Sally and I have noticed that there are a lot of people in boxes filled with water in K-pop videos. My own theory is that they express an claustrophobic anxiety in contemporary Korea, a sense of feeling trapped, but Sally dismisses this idea as amateur dream interpretation (is there really any other sort?). No, her feeling is that these boxes are frames for the figures within them, but since the music video as a medium usually displays itself in a landscape format (although there are also videos that take their cue from mobile phones’ characteristic display orientation) these boxes tumble between portrait and landscape in a artificially-induced third dimension, which through the movement of water becomes an expression of space-time; a fourth dimensional frame.
The figures within them are not trapped, but rather sheltered from the hostile outside world. They are self-sufficient environments. Space-time suits, if you will. Swim forward, cryonauts!
