#db40

Conceptual Statement

Anxiety and the depth of technological imprisonment are shown here through a simple yet alarming string of messages between the user and someone else. As the piece unfolds the more volatile it becomes, the sounds and glitches becoming more apparent and frequent.

The original idea came from a previous relationship where communication wasn’t our best trait. There was a great amount of anxiety and uneasiness when it came to dealing with the other person which often led to leaving one or the other on “read” which meant even more trouble, even more misunderstanding and anxiety. Not only that but as people we have become dependent on technology, the problem is that even if we decide not to answer someone through text, message etc, they will see us as “active” on another social platform, therefore, will know that not only have we seen their messages but we have also chosen to ignore them and bother ourselves with something else.

This is an interesting aspect which I have found many of my peers don’t understand, I wanted to play around with it. Often they come to me asking why I haven’t answered them while I’m visibly and openly active on another social platform, my only answer is anxiety and peace. It doesn’t mean I don’t care for what they have to say, that I have chosen to ignore them because they annoy me and such, it only means I don’t want to answer this right now. Nothing more, nothing less yet many people don’t understand that.

This piece titled Annoying Texts explores the anxiety and dependence a user feels through the use of messages interaction and technology. Through the use of overwhelming colours, glitches, noises as well as font choice and letter dynamics, the viewer is able to experience a sense of complete uneasiness and perhaps even panic as the video unfolds.

As the interaction and dependency takes place, the uneasiness and anxiety becomes quite apparent and even uncomfortable. The noises getting louder and repetitive while the glitches more frequent, almost as if technology was seeping through the glitches, trying to claw at whatever it could take hold of.

Technical Description

Fonts used -

OCR A Std - Used in After Effects to create the pop-up alert at the very end of the piece.

Inconsolata Bold - Used in the terminal, line of commands font as the very end.

Helvetica Neue - The Imessage font.

VCR OSD Mono - Used during the in-between glitches in the red texts such as the picture above. Give it a bit of an electronic, technologic feel to it.

Zalgo - The font used as the Imessage texts distort and glitch.

Consolas font - Blue screen of death font.

The piece was edited in After Effects as well as Imovie while many of the screengrabs came from personal footage while the glitches were used as a green screen/blue screen right on top of the videos. In-between crops and zooms between glitches on the original footages gave the video a more glitched looked. Many glitches, overlay and green screen were used to create the glitchy electronic and overwhelming feeling of the piece.

Sketches

These are the original sketches for this design brief’s final project. While brainstorming my first thought was to go for something I had already encountered and dealt with during the course such as the animation that was proposed during my second design brief (Star Wars opening credits and Roleplaying opening credits). However, I thought that was already finished with and wanted to try something new, something different I hadn’t already stepped foot in.

I remember having kept a message exchange between an old friend and me from months ago, very toxic, very annoying. I had exactly gotten 109 messages from them that I had never opened, this lead to step into quite a different path compared to my previous animation idea. I wanted to create a piece where one would be able to see such a toxic and unhealthy exchange of words through the use of technology.

Not only did I want to represent an unhealthy relationship through an exchange of text as well as the anxiety one finds themselves in when faced with interacting with people but I also wanted to look into this imprisonment of technology we find ourselves in. This need and dependence we have to technology is almost suffocating as if we can’t rid ourselves of it yet pain ourselves and hurt ourselves as we keep on relying on it. This only adds to the unhealthy relationship, dependence.

I started working through ways to convey such a meaning. Having been through the very same anxiety allowed me a clearer view of the path, it allowed me to focus on a few aspects which to me were able to represent this imprisonment and this anxiety. Thus started the list: buzzing, loud noises, repeated noises, glitching, shaking, these were aspects which to me represented the suffocation, the confusion and panic one would find themselves in when faced with such an interaction. Almost as if their mind was drowning and then had nowhere to run to, to where to go, they were stuck inside a loop, forced between the anxiety of interacting and the anxiety of leaving someone on “read” (opening their messages and never answering, the read/seen receipt allowing the other person to see if you’ve opened their message).