what is the origin/ idea behind robots and clowns

[Goldmaster]

stupid question and sorry if someone has asked this before. what is the origin or idea/ theme/ motto of the robots and clowns such as the boys with clown face paint in the galvince music video and the electrobank clown on a yellow telephone during the live set at sw4. in my eyes the robots represent ai uprising and clowns represent stupid people. i dono im a bit deserted on this one.

[Ben_j]

In the Galvanize video, the boys are going to a krump dance off. Apparently, krump comes from an earlier form of dance called clown dancing, and most dancers would paing their face.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumping

The visuals with clown faces seem to reference the Galvanize video and I think the first one (on EBW7/Acid Children) fitted the "You are all my children now" line perfectly so that's why they used it.

As for the robots, I vaguely remember an interview of Adam Smith or Marcus Lyall talking about how they used to have tin toy robots, which inspired them to make the visuals. Most of the time, they come up with the ideas for the visuals and submit them to Tom and Ed.
Most of the robots they used are based on real toys : https://www.google.fr/search?q=tin+toy+robots

[Goldmaster]

ok so wheres the idea for the clown dancing in the music video why not something elce is tom or ed or both secretly afraid of clowns?

[WhiteNoise]

Many of the modern live visuals trace back to 1995-1999, when the visuals only consisted of ancient projectors flashing images onto their gear and a screen. Some of those images were clowns, robots... and they've kept those around and "upgraded" them with new footage over the years (the robots most of all!).