Blog 5: Creative Project

My interests with dystopian fiction peak when the environment has been overwhelmed with newer technologies. The idea of technology going too far or taking control over humans is a fascinating form of dystopia for me when it challenges the power dynamic of man and machine. In Ready Player One, I enjoyed the environment that surrounded the Oasis. In Black Mirror,  I enjoyed the way that social media changed and influenced humans to restructure their entire lives.

This setup of an environment attracts me because it seems entirely plausible considering the strength and intelligence of AI. Black Mirror sets up several environments resembling this struggle between man and machine, even when the machine has agency but does not function as an agent. Sometimes it does act as an agency and this creates an even scarier dystopia!

My creative project would focus around the effects that technology and machine have on humans and the environments that could stem from this. My visual project would develop an environment which focused on specifically humans subjected to machine control. This could be through virtual reality and intelligent AI and the presence of too much technology in their lives. It would demonstrate the effects of machine as both an agent and as a thing with agency to capture the ideas of Jane Bennett.  It will comment on how the assemblage of technology lead to the demise of humanity or how it would eventually lead to it.

This project would also have an element of nature that reflected how nature allowed for an escape from an oppressive machine laden society and how natural objects affect another group of humans. This would combat the binary of nature and man by showing the effects of objects that negatively impact the low-technology humans in forms of waste. It would generally highlight the relationship between thing and man, both positively and negatively. What does one group miss out on and what does the other endure? The project would have a protagonist highlighted that completely deconstructs the binary by being expose to both environments.

I am not sure whether this would be visual or creative, or some wacky combination of the two. Ultimately it would be focused on the environments themselves and comment on the effects held over the people.  It would narrate a mini story that highlights these characters and make sure that the viewer or player understood the environment. It might also incorporate an element of Panopticism and Docile Bodies to create an element of surveillance and the sinister element of the dystopia.

Something is just so fascinating about man versus machine and seeing the relationship between the two when the power dynamic switches! It would be super fun to explore and create something for the viewer that could submerse them into a world that they know longer have complete power or control in, while reminding them that this world is not as unfamiliar as it should seem. Its both sinister, frightening, and intriguing to see the technologies available for the future! Like look at this video of just glass technology that existed YEARS ago that most people don’t know could exist… Its terrifying to think of what is not disclosed to the public that could exist!