little image has built a visual universe piece by piece, and “DEFCON + DOES IT GLOW FOR A CHANGE” is the piece that does not feature the band. The video follows a single character through a confrontation with another version of himself, and the actor Koki Tomlinson plays both sides of the battle. Sawyer Skipper directed and shot the piece in Los Angeles, and the match-frame technique is what holds the two characters in the same shot.
DEFCON
little image’s “DEFCON” opens with Tomlinson alone in a frame that is its own double, and the song is the panic the frame is built to hold. The track is the record’s most experimental moment, and the visual is the moment given a body.
Tomlinson is two characters at once, and the match-frame technique makes them fight in the same shot. The song is the line between who we are and who we allow ourselves to become, and the visual is the line drawn in real time.
The band is in the wardrobe even when the band is off-screen. “DEFCON” is the panic, and “DOES IT GLOW FOR A CHANGE” is what the panic hands off to. The absence is the visual.
DOES IT GLOW FOR A CHANGE
little image’s “DOES IT GLOW FOR A CHANGE” is the song that closes the visual, and the song is a question the panic has earned the right to ask. Tomlinson is still two characters, but the second character is starting to fade. The song is what the visual sounds like when the two characters have decided to rest.
“Does it glow for a change” is a question about light, and the song is the moment the light has been asked to come back. The panic of “DEFCON” is still in the air, and the question is the first move toward a different answer. Tomlinson has stopped running from the other Tomlinson.
The question the visual has been waiting to ask is “does it glow for a change,” and the song is the question put to music. The visual is the universe’s quietest room, and the band is in the wardrobe even when the band is off-screen.
