Portfolio of Creative Work

This portfolio of creative works consists of four projects dealing with the concepts of nostalgia, desire and kitsch in late capitalism. The projects are composed of two films, Rex and I?, and two interactive installations, and Information Superhighway respectively. Rex explores the cultural icon of the dinosaur and its use as a simulacrum in contemporary society. It does this through a soundtrack composed of sound bites from various documentaries from the past contrasted with a video displaying images of the dinosaur from the past and present, accompanied by generative spoken word poetry. I? delves into the history of consumerism and examines the link between identity and emotional well-being in postmodern culture through the genre of cyberpunk. Madonna’s Material Girl is nested between a soundtrack created using gritty synths and accompanied by a video using commercials from the past, commercial-like footage of the present and 3D animation. Listening Machines comments on the use of anthropomorphism and cuteness in product design through an interactive installation where participants engage with anthropomorphised speakers with unique personalities. Information Superhighway investigates the surreal nature of the internet and the disconnect between cyberspace and the physical world. It explores this through an interactive installation which uses a twitter bot that generates random sentences based off databases of recent tweets, the use of sculptural devices such as an interactive cloud and ambient sounds generated from early computer start up noises. These works have been realised through the use of SuperCollider, MaxMSP, Blender, Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro X. In this commentary I will expand on the theory that inspired these projects and explain the realisation of each of them.