HATIS NOIT – Angelus Novus

‘Angelus Novus’, meaning ‘New Angel’ in Latin, is named after a monoprint by the artist Paul Klee, which appears in the German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘Angel of History’. “When I wrote this song, I remembered this image of an angel flying against the rough winds of history, which resonated very strongly with me in regards to both personal and social struggles. The song has a very intimate, introverted outro as I wanted it to end with a place of healing,” she recalls.

Directed by Yuma Kishi and his A.I, Yuma creates works in which the digital intelligence and the analogue body are always placed in a parallel relationship. For the video Hatis Noit wanted to explore borderlines and fluidity after being confronted with the self-alienated sensation she feels as a Japanese individual living in the UK. Sometimes being mistaken for Chinese she wondered ‘what makes us different?’ or ‘Is there any borderline?’. Elaborating, she explains: “Sometimes the answer is ‘yes’, we are different and unique, but then also I found that sometimes we have something in common, or sometimes we even feel we are connected through our genes somehow… With this video, I wanted to show how apparent yet fluid this borderline is — through the united and mutated image of different cast by Yuma’s artificial intelligence without prejudice, and ask further: ‘where does one end and another begin?’”

Credits

Directed by Yuma Kishi and his A.I. Filmed by Yunosuke Nakayama Starring Yu Ishizuka, Taigen Kawabe and Hatis Noit

Lighting by Michito Hokari at hoth.inc, Ninja-kono and Yoshiyuki Kamonomiya Hair and make-up by Kae at Nora

Special thanks to Shotaro Nishioka at Perimetron and Robert Raths

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