Speciesism | Ageism | Racism

Pedro Alves Da Veiga

doi:10.37390/avancacinema.2020.a122

Abstract

Speciesism | Ageism | Racism (SAR) is a generative cinematic artwork stemming from the millennia-old practice of mask making and laying claim to the fundamental richness of diversity. SAR generates sequences of masks from photos of people and animals without bias, imbued meaning or particular intent, leaving all interpretations and assumptions to the audience. SAR is aesthetically rooted in traditional folklore and the worldwide popular art of mask-making, in the concepts of “loop” and metric montage. Conceptually, SAR thrives in the intersectionality of postcolonial theory, feminist and anti-discrimination studies, as well as animal rights movements, policies and practices. By stripping away the ability to consistently identify species, age, race, gender or sexual orientation, the artwork allows for a disruptive aesthetic appreciation, which confronts the ideology and politics of group superiority. SAR delivers a participatory, hypnotic, rhythmic and generative audio-visual experience, charged with an anti-discriminatory message countering speciesism, ageism and racism. Speciesism | Ageism | Racism can be enjoyed in its on-line pre-calculated version at https://pedroveiga.com/sar-speciesism-ageism-racism/

Highlights

Speciesism | Ageism | Racism (SAR) is a generative cinematic artwork, using remixed photographic images and sound samples, re-composed into a new artefact, larger than the sum of its original parts, conveying a new iconography, syntax and semantics.SAR embodies an artistic collaboration between human creativity and technologically automated procedures, transposing a humanized machine aesthetic onto the screen, whose vocabulary are familiar elements, algorithmically composed and presented in an familiar format: cinema.technically, SAR cannot be considered video-art, since its output is computer generated in real-time, virtually endless and non-repetitive
Here we are trying to consider the first point of confluence between machines, film-makers and computers, which constitute, in some ways, the two greatest poles of reference in 20th century cultural history
At the beginning and end of that same century, both poles have encouraged the idea that art, science and technology ought to converge, since they have several features in common: a meticuloushistory, an impact on society, and a variety of cultural uses and offshoots

Summary

Introduction

SAR cannot be considered video-art, since its output is computer generated in real-time, virtually endless and non-repetitive. The author deemed appropriate that digital generative masks might be empowered through a generative artwork to represent and question various types of discrimination in modern times, merging ages, genders, races and species into one new entity, one new being, one new mask.

Results

Conclusion