‘Speculative Short’

PLASMODIAL AUTOMATISM

What is intelligence without consciousness? What is consciousness without unconsciousness? 

When pulling non-mechanical, organic, systems of computation into the question of intelligence, you may also bring with it the questions we have yet to answer. So when a new data sorting computer combines organic cells and a black box algorithm, it becomes a little confusing as to what part of the computations are conscious or unconscious thoughts. It, for a lack of a provable term, gets distracted. Its umwelt narrows down to the prospective world within itself. Data begins to combine and take new shapes like hallucinations or dreams in the computer's internal interpretations of itself, the data, and its distractions. 

Plasmodial Automatism is a short video that explores the idea of non-human unconsciousness through the surreal and a speculative near future.

This “film” was the final output of a speculative technology research class. Most of the semester was focused on the research of topics and speculative design practices, with a small final section for creating a 3-minute video.

For more information on the research and timeline, contact me here.

Building the Prop:

PLASMODIAL AUTOMATISM