14 - Engine - Nissan commercial. Featuring music by Boards of Canada.mov

What this video is

Produced at the apex of a unique late-1990s British cultural moment when avant-garde directors from the music video world—Cunningham, Jonze, Gondry—were simultaneously shaping commercial advertising and underground visual culture. Cunningham's recurring fascination with the body as machine, developed across his Aphex Twin and Björk videos, found a commercially sanctioned outlet in this Nissan spot. The use of…

Why it matters

A landmark example of art-directed automotive advertising in the tradition of biomechanical surrealism. The piece extends Cunningham's signature body-horror vocabulary into a commercial context, legitimizing IDM and avant-garde aesthetics within mainstream brand communications. Its inclusion in…

The director

Chris Cunningham (born 15 October 1970, Reading, Berkshire) is an English video artist and music video director. Early career included creature effects work on Alien3, Alien: Resurrection, and animatronic design for Kubrick's A.I. His commercial clients…