#idea 3

Star Wars AU

Mud squelches beneath police issued boots. A man comes to a stop as he watches the crime scene. Rain pelts him as the police forces continues to flock and swarm around the run down warehouse. The surrounding forest encroaches upon the building looming threatening over their heads. Sirens continue to scream in the distance.

A nervous rookie steadily approaches the man, fidgeting he calls, “Commissioner Kenobi.”

Commissioner Kenobi stiffens before he forces himself to relax. He turns to face the man, tersely he asks, “Did you find him?”

Swallowing thickly, “Yes.”

“Alive?”

“Yes.”

“…Did they succeed?”

The rookie remains quite before he forces out the word like he's choking on gravel, “Yes, sir.”

Silence rings between them. The other men and women continue to swarm around them, working on collecting evidence and looking for any other possible survivors.

[GIF: アキラ Akira, Dir. Otomo Katsuhiro]

For the most part, I feel very fortunate to live in modern times. I enjoy technology, science, and medicine. I am very thankful that I'm able to stay in good health and access information. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have plumbing, phones, or doctors.

However, I can all too easily imagine what it would be like if technology and modernization took control. Not necessarily an AI takeover, but something more subtle. The disappearance of physical media. Cash becoming obsolete. AI taking more jobs away from humans. We're already seeing this occur and start to impact our lives. I'm only afraid that we are too late to stop it.

Medical science is what I fear more than just going cashless or DVDs going obsolete. "Designer babies" may not be a hot topic in my friend circles, but is a prime example of medical science that seems innovative and useful, but could easily be used unethically. One moment you're screening for terminal illnesses in an embryo, the next you are choosing hair, eye color, or skin color. How far do we let it go? This is the premise for the film "Gattaca", which is one of my precedent projects. It depicts a world in which genetic selection is a routine process for embryos, resulting in a society run on eugenics and full of genetic discrimination.

My idea for this project is to explore a narrative in which humanity has highly revolutionized sound therapy. It began as a search for the cure to vertigo and motion sickness, and ended with a society where sound is something used to control. And the technology has been made too accessible. Now individuals protect their ears in public spaces. Society was forever changed, all because someone wanted find the cure for a common illness.

The Matrix, a science fiction action film. Directed by the Wachowskis. 1999.

Pantheon, an American science fiction animated show. Created by Craig Silverstein. 2022.

 終わりのセラフ (English Title: Seraph of the End), a Japanese dark fantasy manga series. Created by Kagami Takaya and Yamamoto Yamato. 2012.

X-Men: Days of Future Past, a superhero film. Directed by Bryan Singer. 2014.

Gattaca, an American dystopian science fiction film. Directed by Andrew Niccol. 1997.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, a point and click adventure horror game. Developed by Cyberdreams and The Dreamers Guild, co-designed by Harlan Ellison. Based on Harlan Ellison's short story. 1995.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE by PHIL COLLINS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt2mbGP6vFI

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/phil-collins/another-day-in-paradise

Following the weaknesses and virtues explained for each idea, and being aware of the time, the budget and roughly the space we have, the deliberation lead us to conclude the third idea as the best option. We identified the ideas in such a way:

Idea 1: connecting dots - the easiest one, useful to have it in the pipeline

Idea 2: projecting an environment – the artistic one, astonishing but risky

Idea 3: reflecting and overlapping – the interactive one, complex and precise but really appealing

The idea of connecting the dots, even being the easies one to accomplish in the assembly stage, relied too much on the viewer intervention. Also, as the piece would experiment different stages could be difficult to catch the eye on the beginning.

The artistic idea had a lack of interaction, at least till the level we developed it. Also, its construction was a big negative point to consider, not only because of the complexity, but also because it would have to be done in place which meant less time and more pressure.

Finally, the selected idea, even its precise construction made us to feel a little bit unconfident, we thought could be the most interesting one to develop.

Thinking about the walkthrough, we understand that there would be two reading levels: the first one from a distance where you see a big image on a wall, and second one when you reach the grid, you touch it and you discover your power over the big image when interacting with the mirrors. Also it opens a wide range of possibilities on the content since there would be two images (possibly both in movement), one complementing each other. This duality gives us some space to play with meanings and with polarities trying to explore on the audience role to generate these significations.

Thinking about light technical aspects we needed to check some things before: will a mirror be able to perfectly reflect an image? Will the image behind work with the overlapped one?

Thus, the first thing we did before deciding was to try it in advance, seeing that the effect could work properly with the proper light conditions (figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1: Group 4; Result of Overlapping Images Test; 2018; University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield.

Figure 2: Group 4; Assembly of Overlapping Images Test; 2018; University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield.

Finally, the constructing aspect seems to be the apple of discord. The construction of the grid requires cutting and sticking elements perfectly and also working with little mobile pieces. Also the structure would have to be stable enough to allow its manipulation. The good point is that it could be made in advance, so there is more time to do it, and also more time to react if some difficulties appeared.