2019

Reflexive

Experimental film



In October 2019, I participated in the "Book of Movies" project by artist Xu Bing.

This series of open seminars invite young Chinese filmmakers to follow the editing model of "Dragonfly Eyes" and explore a variety of narratives, themes, and plots to create a short emotional movie with footage from public surveillance camera libraries. Info

Dreams and screens are both channels into another world.  A man dreams of becoming a computer, and every monitor turns into his eyes. An inundation of digital images stored on the disk floods him like memory. Gradually, he sees himself in them. When he wakes up, he can't tell if he has become a computer or if the computer has taken his humanity. Technology participates and shapes our world in ways beyond its tool-based functions. I was inspired by the traditional Chinese story "The Butterfly Dream of Zhuangzi." Using the same material of an existing project to create different tales is a fresh and engaging experience. By controlling the rhythm of the video with a mouse click, I hope to investigate the relationship between humans and technologies. Should we regard the inside of the screen as a mirrored reality? Will reality be the superposition of Zhuangzi and the butterfly in his dream? What is virtual and real in the digital age?

*The video material comes from Xu Bing's studio and the internet. Please do not spread it to external domains other than the Links on the right.