techniques (stop-motion, slo-mo, time-lapse, etc.) as artificial constraints to their elaborate productions. 

                    How fascinating that this indie band, in its search for an audience for its music, has evolved to become artists of high-concept Pop Art.

(Wiesbaden 2018)