CRUX
By Seamus Daniel and Jessica Hooper
CRUX tells the story of a society that has a choice. Leave the fast lane, surrender indulgences, and develop technologies that help subdue the damage they have already inflicted or continue marching towards a world of sunken cities, tainted air and soured oceans.
The voice of a young woman from a nondescript future where everything went wrong guides audience back to our present moment, encouraging a change in subsistence and renewed emphasis on technological solutions to climate change and carbon saturated societies.
Reflection:
Completing the Future Machina Studio.
Participating in the Future Machina studio has allowed me to explore the ways in which media can contribute the conceptualisation of our future. I have learned to see past the bleak, dystopian visions of the future that media often portrays and understand the idea of Futurology as a concept much broader than these feature film portrayals (e.g. Ex Machina, Blade Runner). I now understand contemporary futurology to encompass not only film but audio, immersive art and still imagery – and to be not only created using standard media equipment but also artificial intelligence and augmented/virtual reality technologies. These media pieces often explore intricate questions around technology and identity and demonstrate both positives and negatives that come with advancements in technology.
The various assessments completed in this studio have allowed me to develop my skills as a media practitioner and step outside my comfort zone when it comes to media creation. I have had the opportunity to use programs that I have little experience with, such as After Effects when developing my work. On top of this the programs we have explored during class time (Assemblr, Luminar etc) have provoked me to contemplate how these technologies could be utilised in my future works. The key texts we have explored throughout the semester (Petropoulos, Brundage et al, Wrestling) allowed me to further comprehend the impact technologies such as AI can and will have on our society and culture, form their impact on work to their possible malicious uses.
Overall, I feel that completing the Future Machina studio has provided me with ideas and media tools outside of those that are standard and will allow me to contribute a differing perspective on my future media creations.
Creation and Ideation Behind CRUX
When conceptualising what to create for our Alternative futures project, the first thing that came to my mind was the Climate Emergency. If we are to address any one global issue using technology, I believe the Climate Emergency is one of, if not the most pressing matter the world currently faces. I had heard about carbon sequestration and capture technologies but didn’t know a lot about how they worked or what advancements were being made. Upon further research, I discovered that d
espite methods like biological sequestration proving successful at removing carbon from our atmosphere, the truth is that ‘we are not developing these technologies that we desperately need at the required speed’ (Minx & Nemet, 2018). Despite scientific consensus contending that we will need to remove as much as 700 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere while completely halting emissions (Rohling, 2017), our technological advancements in this area at current, are severely lacking.
Upon learning about our underdevelopment in this area, Jess and I decided to create a piece of media that would communicate the urgency and necessity of increasing research and development in the area of carbon capture and storage. From the point of view of a young woman, living in a nondescript future where everything went wrong ‘CRUX’ attempts to alert audiences to the damage the current moment of humanity is inflicting on the planet while highlighting how a renewed emphasis on (and increased funding for) technological solutions to Climate Change may allow us and our environment to prosper in the future. We wanted to be clear however, that Carbon Capture and Storage will not be the miracle solution to Climate Change, we also need to immediately halt emissions and makes changes to our societies including altering how we consume both products and food.
We took a slightly less conventional approach when shooting CRUX. We knew that a major facet of the piece would be the juxtaposition the natural world and man-made environments. Rather than compiling a list of shots and creating a storyboard we decided to get out into the world and just shoot the things that captured our attention in relation to the concept of our film. In the CBD we found ourselves drawn to empty alleyways, bricks, overflowing rubbish bins, industrial zones, concrete towers and rail yards. These, we felt, were visual representations of humanities over consumption and pollution of the earth. It was interesting to search these bland and bleak shots out because in truth I don’t think Melbourne is an ugly or bland city. When looking, however, these types of shots were not hard to find but might go unnoticed to the average person caught up in the hustle of a large and exciting city like Melbourne. This linked back to the concept of ‘CRUX’, these shots would force viewers to look at some of the negative parts of our carbon saturated societies, and when juxtaposed with the natural world encourage audiences to strive for it’s protection. Almost all of our nature shots were captured at Cape Schanck about an hour and a half drive from Melbourne CBD.
We chose this location for its dramatic landscapes. Cliff faces that descend into the ocean, thick green vegetation and waves washing over rock formations would communicate the beauty of our natural environment, and hopefully encourage audiences to think further and be vocal about the need for further investment and research into technologies that could save them.
The postproduction stage of this assessment really brought our piece together. We made the choice to colour grade the clips that pertained to man-made environments to further distance them from the natural landscapes. We attempted a ‘mid-90’s look’ colour grade, but ultimately decided to really increase the red tones on these shots as this colour is often associated with danger and reflected the undesirable aspects of our current subsistence.
From the beginning I had the idea of demonstrating a world where the atmosphere had been completely saturated with carbon dioxide using various glitch techniques. We utilised various effects such as turbulent displace to warp imagery of the city and create a sequence that was somewhat disorienting to the viewer. The thinking behind this was to demonstrate a possible future in which increased pollution may change the humans experience the world.
This opening segment which presents a chaotic and disorienting world is accompanied by voiceover from the perspective of a young woman. She details the mistakes society made which led to this degraded world she inhabits. As this description comes to an end the film is rewound and audiences are brought back to our current time where the girl proceeds to explain the opportunities we still have in this current moment. Detailing how Carbon Capture technology works and the benefits it would have on our society before highlighting the urgency and increased funding we need to allocate to the development of these technologies. Here I would have liked to workshop the voiceover with our actor, however timing wasn’t on our side, and we just couldn’t find a time that suited her to re-record segments with our input.
I am really happy with the final product Jess and I delivered. I feel it connects with this studios core concepts surrounding how media contributes to the practices of futurology. It explores social and cultural positions and imagines how with further development, a real technology may aid us in overcoming one of the most challenging obstacles humanity has ever faced.
Reflection on ‘Mental Glitches’
I really enjoyed all the presentations in week nine but particularly appreciated Rhys’ topic ‘curing mental glitches’. He gave a clear introduction to the issue at hand – mental health – and backed it up with evidence from various organisations. With a 2020 study stating twenty percent of Australians experiencing mental illness at some point in their life this was clearly a topical issue. His communication of technologies that already exist to aid in mental health such as guided meditation apps and artificial intelligence therapist chatbots demonstrated that there is room for technology in the mental health space. The statistics and quotes surrounding technological implants further exhibited the plausibility of his idea for the Alternative Futures assignment – an AI chip that would be implanted in the brain to solve mental health issues (or ‘Mental Glitches’).
Though quite basic at this stage, the narrative outline Rhys provided gave me a complete understanding of the direction this media piece was headed in. I feel like it really coincides with the concepts of this studio – particularly as his main subject will struggle with his identity after this ai chip is implanted. It provokes questions surrounding the morality of using tech to change a person’s state of mind. I also appreciated Rhys’ intention to explore colour within this piece – utilising it to convey various moods and tones.
I would like to see Rhys further develop this idea by providing some explanation or visual representation as to how he will convey that the chip has caused his character to lose his humanity and the ability to feel. I would also like to see how those who have prescribed this fix to the character react to his decision to remove it.
Overall, I think Rhys’ pitch was thorough and well prepared for and am excited to see his final product!
References:
Brundage, M, Avin, S, Clark, J, Toner, H, Eckersley, P, Garfinkel, B & Dafoe, A 2018, The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation, Cornell University.
Minx, JC & Nemet, G ‘Opinion | The inconvenient truth about carbon capture’, Washington Post, viewed 2 June 2021, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/05/31/carbon-capture/>.
Petropoulos, G 2018, ‘The Impact of AI on Employment’, in Work in the digital age: challenges of the fourth industrial revolution Identifying the challenges for work in the digital age.
Rohling, E ‘We need to get rid of carbon in the atmosphere, not just reduce emissions’, The Conversation, viewed 3 June 2021, <http://theconversation.com/we-need-to-get-rid-of-carbon-in-the-atmosphere-not-just-reduce-emissions-72573>.
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