it is the year 3023, in a star cloud far away from shelter, we found weird remains of what seems to be another life form. 

The planet behold vairous enviromental conditions, disturbing gravity and tight nit eco structure. 

Through a long time of interacting with them and studying their plannet and life forms, we concluded that they are the remains of what used to be called ‘Humans’. Their planet was once demolisehed by a big explosion. 

This is a documentary recording their current life forms for our study.

Storyboard

Animation + music test

Objectives of this project

What is the point of art?

To express? To reconcile? To objectify? To symbolise? To ask questions. To be useless. To be useless. It assumes that there are purpose.

What is the point of our human existence?

I don’t think there is any one that can give a satisfying answer to this question, yet we all think about it.

In this question regarding humanity, it is hard to even define the word ‘point’. On what scale or subject or in what context of what form and type of existence as a whole or just one? So instead of defining a meaning for life, I went to the opposite of existence – Death, and eliminated all humans from this world of animation.

What is death? Durning the proposal, I claimed that this animation is a joke which occurred accidentally during a bad day. But deep down believe in no accidents, only premeditated phenomenon realised through collaborated factors appearing in a predetermined time that can only appear to be ’accidental’ in-order for a human brain to cope. This idea is inspired by the Buddhist concept of Karma which sounds abstractly comparable for the current scientific model of the fourth dimension, where time is only a imagination of human perception, and all things overlaps at the same time. This makes past, present, and future happen at the same time.

And these thinking makes death even harder to define. I used to see death as a final escape, where even conscious would be eliminated (or maybe periodically exist then forgotten as we enter a new cycle of life because I believe in reincarnation). The idea of ending brought me great courage when expressed in jokes, as it proved me an ultimate escape, that when all hopes were lost, death is the only certainty and is permanent. Though death, it provides an anchor though the uncertainty of life that embraces absurdity into the mundane because no matter what happened, it won’t matter for too long.

The vastness of the universe and the contrast between seemingly opposite concepts appeared like coins in my brain. Which is when I thought maybe everything is not too different from each other. In tarot cards, Death means the end of a cycle, but cycles never end. In other words, death means rebirth. If the idea of a contrasting ‘other’ does not exist, ’I’ would not exist either. If there is no death, then life would be trivial. If there is no pain, happiness would be less appreciated. If everyone is the same, there would be no self, or others; and certain no love of individual, then hate would also no longer exist. These ideas not only complement each-other, they are extremely different and very much alike, coexisting and codependent on the juxtaposed, like two sides of a coin. Just like how the value of infinity infinitely approaches to zero and is larger than any sum; a black hole which constant engulfs will eventually become a white whole that constantly ejects, simplicity is the highest complicity, and love is similar to hate.

All of the above could only make sense in this particular universe, under this social construction and observed by humans. What if we were not?

What if we were born in another planet? another universe? another dimension? There are lots of movies and literatures exploring imaginary miraculous creatures and foreign planets, but all exploring from a human perspective. The imagination never goes beyond our pre-existed circumstances. Concepts like hot and cold, deserts and civilisations, no matter how foreign it may seem at the beginning, it all goes back to a man’s test of morality and love. Is there possibly a way man can go without love or boundaries of our current society? What if a man loses their memory and wakes up in a completely (and I mean completely) foreign land, where the creatures are helium based, not carbon based creatures, they could consume radiations or something more absurd, undiscovered, beyond imagination, above our dimension. The concept of time does not exist, instead of linear, it’s like a solid, everything happens at the same time. And the creatures are not like any earthily imagined creatures (we are only making hybrids of existing things) but indescribable. This person would likely to die form information overload but say if they did survive and was raised like one of their own planet creatures.

That would have been a world completely free of human engagement. There would be a different system of language and emotions, a brand new ego system. If our eco system functions through regeneration for new life, then that one maybe aiming for permanent existence and evolution. Hormones would not exist, there for emotions will be different. There may be a new way of connection with civilisations or they may be solitary creatures or just concepts, not to survive but to prioritise an ideology before life. What would it be like to live without emotions and society? If imagination can only be created based on the things that have seen before, what would the compelely unimaginable look like?

Like a 2D character accidentally trampled across 3D world. They would not be able to fully engage in anything. And I feel unfortunate that I cannot imagine beyond my own boundaries either. I hope one day I would have enough experience where I have tried every possibility in life and figured out my ego more clearly. I hope by then I can express with determination and clear expression in artworks.

What would the world look like if at any point in history things went differently? What would Earth look like free of human influences? What would the Earth become? How would we die? What if I was an alien that lost all the memory and saw the future of already destroyed Earth? What would my perspective be without any emotions or context?

Poetry

What would the language look like without human? And I am aware that everything I have typed and will type is already made of human perception because I have lived under this human system, trained and inherently posses human limitations.

Later in the process, after I have attempted writing poetry I gave up. Not only it makes the animation even more abstract than it already has, it lacks focus. Of course it’s my problem. Thanks to Koji, graduate student of MA Documentry, he wrote a story based on my animation idea which inspired me to produce the current script.

Script

This, is year 6721. Peaking through the cracks of time, I record the current condition of our ancient home. With a series of mutations, our planet is no longer suitable for us to live. Occupied by unstable environments and predators. here， are the ones that will always starve, unable to fullfill themselves. Here are the ones that will always disappoint, nothing can satisfy. Here are the once’s that will always lie, even to themselves. Here are the once’s that will remain in silence, for the near sight or sound of others brings them immense pain. But it was destroyed by the hands of us. And the worst punishment of all. Our destruction of the planet have also destroyed death. Immortality is our punishment.

I also made a new series of characters for the further developed civilisation.

These characters are inspired by the movie ‘The Arrival’ in which their characters have a structure that can be interpreted directly through imagery and the composition of the paragraph. It is a straight forward language that even the smallest tweaks can result to a new meaning. Early human civilisations imagery is more prominent in communication , such as orical bone scripts and Miao ethnic groups in China. Stories were told through totems. These paintings not only hold information, but also carries the emotion of the tribe, passed through the artist’s hand, perceived by our eyes, having an immediate emotion recognition.

As the creatures are creatures inspired by human emotions, the scripts should also be full of emotions. These characters are also created based on strong feelings such as resentment, destroy, sorrow and greed.