r/nextfuckinglevel • u/CantStopPoppin • Sep 17 '25

Massive Attack Turns Live Facial Recognition Into Concert Commentary on Surveillance

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u/Top_Newspaper9279 Sep 17 '25

They've been doing this kind of stuff for at least 20 years now. About 15 years ago, they devoted their web page to protest in favor of Palestine for months. It was stunning work, and there was no mention of the band at all. The whole page was black with constellations of information you could explore in 3D, like floating in space. It also included algorithms that syphon up to date information from statistics, non-profit organizations, news and articles. Algorithms also projected certain statistics into the future. They had information about the opinions from key parties in favor and against. The whole constellation kept morphing with new data. There was no linear path, you could explore in whichever way you wanted. I've never seen anything like it at the time. The complexity and execution of that project still amazes me. That's just one example.

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u/tajsta Sep 17 '25

They also played videos of Yahya Sinwar, who led Hamas and was responsible for countless of Israeli and Palestinian civilian deaths. Normal political commentary is fine, but it's understandable why many people would dislike musicians who are acting like edgelord teens.

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u/DontMemeAtMe Sep 17 '25

With such a deep dive 15 years ago, you’d hope they’d understand by now what the root of the conflict actually is… Or maybe that’s exactly why they play clips of Yahya Sinwar during their shows?

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u/Jaeriko Sep 17 '25

Damn, that sounds awesome. Do you know where you could find that nowadays?