Maxim Kelly directs an ominously deceptive AI-generated music video for prog rock outfit Archive.

The video for Look At Us suggests, appropriately, that we are seeing archive footage. In fact - and it becomes increasingly clear there is a blurring of the line between documentary and fiction. The black and white photojournalism style, presenting 20th century America, becomes increasingly weird, its true origin becoming more obvious, and eventually incorporating elements of Cronenberg-inspired body horror.

This has been brilliantly achieved by Maxim Kelly - who has a track record of both using and manipulating stock footage in his videos - and creates a building intensity and dread through a series of extraordinary images.

The uncanny and disturbing aspect of this is how the AI-ness of the piece is rarely revealed. There is some similarity between this piece and Andrew Dominick's recent video for Nick Cave's Tupelo, which manipulates early photos of Elvis Presley. If anything the fake reality seems more 'real' here than in the Cave film. 

"The song is about lies and deception, so I made the video itself a form of deception," explains Kelly. "Everything looks like trusted documentary photography, but it's entirely artificial. The medium becomes the message."