Google debuts interactive in-browser Cube with six sides of synced video and beats
Initial version features new single from The Presets, but will be a platform for use by others
Google provides services and systems that help power our daily lives, but the company also likes to dabble in odd little curios—like this interactive video Cube, with six sides of synced content that you can manipulate at will.
Hailing from Google Creative Labs, The Cube is a browser app playable in Chrome on computers or an Android device, and this first version is the “No Fun Cube,” featuring the new single “No Fun” from Australian electronic duo, The Presets.
All six sides show very different clips—like shots of a woman in a bathtub interspersed with ominous footage of a dimly-lit home, or abstract 3D renders folding into themselves and transforming—with different aspects of “No Fun” found in the audio of each. As you rotate the Cube with your mouse or swipes, depending on device, you’ll effectively build and remix the track on the fly.
And while it might initially seem like a bunch of found footage slapped together, it was all filmed expressly for this project—as the making-of clip above demonstrates, and little cues in the footage (like the woman in the bathtub mouthing lyrics from the song) depict.
Google has done one-off Chrome Experiments with the band Arcade Fire, but Google sees Cube more as a platform that can be used by other artists and creators to tell compelling, interactive stories. It’ll be interesting to see where that leads, but for now, point Chrome or your Android device below to give it a spin.
[Source: TechCrunch via Engadget]
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
