“Post-human” makes me think about terminal boredom. It seems to be the number one concern for young people from the generation X category, who have grown up in the information technology age and have been bombarded with gadgets, TV channels and the internet since birth.
Access to unlimited amounts of gadgets, the internet, online gaming worlds, social networking, mobile phones, ipods, MTV, pornography – as well as alcohol and drugs; illicit, but especially prescription – can negatively impact young people socially, physically, mentally and emotionally. I am interested in the idea that the overload of information from today’s world has become white noise to young people who don’t know how to process it all, and has thus created what I consider to be a “blank generation.”
With such an overload of traditionally adult information and so many unnatural ways for children to “kill time”, today’s kids struggle to feel and are much too easily then given access to an array of prescription drugs – uppers, downers, anti-depressants – to deal with a range of issues I largely attribute to the “white noise” such as bipolar disorder, obsessive disorders, attention deficit disorder, issues relating to body image etc.
Children aren’t growing up how nature had intended and as a result we have a generation who feels lost, depressed, alone and without hope.
In my animation I aim to explore this idea. I want to show how addicted kids are to technology and prescription drugs and the resulting blankness that they feel. My characters will be mostly silhouetted children with blank, white eyes whose bodies mirror the flickering of the TV. I want them to be identifiable as human children, but to seem like a part of the technology surrounding them. Each will be doing a certain action non-stop – pressing a button, scratching an arm etc to show the obsession with technology. The colours will be bleak, dull and unnatural, mirroring the technologically crazed world. Sound will also be important – keyboards, buttons pressed, techno, pills popping, technology, scratching etc.
Inspiration and Research:
The moment we got the theme "post human" I thought about a conceptual album, "Fear of a Blank Planet" by one of my favourite bands Porcupine Tree. The album deals with the 'blank generation' issue and the effects of prescription drugs and technology on adolescents.
Some of these lyrics have inspired my idea (highlighted in red):
1. Fear Of A Blank Planet
Sunlight coming through the hazeNo gaps in the blinds
To let it inside
The bed is unmade,
Some music still plays
TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker on the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking the shit flowing out of it
I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing
X-Box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me
Don't try engaging me
The vaguest of shrugs
The prescription drugs
You'll never find a person inside
My face is Mogadon
Curiosity has given up on me
I'm tuning out desires
The pills are on the rise
How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here
I'm through with pornography
The acting is lame
The action is tame
Explicitly dull
Arousal annulled
Your mouth should be boarded up
Talking all day with nothing to say
Your shallow proclamations
All misinformation
My friend says he wants to die
He's in a band, they sound like Pearl Jam
Their clothes are all black
The music is crap
In school I don't concentrate
And sex is kinda fun, but just another one
Of all the empty ways of using up the day
Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom
Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom
You don't try to be liked
You don't mind
You feel no sun
You steal a gun
To kill time
You're somewhere
You're nowhere
You don't care
You catch the breeze
You still the leaves
So now where?
3. Anesthetize
A good impression of myselfNot much to conceal
I'm saying nothing
But I'm saying nothing with feel
I simply am not here
No way I...
Shut up, be happy
Stop whining please
Because of who we are
We react in mock surprise
The curse of "there must be more"
So don't breathe here,
Don't leave your bags
The dust in my soul
Makes me feel the weight in my legs
My head in the clouds
And I'm zoning out
I'm watching TV
But I find it hard to stay conscious
I'm totally bored
But I can't switch off
Only apathy from the pills in me
It's all in me, all in you
Electricity from the pills in me
It's all in me, all in you
Only MTV, cod philosophy
We're lost in the mall
Shuffling through the stores like zombies
What is the point?
What can money buy?
My hand's on a gun
And I find the range, God tempt me
What did you say?
Think I'm passing out
4. Sentimental
I never wanna be oldAnd I don't want dependents
It's no fun to be told
That you can't blame your parents anymore.
I'm finding it hard to hang from a star
I don't wanna be...
Never wanna be old.
Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way wish away each day
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way wish away each day
I don't really know
If I care what is normal
And I'm not really sure
If the pills I've been taking are helping
I'm wasting my life
Hurting inside
I don't really know
And I'm not really sure...
