The year is 2040 and it has been two decades since the American economy tanked. North America is a sprawling mega-slum and the population of the West is viewed as a massive, cheap labour force for China and India. This is the setup for Ghosts With Shit Jobs, Canadian author Jim Munroe's self-described "lo-fi sci-fi" meditation on labour and everyday life in a dreary future Toronto. Filmed as a pseudo-documentary, a Chinese news show sends reporters to the West to gain insight in to the daily grind and perspective of 'ghosts' (Cantonese slang for indigenous North Americans) and portrays a selection of these low-level workers as they struggle to make ends meet. These protagonistshave taken on jobs nobody else wants—robotic toy construction, spider silk foraging, online copyright protection, conversational product-placement—and employment is the lens through which the economy and everyday life are inspected. Doesn't exactly sound like traditional science fiction fare does it? Well, Ghosts With Shit Jobs is immensely successful as speculative fiction because rather than overwhelm the viewer with CGI setpieces and genre clichés it provides a nuanced, character-driven plot that is chock-full of insight on technology and culture. The super-smart script shines and is delivered as kind of a future vérité that is so blasé about the world it constructs that the viewer has no choice but to be drawn into the headspace of each of the main characters.
An interactive (and immersive) documentary on code and creativity, Jonathan Minard and James George’s CLOUDS is an ambitious project that is several years in the making. CAN donned an Oculus Rift DK2, explored its landscape and has weighed-in with a review.
The team behind ‘Clouds’ continue to explore the medium in the latest short film “Drowning of Echo”, an interpretation of the Transformation of Echo & the story of Narcissus from Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Sorry, this is Members Only content. Please Log-in. Join us today by becoming a Member. Archive: More than 3,500 project profiles, scores of essays, interviews and reviews.Publish: Post your projects, events, announcements.No Ads: No advertisements, miners, banners.Education: Tutorials (beginners and advanced) with code examples, downloads.Jobs Archive: Find employers who have recruited here in the past…
Showcasing three film collaborations by Liam Young and Tim Maughan, “New Romance: Love Stories from the Machine City” is an exhibition currently showing at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery (Columbia GSAPP) about finding respite and cultivating resistance in the smart city.
Since 2008, CAN has been at the forefront of innovation – facilitating and driving the conversations about technology, society and critical making. From online/offline publications to live events, CAN’s initiatives have played an instrumental in shaping the innovative creative practices we know today.