Using humans as pixels (or, Arizona marching band does Radiohead)

A friend sent me a link to this video of the Pride of Arizona (the University of Arizona's marching band) doing a medley of Radiohead songs. Not only was I blown away by the fact that anyone would think to do this, I was blown away by how well the songs translated. But the thing that really mystified me is the pictures made by using the band members and cheerleaders as moving pixels. Sure, I recognize that "OK" at the beginning, but what is the rest of it? Abstract images? I think I would be better able to tell if I had an aerial view and/or some psychedelic drugs.

Check it out and tell me if you can discern the patterns. Parts 2 and 3 are after the jump.

Comments

[Jon Fortt]

I can't figure it out either ....

[TelstarLogistics]

I've got some good Radiohead acapella I can send you.

But, with all due respect to my fellow citizens, the folks in Arizona are amateurs. No one does human pixels better than the North Koreans, who have elevated the genre to a high art form as part of the country's Mass Games celebrations. You can get a jaw-dropping taste of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWOEdy_-qM

That's a snippet from a fascinating and fantastic documentary called "A State of Mind," which I HIGHLY recommend ye Netflix:

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70038815

[Eric Siry]

Holy smokes, that is incredible. I'm glad that the clip revealed the mechanics-- Each schoolkid holds a "book" of many colors, and opens it to the appropriate page when signaled to do so. Amazing.

[greatoctavius]

The marching band only uses 250 people, while the Koreans uses tens of thousands...I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. As far as the "pictures" in the Radiohead clip go: modern marching band is not about the individual images, it's about the motion between forms and how the forms represent what is happening musically. So, while the "OK" stands out as a way to connect the audience to the music and as an inside reference to the real Radiohead fans out there most of the other images can be compared, loosely, to an iTunes or Windows Media Player visualization.

[Steve]

I marched in this show as a baritone sax player and I can shed some light on the formations. While many of them are abstract, some of them, such as the second and third videos you have up are actually broken up O's and K's. Professor Rees's idea in doing this was that the OK symbolizes the complacency technology has brought us in the face of all the evils in the world. If you look closely you will notice that the second clip actually has two OK's mirrored back to back against eachother. The fourth has four O's. The box in the middle is actually for ninety degree angles that are symbolically separated from the written letter K.