Sep 14, 2020
seen from Italy
seen from Türkiye
seen from Yemen
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Sweden
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Lithuania
seen from Türkiye
seen from Poland
seen from Germany
seen from Norway
seen from United States
seen from Lithuania
seen from Türkiye
Paprika by Satoshi Kon (2006)
Paprika is a Japanese animation that explores the concept of a dream device that allows the user to visit and interact with any dreams. However, as the story progresses it reveals the device has been stolen and misused in manipulating people’s perception of dreams and reality. The concept of this dream device represents the idea of Breton’s (1924) definition of the state of “surreality” that combines the conscious and the unconscious. Particularly in this parade scene, the nonsensical random objects contrasting with the city backdrop showcases the merges of the two different states that creates chaos, confusion and questioning of reality. The concept of non-sequiturs as Shaun stated in the week 02 lecture can also be identified in this film to differentiate between the real and unreal.
Toto Forever by Max Siedentopf
This sound installation is located in the Namib desert, in Southern Africa that plays Toto’s ‘Africa’ in an infinite loop. The setup of the equipment including the MP3 player and the speakers are solar-powered and allow the song to perform a never-ending concert to a landscape of nothingness. The comedic choice of music considering the location mixed with the undisclosed whereabouts of the installation creates a juxtaposition of distant realities, a surreal commentary on post-modern music consumption all whilst providing someone how may stumble across it with a surreal listening experience.
The Infinite Crystal Universe by teamLab
This installation artwork utilises mirrors and reflections to create the illusion of an infinite space with interactive 3-dimensional light sculptures that responds to the viewer’s command. The immersiveness of the installation submerges the audience visually and alludes to an illusion of infinite expansion provoking a state of unconsciousness while in a “waking state”. The combination of reality and dream produce a surreal experience that Breton (1924) had identified.
Machine Hallucinations by Refik Anadol
Anadol’s creation of this immersive audio-visual experimental cinema was created with over 100 million photographs of New York City, using machine learning algorithms to represent the idea of a machine dreaming about an alternative future for New York. Images of data float throughout the room enveloping the audience’s vision fully immersing the viewer inside the dream of a machine. As a result, it merges the perception of reality and dream, a dream where machines have aspirations and consciousness, thus creating a surreal audiovisual story of what could be.
The Restricted Universe by Owen Lowery
This interactive outdoor installation located at Cleveland Botanical Gardens, US, allows viewers to take a peek into an alternative universe through a multisensory experience such as audio, visual, and tactile. The juxtaposition between the irrationality of a door situated in a natural environment and without an obvious structure around it to give it purpose could be interpreted as surreal. The animation that can be viewed through the peek hole displays an alternative digital world using animation to virtually recreate nature, which contrasts strongly with the botanical nature surrounding the installation and further enhances the state of surreality.
Real Time: Analog Digital Clock by Maarten Baas
In this series of clock designs, the artist creates several 12-hour real-time performances that indicate the actual time of the day. In Real Time: Analog Digital Clock - it features a what-seems a normal digital clock, however as time goes by, it reveals that someone is behind the screen and painting the clock’s digits minute by minute. The performance was later reformatted as an iPhone app. The aspect of an automatic digital clock appears to be a hand-painted clock, which challenges the viewer’s perception of an everyday object. Much like the concept of illusion in Surrealism that “disconnect the state of reality and imagined”.
Real Time: Analog Digital Clock Video