Nominee Master Research Award 2020
For my thesis film, I delve into a fictional dream-state in order to have a conversation with my future self.
This future Ceci has travelled from a technologically and spiritually balanced society where work is no longer intrinsic to survival. There has been a shifting of planetary goals to that which prioritises sustainability with the Earth as well as with each other. In the animated story, I give impressions of how this future feels and functions, as well as informing about the larger societal workings.
Waking within the dream
Within this timeline, simulations (ie: reality building technologies) are considered a Universal Basic Service- along with food, shelter, resources, information, etc. Post-capitalism, possibly post-politics -- but above all operating on the condition that technologies are wielded with the intent of maximum equality. Eliminating the insecurities of capitalist competition, free time is no longer a luxury, consequently allowing widespread personal power to shape one's existence.
Discussing the dizzying loops we find ourselves in today...
I believe that the current trajectory of simulations alongside transhumanism will transform the nature of our connection to space, other beings, and to ourselves. In this context, transhumanism refers to technological capacities integrated into the human body. Offering an accessible portal to experiences, simulations will cradle future human desires. At the same time, simulations possess the critical capacity to act as virtual containers; blocking real damages to the planet, and to conscious and unconscious beings alike.
I believe that the current trajectory of simulations alongside transhumanism will transform the nature of our connection to space, other beings, and to ourselves.
These more fantastical technological advancements could function alongside practical implementations of full automation and Artificial Intelligence. There is a duty to leverage these tools to first address the inequalities suffered on Earth before moving on to fulfil the imaginative needs of society, but both efforts are intrinsic to holistic wellbeing.
The framework for the simulation society aims to provide flexibility and accommodation for many different realities, with the hope that this openness will ripen the opportunity for unknown positive consequences.
Learning more about how the future feels and functions
In sketching out the tenants, I wondered how certain elements of our current matrix (of domination) could be hijacked and then reversed for the greater good. How could technology be used to protect those that are currently rendered vulnerable in our present systems? Furthermore, how might designers create programs where people ultimately design for themselves? Their own worlds!
Activating the viewer so that they may own their power in all of this; in designing and imagining the world that we see around us. It is not static, it's malleable, and we have a lot more influence than we are conditioned to believe.
