How the Project Came to Be
Josh Usheroff, director and DP:
"I am fascinated by the changes AI and machine learning are bringing to all aspects of our culture. I frequently see headlines about transportation, manufacturing, and medicine, but I wanted to see how this technology was being used in more creative disciplines. I started researching generative art and came across a video by Alex Mordvintsev, the creator of Google's DeepDream. The results were mesmerizing and psychedelic. I couldn't look away.
I approached Alex about a collaboration using video — not stills — as the source images. He was interested, and I pitched the approach to Broken Social Scene for 'Can't Find My Heart.' We captured all performance visuals at Corona Theatre in Montreal just hours before their concert. My creative partner Ben Goloff sequenced the performances and applied style transfers. We then sent the files to Alex to work his DeepDream magic. There were a lot of technical hurdles — we were in uncharted territory, developing a whole new workflow for video."
The Technical Process
Alex Mordvintsev, creator of Google's DeepDream, on the technical approach:
"The video effect is based on combining neural artistic style transfer with a zooming feedback loop. I gradually inject each new video clip into the mix, while simultaneously steering the global image style. Each video segment is a continuation of the previous, so I couldn't generate them all in parallel. I used a 'fast' feed-forward version of style transfer to iterate quickly on the sequence, incorporating feedback from Josh and Ben."
The collaboration required developing entirely new technical workflows for applying neural network processing to video footage rather than still images. The zooming feedback loop that Mordvintsev describes creates the hypnotic, infinite-vortex quality that defines the visual experience of the piece — a continuous transformation where performance footage dissolves into abstract neural texture and re-emerges, changed but recognizable.
About Broken Social Scene
In 2017, after a seven-year hiatus, Broken Social Scene reunited to release Hug of Thunder, bringing together all 17 original members — including Feist and Metric's Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw. The critically acclaimed album was followed in 2019 by two five-song EPs: Let's Try The After Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Rolling Stone called the music "full of emotional crescendos and soothing washes of melody." Pitchfork described it as reflecting "forceful beauty — a sense of indefinable, life-affirming ecstasy." Kevin Drew on the band's direction: "The theme is to continue."
"Can't Find My Heart" arrived as part of this creative resurgence — and Broken Social Scene's willingness to explore AI-generated visual art as the vehicle for the song's release speaks to the band's history of creative risk-taking and collaboration.
Production Credits
- Director / Director of Photography: Josh Usheroff
- VFX Supervisor / Editor: Ben Goloff
- DeepDream AI: Alexander Mordvintsev
- Produced by: Black Box Productions
We are enormous fans of Broken Social Scene. It was a total privilege to collaborate with incredibly talented musicians and with Alex Mordvintsev — a genuine pioneer in the field of neural network-generated visuals. The project pushed the boundaries of what we'd done before, and the result is something we're very proud of.
