"Atrophy" - Statement, Reflection, Documentation
Statement
I wanted to create a video that reflected the idea of transformation and paradoxes, so I went with a very simple narrative: a robot developing artificial intelligence. As this AI develops its intelligence, I wanted it to develop some semblance of a consciousness while it explores various contradictions of human existence.
The photographs used for this video were supposed to represent mundane objects that had some sort of mixed connotation. For example, I had pictures of a pack of cigarettes and a noose. At one point in human existence, these images had positive connotations, with the cigarettes once representing an aristocratic good and the noose once representing “justice.” As the AI explores these images, it touches on the subjectivity of these images and of life in general. Since human existence is limited, we develop our own ideals independent of each other, leading to different ideas and perspectives on certain images.
For the origami, I wanted to draw some parallels between human existence and the folding of the paper. The main idea of this action was to highlight the transforming nature of human values. Initially, the crane starts off as a flat piece of paper, but as time progresses, it changes into something entirely different. I chose to do origami because paper can be folded into anything. It is entirely up to the person doing the origami to fold it into the shape of their choosing. Just as we do with origami, we make our own decisions into how our lives look as time passes on. At the end of the day, everyone does something different, and I think the process of origami highlights this idea very well.
Reflection and Documentation
The presentation of this piece was very interesting. As I was making the video, I wanted to give the video the feel of a “government experiment” video. This is the reasoning behind the sound of a film projector and the 4:3 aspect ratio of the origami. The video of the photographs, meanwhile, were representative of the AI’s thinking processes, and by stretching it to a much wider image, I was able to give the AI an “omnipotent” presence. Since I knew we were going to be presenting in the Blackroom, I wanted to use the space to give the video a much more shocking and overwhelming feel. In this regard, I think I was successful.
When Fiona brought up the idea of giving a “trigger” warning before presenting the project, I was actually glad she mentioned it! While I do not mean to offend anyone, I was aiming to shock the viewers and make them uncomfortable. I chose my images and words for a specific reason: to highlight the contradictory elements of human society and existence. If the video made people uncomfortable, than I think that says something about the way we view and interpret images we come across on a regular basis. The noose, specifically, could have been a completely different image. There are many negative connotations dealing with suicide and racism. However, this is also part of the reason why I chose this image. Even though it possessed a very negative stigma, at one point in human history, it was a symbol of justice!
At the end of the day, I felt very satisfied with this project because it got the reaction I wanted and it sparked a conversation on what can/cannot be displayed as “art.” Because art is highly subjective by nature, I knew it would be appropriate to play around with the idea of subjectivity and perspective, especially since we were creating videos. Unlike photography, videos are able to shape how we view something by giving us a unique perspective on how we view something, mostly due to the editing of video and the aspect of sound.