A short animated film in the form of an explainer video illustrating Marshall McLuhan's ideas from the book "Understanding Media" about the influence of new media on mental functions. The collective shame of altered sensitivity and indifferent observation is the price of integration into the global network. But we cannot fight what has become part of our nervous system.
The idea
I wanted to show how new ways of moving information have affected our sense of Self. This idea was born out of a long search for the grail of normalcy in personal therapy. I studied the technological extensions of our bodies as the symptoms of anxiety. The other side of the research focused on how the invention of a global network led us to get one external nervous system for everyone, sensitive to all changes in the world. And along with it comes shame for our thoughts that are visible to everyone and our inconsistency with now very visible multiple standards. With the help of the film, I want to preserve the memory that modern methods of moving information, although mastered, remain unexplored. By keeping in mind what we are not consciously aware of, we are able to at least partially regain control.
Synopsis
A member of the network generation begins his freelancing day with the “elephant” in the room, but is unable to complete tasks, ignoring another circumstance - he is connected to the outside world by material connections. And the perception of the world now occurs directly through his subconscious. Such exposure to the nervous system entails new risks of the consequences of merging with society via the Internet.
The first version was created in 2022
The second one in 2024 with Anita Kremm's consultation at the director's camp. This is only half of the storyboard.
Characters
Forceps
The Forceps are an armless anima, bound by the tears of missing eyes. She can't walk either - she can only injure with the icons of active cursors. The pregnant belly of the anima is covered with the wheel of Samsara, manifesting the law of despair of fatalism.
3 hypostases. They are revealed as we move down the levels of ideas, everyday life, and the unconscious.
First, it is an image of reality inside the glove. I only used a 3D scan here to show the uncanny valley in such an accurate, but still only representation of the outside world.
Then - an architectural element of the poor soviet apartment - an installation that would fit better in a rich house. Big Brother interferes with existence even in personal space, but at the same time cannot be noticed.
And then the abortion forceps are awakening cursors. Their function is to pull out the baby that can never be pulled out.
The Roach
The image of the main character is a self-portrait, an Allegory of the feeling of being out of place in the place to which we conventionally belong.
He tries to work on the computer, but he has cockroach legs and is tied to the floor by them.
Subconscious
An awkward child with his pants legs together, forever stuck in the soviet playground. We don't grow up - inside we remain defective children.
But Roach is not a puppeteer. His weighty, slow-moving subconscious, connected to him by nerves from his hands, is a suspension that creates inertia for him, uncomfortable with excessive reactions that lead him into the wrong movement.
She-Wolf
a lively part of the location - the She-Wolf, mother of Romulus and Remus, who works in the film as a catalyst for shame. She is an object of observation and shows that the modern world localizes even the sensual.
The modern furry fetish is quite suitable for illustrating the overlooked details of the 17th century ideals. The Capitoline wolf is embodied in a secretly desired animal toy of convenient size. However, this interpretation is not far from the original meanings. Dionysius tells an alternative version of this story based on two meanings of the word lupa - "she-wolf" and "loose woman".
To get a straightforward, forbidden side of the sensuality of the female body, I turned to the work of artist and beauty-changing activist Michaela Stark.
She-Wolf in development
Before the sticky beauty, there was another version of the she-wolf - with a reference to the mascot of a famous football club.
Then the purpose lost localization and I rebuilt the character into a more universal nymph. The proportions of a hyper-woman from 80s anime.
Romulus and Remus
reappeared in the New Age, the period of development of humanism. Now the changes of the world are the merit of man, and the brothers are the symbol of this. Ideals become very corporeal, but awkward physical moments that are directly connected with the earthly shell remain invisible.
According to Schwegler, the image of Romulus in mythology was connected with the cult of the Faun-Lupercus. Romulus has baroque hirsutism to emphasize the masculinity of the conqueror.
Remus in the film is depicted with enhanced canine features, but as a unarmed completely naked infant, symbolizing his early death.
In this story, fratricide is an impartial event, as it was perceived in the ancient tradition (which is closer to modern perception in its sacred immanence) and was condemned in Christianity.
If we look at this purely as a myth, then Remus's early death may also be connected to the ancient world's tradition of killing the second twin, since twin births were considered unnatural - another consequence of shame, apparently a powerful external attitude.