All is Full of Love is an elegant, moving description of two Björk robots in love. As they are pieced and wired into existence, they sing to each other and fall in love. The video reaches its harmonious climax as the robots join in embrace while still being detailed by the industrial machines beside them. Each robot was designed by Cunningham, faces reminiscent of Björk's own delicate features.
"When I first heard the track I wrote down the words 'sexual,' 'milk,' 'white porcelain,' 'surgery.' [The video]'s a combination of several fetishes: industrial robotics, female anatomy, and flourescent light in that order." (Dazed and Confused)
"I think I mentioned that I think it should be ... something that's white and frozen, and then it sort of melts, because of love, and making love."
The robots were built by Paul Catling, who also sculpted the masks for Windowlicker, and mentored Cunningham about model-making. He sculpted the full-sized robots in clay in two hours.
"Every single shot in the video has about four layers. The first element is the shot of the set and the robot prop doing nothing, which we'd film for about 21 seconds. We'd then remove the prop Björk robot and put (the real) Björk in with her face painted white and wearing a blue suit. Using a mix of the (master shot and a live feed of Björk in frame) on the video monitor, we'd then try to match up as much as possible. It was a pretty crude and fairly terrifying method of shooting the video. For the Avid editing, I basically had a series of stills of a robot on a set and some crude shots of Björk wearing a blue suit with her face painted white. There was a definite feeling of insecurity all the way until the first couple of shots were finished in post, when I could finally tell whether it was working or not." (American Cinematographer)
"[Then] I started ... having ideas for ways of making the video better... So we were kind of improvising stuff in post. Up until that point I had absolutely no faith whatsoever in computer graphics, and now I'm more of a convert, really."
"I guess when you come across someone as special as Chris ... you just go humble. And you kind of realize that your role is more to make sure that there is a connection between the tune and the video. And then you set up a space, or like a place where he can work with no interference. And that sort of ... ends up being your role."
See All is Full of Love on Björk's Volumen DVD, Chris' Directors Label DVD, or its own DVD single (the first ever released in the US for a major artist).
Treatment
Against black we hear the faint sound of electricity gently surging.
All around us, banks of fluorescent lights, behind Plexiglas flicker to life at random, illuminating an elegant, pristine white environment.
It has a Japanese feel to it, a simplicity in its design.
As we track forwards we are dwarfed on either side by two enormous medical/industrial robots. In unison they sweep around towards a workspace littered with eggshell white plastic parts.
As we get closer the parts become more visible and reveal an organic nature, their shapes resemble humanoid forms.
From above we see clearly a female form in a fetal position completely abstracted and disassembled. Although it is artificial it is beautiful and elegant.
The machines set to work in extreme slow motion. Their arms gracefully engaging with the incomplete human form, removing and adding parts to the partially hollow plastic shell and its matt black complex inner workings.
Although only the front portion is in place its features are clearly those of Bjork's, albeit the smoothed panels of a Japanese motorbike.
The eyes open as the robotic arms construct consciousness. Warm orange sparks fly against the cold blue white plastic.
It feels like we are watching the last stages of an artificial intelligence's birth.
As it starts to sing, the elegance of the song and the imagery is contrasted by the abstractions caused by this incomplete form. It never quite becomes whole.
As the track unfolds so too does the imagery developing in stages.
The figure, still incomplete is upright now. Its hand reaching up to touch its own face. We reveal more of the scene.
Gently white fluid, like milk starts to wash over the forms and eventually engulfs it (this would be achieved by submerging the forms in a vat of milk and draining it off, filmed in reverse).
When the form emerges from the vat we reveal that it is number two in a series. Still with Björk's features, the two ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES begin to engage with one another.
Locked together in a surreal embrace, parts intertwined and fused, we concentrate now on details, kissing, slow motion white fluid, fluorescent light.
The imagery is slowly becoming more sexual but way to [sic] surreal and abstract to be offensive.
We see the plastic bodies begin to unfold like strange flowers.
The last sequence of shots as we pull back very wide reveal an indescribably abstract life form made from the two unfolded, artificial, humanoid forms.
It's like Karma Sutra meets Industrial Robotics.
The shots in this video will not be as difficult as you might imagine.
The main performance aspect of the video would involve attaching blue panels to Björk's body and replacing these areas with model parts filmed against the same background.
This will give the illusion of her being hollow, completely artificial. We would shoot everything as a lock off.
As we approach the finale, the shots would possibly start to include a mixture of computer graphics and live action, used seamlessly to depict these robots unfolding.
A lot of preparatory work would be needed and some compositing but the shot would be very simple.
I am convinced that this would make an extroadinary surreal performance video.
The imagery would be majestic and we could be sexually suggestive as we like and get away with it.
Awards
2000 MVPA Awards .. Best Direction of a Female Artist
2000 Music Week CAD Awards
Best Art Direction in a Video .. Julian Caldow / Chris Oddy
Best Special Effects in a Video .. Paul Catling / Pasi Johansson (Glassworks)
2000 D&AD Awards
Gold .. Pop Promos .. Direction
Silver .. Pop Promos .. Video Direction
Silver .. Pop Promos .. Cinematography
Silver .. Pop Promos .. Animation
Silver .. Pop Promos .. Special Effects
2000 MTV Video Music Awards
Breakthrough Video
Best Special Effects
Imagina 2000 Prix Pixel-INA
Videoclips Meilleur Scenario .. Second Place
2000 International Monitor Awards
Best Special Effects In A Music Video
Best 3D Animation Music Video
2000 London Effects and Animation Festival (LEAF) Awards .. Music Videos, fx and animation
2000 Fantasporto .. Best Fantasy Music Video Award Fantasporto'
2000 Australian Effects and Animation Festival .. Music Videos
Nominations
1999 Ericcson Muzik Awards .. Best Video
2000 42nd Annual GRAMMY AwardsÆ .. Best Short Form Music Video
2000 MVPA Awards .. Best Video of 1999
2000 Music Week CAD Awards
Best Alternative Video
Best Cinematography .. John Lynch
Best Editing in a Video .. Gary Knight
From Glassworks: "The "All is Full of Love" promo also received a screening at Siggraph 1999 and was featured at the Art Futura Festival in Spain, Digital Images in Italy, the Tokyo ACM Siggraph CG Film Show in Japan, the Australian Effects and Animation Show and on Imagine TV and the Sci Fi channel in the US.
In 2004 people noticed that the robots in the movie I, Robot look quite similar to Chris's Björk robot. E! Online reported about this: "Cunningham did not return calls for comment"
