Anonymous Written and Directed by Sojung Bahng
Anonymous is an interactive 3D real-time rendered cinematic VR applying gaze interaction. The story concerns the life of an old man living alone and remembering his life. The environment and character were created using cardboard textures as if the audience were in a cardboard box. The audience plays the role of the man’s dead wife, and they can observe his solitary daily life positioned as his wife’s portrait. When they gaze at an object, they become the object and see his life from the object’s perspective. The work constrains the audience’s control and limits the immersion as storytelling techniques for eliciting embodied reflexivity.
In South Korea, we normally perform an annual memorial ceremony for family members on the date the person died. In this work, you become a dead person and observe your family’s life by becoming objects; then, you experience the memorial ceremony. The butterfly will lead you there.
Are you ready to die?
- Sound / Assistant Director Toby Gifford
- Technical Supervisor Mike Yeates
- Music Director RIMI Choi
- Assistant Writer Eunsung Jeon
- Interaction Programmer Sungeun Lee
- Supervisors Jon McCormack and Vince Dziekan
- Produced / Supported by SensiLab and ArtEngine
The work was selected for Bucheon International Animation Festival (BIAF2019) in Korea, Tbilisi International Animation Festival (TIAF2019) in Georgia, Torino Short Film Market (TSFM2019) in Italy, Montreal International Animation Film Festival (ANIMAZE2020) in Canada, and SeaShorts Film Festival 2022 in Malaysia.
Installation, PROTOHYVE hyphen (-), Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada, Apr, 2023
The VR film itself was completed in 2019, but the work has been reconfigured into a ritualistic installation version since 2023. For a gallery setting, Bahng creates a portrait of the deceased main character using cardboard material and improvisationally redesigns some objects, such as a tissue box or trash bin, in the gallery by adding cardboard and incorporating them into the installation. She observes that the cardboard portraits and objects become torn and damaged over time and requests the gallery to dispose of them after the show. This concept aims to convey the idea of presenting a person who exists within a non-relationship society; even after their death, their portraits and objects representing their presence and identity can be easily and quickly damaged, disposed of, and forgotten.
Installation, Environment – Resilience and Sustainability, McCord Stewart Museum, Montreal, Canada, May, 2023
