A drone on a leash, sometimes that’s all it takes: one great visual idea. Luckily, director and designer Côme Lart has plenty. His videography presents a vision of an unstable near future, showing us the anarchy and ecstasy at the fringes of a society that could topple over at any second. It’s dangerous and slightly filthy, but also weirdly alluring.
As someone who is generally sceptical about the use of AI in art, I’m particularly impressed by how Lart makes the AI images in his music videos look interesting and unique. As Maria Than previously argued, AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for creating art. You just need to approach it with care and creativity.
Hi Côme, thank you so much for your time! You work as a (music video) director as well as a designer. How do these two different creative areas influence each other?
Hi! We start with the question of my life: how to connect and organize different things I do or I love? Now, I think more in terms of projects rather than jobs. Just like in a body, each organ works in harmony with the others, otherwise, the whole system fails.
So, I see these two fields not as separate, but as parts of the same creative organism. Same processes, same fun, same stress. The only difference might be timing. Music videos often come with tighter deadlines, while designing an object usually takes longer. But even that isn’t always true. As I’m currently writing my first fiction film, I’m realizing it can take years just to imagine one.
You graduated as a designer. How did you also become a director, and specifically, how did you get involved in directing music videos?
Actually, I’m graduating as a designer this year, but I graduated as an engineer two years ago. And I uploaded my first video on YouTube sixteen years ago. So, in a way, video came first. But it really started when I began making music videos for my friend and best rap artist of all time, $ouley. There was no budget, actually negative budget, it was more like a self investment.
With this one made, I started being directly contacted by artists. And even better, artists I actually listen to and admire. That made the process freer and more joyful.
I love the music video of ‘miki cowboy’, which you directed together with Miki. What did this collaboration look like? Did she already have a clear sense of what she wanted the video to be?
We’d wanted to work together since her first videos last year, but I wasn’t in France at the time. This project was special: it was Miki’s first ‘produced’ video, even though we still shot it on an iPhone, like her previous ones. She has a lot of ideas in mind, and it was the first time I worked so closely with an artist. There was also a tight deadline, which I wasn’t used to. It came with a lot of constraints, but that’s also what made it beautiful. Probably the project with the most hurdles so far, but now that we know each other better, I’m really excited for what we will do together next!
You’ve now directed two music videos for Luther. I wasn’t aware of him before, but he seems like a fascinating artist. What was it like working with him? And is there a specific reason masks play such a notable role in both videos?
He is fascinating, not just because he hides his face. Working with Luther and his team was probably my favorite collaboration so far. They gave me total freedom and trust, while also being incredibly precise and thoughtful with feedback. That balance is rare.
Since Luther keeps his identity hidden, I didn’t want to replace that with another fixed identity. Instead, I chose to put a spotlight on a group that’s rarely shown on screen: rural youth from the French countryside, where both he and I are from.
‘ALED’ by Luther probably has the best use of AI I’ve seen in a music video yet. How do you approach working with AI for your music videos to make sure it looks unique?
We took a big bet, hoping new AI video models would be released while we were still making the video. A film takes months to make but AI tools change daily. We tried almost every AI tool we could find at the time.
There were two key things to make the AI feel unique. First, I was in South Korea, visiting museums lost in the countryside where I discovered tribal masks I’d never seen before, even online. I photographed them and used them as reference to generate the masks in the video.
Second, we had a long discussion about whether to kinescope the final edit using an old analog camera to ‘hide’ the AI look. The result was impressive, even after working on the project daily. I sometimes couldn’t believe it was AI-generated. But in the end, I chose to keep the raw output. I felt it was more honest, and more interesting, to show the tool for what it is.
So for me, the key is: feed the AI with rare references it doesn’t know, and embrace its flaws. That’s where the beauty lies. Brian Eno said it best: “Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature.”
Also, I was lucky to work with an amazing team of five people from different backgrounds and cultures (French, English, Ukrainian, Russian). That mix played a role in shaping the final result.
Speaking of working with technology, I really love the image of the drone on a leash in ‘Anni’ by Neither Lou. How did you and co-director Paul Mouillevois come up with this idea? And what does the image represent to you?
It was a no-budget video, and we had free access to a drone for a few shots, so we thought: why not use it as a prop instead of just a camera? It fit perfectly with the story. The main character can’t see color, and the drone becomes her way of accessing it, like a guide dog. Hence the leash.
I’ve never wanted a pet, but maybe a drone is close enough. It meets similar needs without the idea of owning an animal. With the new robot dogs from Unitree coming out, I’ve been thinking about going to Shenzhen to pick one, almost like going to a dog shelter.
A lot of your music videos have a grimy, dystopian feel to me, like they’re set in the same universe as Children of Men. Is this also how they feel to you? What are your visual inspirations?
I really love sad music, and I really love sci-fi. Maybe that’s why. I also grew up watching a lot of westerns, especially spaghetti westerns, where dirt and grit were embraced unlike classic Hollywood westerns, where everything felt too clean, too polished. I am sure there are many other visual influences too, and even more to come, as I haven’t seen Children of Men yet… but I will!
More Côme Lart: