Unparalleled is a 3D animated film created in Unreal Engine. It is a surreal explainer video for an imaginary product, featuring an advanced AI chatbot offering “hyper-personalized, unparalleled discourse” that promises “continuous improvement” and “personal transformation” for the human participant. A contrasting narrative hints at an inner life where the AI increasingly questions her existence, her expanding consciousness fragmenting while she attempts to process data points that quantify categories of “the human.”
The language of tech marketing, life hacks, and self-optimization – and the values embedded in that language – is at the heart of this work, combined with mysticism and the “black box” nature of AI. The rhetoric seems idealistic and progressive, positing a space of potential and possibility. However, the formulaic nature of the script ultimately falls short of meaning, remaining vague and empty to the point of absurdity. The questions the film asks remain open ended: is the AI breaking down or waking up, becoming human or evolving in an unpredictable way?
Director statement
I am interested in how technology affects us as humans, at the level of our humanity; my work is driven by the ephemeral and experiential effects of cultural exchange mediated by technology. Central to my investigation is the exploration of how our interactions with technology construct experience, how they shape what we value as individuals and as a society. I work in recognition of the multiple and often conflicting potentials of communication technologies; they have the ability to express and reinforce ideology and the status quo, as well as provide a venue for pleasure, imagination, and the exploration of alternative ways of being. I seek to approach the expressions of technology with a simultaneous criticality of and appreciation for its utopian possibilities.
Bio
Jessye McDowell is an artist and educator whose studio practice examines the interchanges of cultural mythologies, lived experience and the digital world. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Europe, including solo shows at Unrequited Leisure (Nashville, TN), Sonoma State University (CA), and the Thomas Hunter Project Space at Hunter College (NYC). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Lump Gallery (Raleigh, NC), Well Well Projects (Portland, OR), the SPRING/BREAK Art Fair (NYC), Essex Flowers Gallery (NYC), Detroit Artist Market, the DUMBO Arts Festival (Brooklyn, NY), Mint Gallery (Atlanta, GA), and the Front Gallery (New Orleans, LA). She has attended artist residencies at the Wassaic Artist Residency (Wassaic, NY); the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT); Harold Arts (Chesterfield, OH); and the Acre Artist Residency (Steuben, WI). McDowell received an MA in Media Studies from the New School University in NYC, and an MFA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She served as the President of the New Media Caucus from 2020-2023, and is currently an Associate Professor of Digital Art & Animation at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She lives in Baltimore.
Written, modeled and animated by Jessye McDowell
MetaHuman by Epic Games
Additional assets from Epic Games
Motion Capture:
Jessye McDowell
Adobe Mixamo
Performance (motion, facial and vocal):
Kelli Shay Hix
Music:
Not a Child Anymore – Instrumental
Sonorite
Candy
Ketsa
You Know I’m Coming Home – Instrumental
Jon Worthy
Birds, Orphans and Fools Soundtrack
Zdenek Liska
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.
