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film and video art
Duration : 00:14:12
Journal of a Self Improvement captures in four short videos the development of the character ƒ’s coexistence with various smart companions and digital relatives. The episodes follow a precise dramaturgy: the optimisation of self-image for social media is followed by the search for recognition.The coaches use the opportunity of the self-optimisation craze to take over power. Ultimately, ƒ becomes a servant to his AI-generated family.
In Journal of a Self Improvement, we encounter protective or lazy avatars and feel sympathy for the avatar who resists. The film is an experiment in developing new hybrid image and narrative spaces based on the interaction of actors and actants.
DIRECTORS, EDITORS : Sylvie Boisseau & Frank Westermeyer
PERFORMER : Frank Westermeyer
DRUMS : Ernesto Westermeyer
SOUND MIX : Philippe Ciompi
AI use based on the nature of the work
CONTACTS / LINKS : www.filmerei.net @Boisseau_Westermeyer
Director’s statement
The “Journal of a Self Improvement” responds to the automatic reading of complex images and the possibilities of synthetically generating realistic images that bear no relation to physical reality. The development of AI-based image and video generation is certainly the subject of much commentary, but it rarely goes beyond the stage of techno-media chronicles. How can we explore our relationship with images, which is changing radically thanks to new technologies? By entering the image… Which positions to take in that new avatarised space, which strategies to apply? What new spaces for play, doubt and questioning result from this?
Helmuth Plessner’s philosophy, which conceives of life fundamentally in its spatial dimension, is a central theoretical tool for us in understanding coexistence with digital entities. The video “Journal of a Self Improvement” speculates, through a series of four experiments, on the new hybrid ecology where humans and digital avatars meet, both endowed with emotional analysis capabilities and a particular form of intelligence.
Bio
Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer are a French / German artist and filmmaker duo. Their video works have been shown in numerous festivals (Oberhausen, transmediale, Rotterdam etc.) and in many international exhibitions and screenings, the most recent are: Das Esszimmer, Bonn (D), Swissnex, Osaka (J) and San Francisco (USA). They had solo exhibitions in the ACC Weimar, vtape Toronto, 1a space Hong Kong, Centre pour l’image contemporaine, Geneva and in the Kunstmuseum Bern @ progr / CH. They live in Berlin and Geneva (CH).
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Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved. Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.