Post on 07-Mar-2016
description
THE VIRTUAL HEREAFTER
A short film about digital afterlife, presenting an analogy with biological organisms and the idea of replicating code
The visual experience of the film is like a laboratory experiment report, such that the structure of the film fllows in the same way as how experiment reports are written. The first part of the film is an explanation of the experiment method and investigating question, followed by an analogy and results of the experiment. The symbols, diagrams and 3D models are how they would be shown in a science book or video. To make the viewer understand the in-depth nature of this analogy I have incorporated microscopic, grainy, fuzzy images and negatives to suggest the viewer to study the concept further than the surface level. Initially, when scientists were trying to dicover the structure of the cell, the first point of reference was a bubble, therefore I have used bubbles to provide a visual imagery for cells.
This short film explains the issue of digital afterlife by comparing it with processes similar to biological organisms. It presents the analogy that similar to biological immortality, where the organism such as bacteria can go on to live forever (if optimum conditions are maintained) by replicating themselves and forming colonies, we are also replicating our identity by uplocading digital cells and creating a digital DNA. Bacteria reproduce through a process known as Binary Fission, where one cell divides into two, we are also replicating our identity twice or more depending on how active we are online. It is not very easy to gather an exact number of how many times our digital code divides because of the open and huge structure of the World Wide Web. The film compares biological and digital processes to map out similarities and speculate what may happen in the future if the digital universe is performing like a bilogical process such as a re-combined digital code.
The idea of replicating code and in specific digital code has been explored by George Dyson who said, ‘there’s no reason life won’t use the self-replicating abilities of digital code, and that’s what’s happening.’
THE FILM -ANALOGY
The latter parts of the film, loop back on how a biological process is influenced by the digital, where as the analogy is mainly about tehnological process acting like biological. Hence, the final part of the film shows images of bacterial growth on agar plates, these are samples taken from different areas to visually represent the amount of online data (digital cells) stored and shared in different servers such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
THE PROPOSAL
The Virtual Hereafter is a piece of critical design in the form of a short film that explores the topic of online activity and digital immortalilty. All of the activities and interactions in the digital environment are recorded, which is known as the digital footprint. This data is stored in the cloud and can be used by others because there is unclarity about ownership of digital content. This is an important issue today because of the amount of data we are storing online.
Life after death has been explored by religion, science, art and metaphysics. In most cultures, there is a strong belief that the same individual who lived and died continues to have new experiences. ‘Some belief systems, such as those in the Abrahamic tradition,
hold that the dead go to a specific plane of existence after death, as determined by a god, gods, or other divine judgment, based on their actions or beliefs during life. Science explains that everything is made up of natural elements, the big bang is held responsible for the creation of everything and at the end of life, the human body will be absorbed back into the system. Technological advances such as cryonics have allowed the freezing of the body in the hope of restoring it to life after death. Architecture and memorabilia have an important relationship with death and leaving a trace behind. There are three main issues concerned with digital after life: preserving useful information for the future, providing escape such as grieving and control such as legal issues and authorship.
THE PROPOSAL
D
OM
AIN
N
AM
E SE
RVER
D
OM
AIN
N
AM
E SE
RVER
NAP
ISP
ISP
ROU
TER
CAGTGCACGATGTAC
010111001010110
GTCACGTGCTACATG
101000110101001
Clie
nt D
NA tr
ansla
ted
into
bin
ary
code
whe
n us
er in
tera
cts
onlin
e.
A di
gita
l cel
l is c
reat
ed w
ith d
ata
reco
rded
in b
inar
y co
de in
the
nucle
oid
Plas
mid
has
met
adat
a st
ored
- da
ta re
cord
er w
thou
t clie
nt in
itiatio
n e.
g. d
ate,
tim
e an
d us
er n
o
Chro
mos
ome
DNA
has
activ
e da
ta
stor
ed -
data
cre
ated
by
the
user
su
ch a
s a
twee
t, fa
cebo
ok s
tatu
s.
Dom
ain
nam
e se
rver
loca
tes
the
dest
inat
ion
serv
ers
and
send
s th
e ce
ll in
the
right
dire
ctio
n.
Mor
e th
an a
sin
gle
cell m
ay b
ecr
eate
d by
the
user
dep
endi
ng o
nth
e siz
e of
con
tent
. Rou
ter
send
s th
ese
cells
in p
acke
ts.
Digi
tal c
ell is
sen
t to
the
Inte
rnet
se
rvice
pro
vider
, pl
asm
id
upda
ted.
Digi
tal c
ell u
pdat
ed a
s it
trave
ls th
roug
h NA
P an
d de
stin
atio
n IS
Pan
d ro
uter
.
DEST
INAT
ION
SERV
ICE
PRO
VIDE
RNE
TWO
RK A
CCES
S PR
OTE
CTIO
NSE
RVER
0101110010
1010001101
0101110010
1010001101 0101110010
1010001101
Digi
tal c
ell r
eplic
ated
twice
or m
ore
and
stor
ed in
diff
eren
t dat
a st
orag
e sy
stem
s.
All d
igita
l cel
ls co
llect
ed to
geth
er
form
a m
aste
r DNA
file
for t
he c
lient
in
the
cloud
.
Pack
ets
put t
oget
her
Ove
rtim
e ou
r dig
ital D
NA m
ay b
e al
tere
d or
re-c
ombi
ned
by v
iruse
s or
by
othe
r cel
ls, w
hich
will
resu
lt an
inst
ance
of a
digi
tal m
utat
ion.
Alte
red
gene
tic c
ode
This
form
s th
e di
gita
l DNA
DIGITAL DNA REPLICATION PROCESS
010111001010110
101000110101001
01011 010110
101000110101001