Ø (The Shell)
- May 2008
Track: 'Leaving Hope' (edited) by Nine Inch Nails.
During my final year of university, I wanted to create a piece thatwould be pushing my skills further in terms of my production qualityand ability to convey a message. Based on my original piece'WeBribeYou', I had the idea of continuing the theme of mind controlfurther.
I had researched about real-life cases of 'mind-control', such asEdward Bernays' effects on the media, advertising and war propaganda.He was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and used many of Freud's teachingsto harness the unconscious minds of people - particularly large groupsof people at once. Aside to this, I also indulged in some dystopianscience-fiction that depicted a large amount of control over peoplethrough different methods.
George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was a big inspiration. I foundit particularly intersting the way that the characters in the storywere controlled through the torturous routines toward the end of thebook. Initially they had wanted to break free of the hellish lives theyhad, and the love between Winston and Julia was built up so well upuntil the moment that they were captured - and this made the conversionfrom a loving, soulful being into an empty shell of a person so muchmore believable and powerfully emotive. In my animation, the surface ofwhich the subject is upon has a 'V' emblem underneath it - a homage tothe book as a capital 'V' is used as the background for the logo of'the party'.
Another book that I found very inspiring was Aldous Huxley's 'Brave NewWorld'. This novel depicted the world in quite the opposite way fromGeorge Orwell's, where everyone was conditioned at birth to be exactlyright. Everyone had a specific purpose in life and didn't need to thinkfor themselves. They were 'created' on a production line rather thanborn - and all worshiped Henry Ford, the father of mass-production. Andwhen they wanted to escape reality completely, have a holiday, and justgenerally loose all conscious thought altogether, they took doses of adrug 'Soma' which sent them into a happy trip for a while with nocome-down consequences. In the opening chapter there is a tour beingheld of the human production line which is described so vividly, thisdescription aided me in creating a feel for the robotics that were toaid in the controlling of the mind in the human specimen.
From taking in this subject matter, I felt that I wanted to give thepiece a much more emotive and serious feel, and so I had to move awayfrom the flashy graphics and VJ style of 'WeBribeYou'. And so I lookedtowards movies such as La Jetée, Metropolis and Electroma. I especialyliked the industrial and mechanical feel of Metropolis, with it's hugeset's and fantastic attention to detail in many of the shots. Electromaprovided me with an idea of how the robotic and electronic parts mightlook. For the mechanical shell of a human, I wanted to give it assoulless a look as possible, though the shape of face plate is meant toresemble a smiley face - this links back to the inhabitants of theworld in 'Brave New World' - all happy but they have no soul.
Interesting Fact: The skeleton I used was originally an Illustratorfile created to match my height (6'3") and thus all the bones should beroughly actual size. These were then taken into Photoshop and texturedto give the kind of look seen in X-rays and MRI scans.
- May 2008
Track: 'Leaving Hope' (edited) by Nine Inch Nails.
During my final year of university, I wanted to create a piece thatwould be pushing my skills further in terms of my production qualityand ability to convey a message. Based on my original piece'WeBribeYou', I had the idea of continuing the theme of mind controlfurther.
I had researched about real-life cases of 'mind-control', such asEdward Bernays' effects on the media, advertising and war propaganda.He was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and used many of Freud's teachingsto harness the unconscious minds of people - particularly large groupsof people at once. Aside to this, I also indulged in some dystopianscience-fiction that depicted a large amount of control over peoplethrough different methods.
George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' was a big inspiration. I foundit particularly intersting the way that the characters in the storywere controlled through the torturous routines toward the end of thebook. Initially they had wanted to break free of the hellish lives theyhad, and the love between Winston and Julia was built up so well upuntil the moment that they were captured - and this made the conversionfrom a loving, soulful being into an empty shell of a person so muchmore believable and powerfully emotive. In my animation, the surface ofwhich the subject is upon has a 'V' emblem underneath it - a homage tothe book as a capital 'V' is used as the background for the logo of'the party'.
Another book that I found very inspiring was Aldous Huxley's 'Brave NewWorld'. This novel depicted the world in quite the opposite way fromGeorge Orwell's, where everyone was conditioned at birth to be exactlyright. Everyone had a specific purpose in life and didn't need to thinkfor themselves. They were 'created' on a production line rather thanborn - and all worshiped Henry Ford, the father of mass-production. Andwhen they wanted to escape reality completely, have a holiday, and justgenerally loose all conscious thought altogether, they took doses of adrug 'Soma' which sent them into a happy trip for a while with nocome-down consequences. In the opening chapter there is a tour beingheld of the human production line which is described so vividly, thisdescription aided me in creating a feel for the robotics that were toaid in the controlling of the mind in the human specimen.
From taking in this subject matter, I felt that I wanted to give thepiece a much more emotive and serious feel, and so I had to move awayfrom the flashy graphics and VJ style of 'WeBribeYou'. And so I lookedtowards movies such as La Jetée, Metropolis and Electroma. I especialyliked the industrial and mechanical feel of Metropolis, with it's hugeset's and fantastic attention to detail in many of the shots. Electromaprovided me with an idea of how the robotic and electronic parts mightlook. For the mechanical shell of a human, I wanted to give it assoulless a look as possible, though the shape of face plate is meant toresemble a smiley face - this links back to the inhabitants of theworld in 'Brave New World' - all happy but they have no soul.
Interesting Fact: The skeleton I used was originally an Illustratorfile created to match my height (6'3") and thus all the bones should beroughly actual size. These were then taken into Photoshop and texturedto give the kind of look seen in X-rays and MRI scans.
