Featuring China and Japan-based creative collective DiAN and a cameo from Yaeji’s animated canine companion, Woofa.
Yaeji condenses generations of video game nostalgia into ‘PAC-TIVE’, an inspired and unexpected collaboration with audiovisual trickster Weirdcore that sees the NYC-based, Seoul-born producer and vocalist and the London-based visual artist plunging into a strange, alternate, Pac-Man-themed universe. To mark the game’s 41st anniversary Yaeji is joined by China and Japan-based creative collective DiAN, who lend their vocal talents to a track sampling the original Pac-Man’s sound effects.
Working together on the project from their respective bases from an early stage, Yaeji and Weirdcore kept close correspondence in order to realise their creative vision. For Yaeji, the video reflects childhood memories of Korean market fronts, while for Weirdcore the surreal, top-down perspective incorporates elements from Japanese paving slabs that have always been a source of fascination for the artist.
Throughout the video we follow a strange hybrid character that combines elements from the titular Pac-Man and a pixelated version of Yaeji’s own animated canine companion Woofa, whom we were introduced to in the incredible video for ‘WAKING UP DOWN’, featuring characters of Yaeji’s own design. Pursued by the red ghost, aka Blinky, the Pac-Man / Woofa hybrid is chased through the streets of Weirdcore’s intricate 3D environment, before eating a power pellet and turning around to give the ghost a taste of its own medicine.
‘PAC-TIVE’ is out now.
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