Good Old Days Part.1 is a short experimental film that tells a story about a city with a collective memory of a bygone era and its tangled residents. It’s done through a series of absurd cinematic shots, pixelated spatial transitions, scenario-based sounds, and symbolic graphical repetition.
It is part of an ongoing experimental media project that plays around film and its extended forms, which examines the rebellion of psychic structure against its environment in digital space. It keeps pace with time and ends when the end is near. By that time, it ought to unveil the collective yearning for an idyllic past that has since passed into memory, while concurrently re-evaluating the criteria of a fulfilling life in an technology-dominated era.

Outcome

Digital Video(05:11), Graphic Design(Zine), Images, Writings

Category

~~Interactive Art~~ Experimental Film World Building ~~Multimedia Animation~~ ~~Computational Video Art~~ ~~Computational Design~~

Type

Individual Project

Date

Created in May2023, Exhibited during Sep2023-Ongoing

Keywords

World Building, Mental Structure & Urbanism, Mental Image, Archaeology of the Future

Techniques

Blender, Davinci Resolve, After Effects, Photoshop, Stable Diffusion

Good Old Days Part.1, 2023
Digital Video, 05:11

PSYCHICS & URBANISM,
LOVE & VIOLENCE

Incipiently, what excited me were the metaphorical connections between urban living spaces and our mental structure—the angles of walls, the lines of buildings, the spatial relationships of objects—and how they hinted at the potential violence of emotions and love. How we perceive one’s topological relation between ourselves and other individuals/objects forms the foundation of our mental architecture.
If we were to imagine the intricate relationships of all things in our cognition as some colossal structure (perhaps infinite, beyond our imagination), the shifts within that structure would appear violent, and the leaps between nodes would seem absurd. We tend to interpret this force that generates structural shifts as love. When it happens, an undercurrent that can destroy life and imply death surges around.

This is our life, and this film signifies this kind of life.

The digital realm and technological advancements have endowed us with power and experiences akin to the divine. By forging non-tangible relationships and visual virtual venues, we seem to claim an overwhelming power of control, akin to a deity’s. This infinity of prospects has become a daily, socially accepted stimulant for the mind—a narcotic in the realm of the psyche. Yet, virtual congregations, chat rooms, and forums, these digital commons, have paradoxically distanced us further rather than bringing us together.

PUBLICS,
INDIVIDUAL,
UNKNOWN

One of the objectives in crafting this film is to evoke the impermanence of life through environmental storytelling. To this end, the film is segmented into three distinct spaces: the mall (Publics), home (Individual, representing personal spaces), and the lab (Unknown). Against the canvas of a city of the future under technological domination, these spaces are interwoven, delving into how public domains bridge individual and communal identities, how private spaces are etched with memories and latent violence, and how the encroachment of technology into our lives spawns absurdity and disconnection.

APPROACH & TOOLS

3D DEVELOPMENT PROCESS I

PART 0, The Opening

SCENE 0.1, A Kitchen

3D Environment

3D Assets + Shader

SCENE 0.2, Lightning

City Model, Google Map Referenced

Procedural 3D Assets

Procedural 3D Assets with Geometry Node

SCENE 0.3, A Stylized City

Lighting

3D Environment

Stylized NPR Shader

Stylized NPR Shader

3D Assets

3D DEVELOPMENT PROCESS II: Three Spaces --- Publics, Intimate, Unknown

PART I, Publics

SCENE 1.1, The Mall: VIP Lounge

3D Environment + Assets + Shader

SCENE 1.2, School, Classroom

3D Environment + NPR Shader + Line Art

3D Assets + NPR Shader + Compositing

Spaces, Props, Structure & Scene Design

PART II, Intimate

SCENE 2.1, Home: Living Room

SCENE 2.2, Home: Dining Room + Fish Tank + Buildings Outside

SCENE 2.3, Home: Living Room, Flesh Hallways

PART III, Unknown

SCENE 3.1, The Lab

Film
Graphics,
Text

HEALTHY NEW VILLAGE:
COMMUNITY GUIDEBOOK

Enter the world of the HEALTHY NEW VILLAGE: COMMUNITY GUIDEBOOK and discover a place of wonder and beauty, where every aspect of life is carefully crafted to promote health and happiness.

This ain’t no reflection; It’s a revelation.

I retreated to the corner of the table, then the room, and while facing you, withdrew fro
m the towering structure.

Now, I see it all:
your body behind the concrete’s viscera, coolly poised amidst the urbanity.

From haven’s glaze, descending to the horizon through the permeable sambucus tunnel,
its light refracts against your reflective exterior, piercing my body with new-found sight.

And thus, I rediscover,
the shimmering mirage of particle-pixel matrix behind the grey air,
and the tangled love and hatred of the concrete-steel jungle.

GOD TRUTH FILE

[Work In Progress]

GOD TRUTH FILE is a collection of writings, short essays, and poetry that discusses topics on mental structure, urbanism, post-human evolution, love, and violence.