It's 2020 and isolation became the topic of our day-to-day lives. Due to the outbreak of a new type of virus most of us are obliged to stay at home or in a quarantine. Being kept away from the regular life without restrictions, we're re-thinking our possibilities of connecting with ourselves and with others. Although out planet is burning, the outer world seems to be quiet, the streets are empty as if we've eventually woke up from a centuries long deep sleep and understood the necessary measures we have to take in order to prevent a total collapse. To limit our physical presence to a minimum, stay inside and use this time to brainstorm the future we want to see around us when we finally step outside.
Californian, Berlin based filmmaker Mishka Kornai shot a short surreal story Filtrate situated in the near future. The original concept of the story is a fantasy about humanity that has been transformed beyond any and all recognition by the echo chambers of social media. The five characters of the story are non-terrestrial beings and they wear imaginary costumes as they stroll and dance their way through the abandoned sectors of Montreal's subway. Each character is a unsettling, fabricated version of themselves, showing off their very best to stand out:
These extraordinary creatures’ only interactions take place on a digital interface. Using alien runes they either swipe, like, sort or rate each other from afar. The seemingly benign and even desirable filtration of the information we consume every day is creating environments and communities that are successively smaller and more homogenous.
Meant to reflect the effect of social media, some take outs of Mishka's story expressed much more, something I can strongly relate to especially during these days. The modern, empty chambers of metro building meant for transport doesn't represent only the cold isolation of the beings but also symbolises their/our urge to move from an old place to a new one, move in time and to take a radically different direction. The interdisciplinary presence of architecture, urban exploration, costume design, choreography and still photography in the movie upholds the values of art which I believe will uplift us in the time of crisis and will help us draw the future we want to live in when after it ends:
FILTRATE
To see Mishka's work visit his website and follow him on Vimeo.
You can find Mishka's photography work on Instagram.
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Chiara Rendeková
Chiara was born and raised in the neighbourhood of Petržalka in Bratislava. Besides studying Marketing Communication at Comenius University, she happens to be an observer, mostly through the lens of a camera.
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