DRAFT OUTCOMES

The Idea:

I have decided to make a short film in collaboration with a 3D animator for my final piece. The narrative will be disjointed and unpredictable engaging with the laggy aesthetic of Second Life, and embracing of an accelerationist attitude that the intensification of computer technology and capitalism is the only way forward for humanity. The merging of the human and the digital in a disruptive, uncomfortable way will be core to the type of imagery by exploring the cyborg and some of the frightening transhumanist theories explored in my research. This idea of fundamentally changing the human condition to improve our bodies and minds, and thus becoming something ‘other’ is a frightening philosophy and one that, in reality, would be nothing less than a final and total enslavement to technology. I want to predict this new world/dystopia, or new kind of human in the visual element turning society’s desire to live a technologically seamless, instagram filtered life on its head and exposing the glitches within this narrative.

Presenting my work as an exhibition defeats the object of my intention. The audience, artist relationship is a complicated one and the gallery or exhibition experience does not feel relevant to the post-digital realm I am exploring here. I will instead adopt a ‘medium as the message’ approach, and purchase my own website domain where it will be displayed online accessible for everyone with a computer to see. The screen as the medium here works, particularly if the animation is slightly disjointed and unpredictable, as it plays with audience relationships to the screen as a stable thing.

The sound element will be the next stage of the process. My (slightly ambitious) plan involves having some code written for the website that collects data of human movement in a specific part of London - perhaps, the number of people walking through London Bridge station, or the number of trains passing through Waterloo. As the data changes, so do the number of musical loops triggered, thus curating a completely different audiovisual experience for every individual that opens up the web browser. This interaction reminds the viewer that the screen is nothing until activated by our actions - the power is back in the hands of the individual, not vice versa as this post-digital climate often suggests. I am currently talking to a coder about some of these options who has offered to help.

Elements required are:

Animated short film
A personal online domain
Musical element: code, and musical loops that can run together seamlessly

COMMENTARY OUTLINE:
Time line: I plan to begin writing this once the creative work is complete in mid April giving me a full month to fully reflect on my process and outcome. I will split my essay up into 6 sections, and ensure I am asking myself the following questions:

Introduction to my piece:
My aims and manifesto
What is the message?

Some of the context that inspired the thinking behind the piece:
How did some of the readings throughout my research process help toward the final piece?
Did it inspire some the imagery or sound?

The piece:
Why an audiovisual piece? Why does the medium work for you?
Deciding on where the piece will exist: this was an important decision and took a lot of deliberation - why did you make the creative choice that you did?

The process:
How did I choose my collaborators and why did I think this was the best way forward for my project?
What was the timescale, and did this go to plan?
What would I have done differently in these initial stages to help toward the final outcome?

Critique of the final outcome:
Did everything go to plan?
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What would I have done differently?

Conclusion:
Where do I take the project now?
Is this something that I can develop?

I will also include some appendices providing documentation explaining processes carried out by my collaborators, eg. code, programme used, experiments and drafts etc.