Labyrinth - Thesis Short Film
An exploration of the intersection of art and technology in the context of hurry sickness, Labyrinth is a short film where getting lost is how to find your way. This is a short film exploring my journey through creative hurry sickness and how my creative process was changed by trying, failing, and intervening on my own creative process.
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Hurry sickness is a mindset that speed is the most important factor in a project. People with hurry sickness can still value quality, but speed is #1.
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This short film was produced by myself in Unreal Engine 5 and animations of the character are done with Opt-track motion capture with the exception of one Mixamo running animation.
Inspired by Dami Lee's video essay on hurry sickness and labyrinths, I chose labyrinth as the theme of this short film as it is a concept that counters hurry sickness. It is a contradiction to efficiency, with only a single path and no false options, often the longest path possible from one point to another.
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The way she describes the journey through the labyrinth as a countermeasure to hurry sickness with two terms:
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Compression - a period of uncertainty, discomfort, intentionally lost
Release - the relief of reaching a point of rest/open space, ready to be challenged
How can I use “compression” and “release” to change my creative process?
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On top of the concept of the labyrinth, I wanted to explore the dichotomy of fast tech and slow art.
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With virtual production, real-time rendering, and generative adversarial networks, technology is allowing art to be created faster and faster, which could be seen as inviting hurry sickness. But combined with the slow art movement, which encourages a slower creation and consumption of art, can we create a new creative process that is moderately paced?
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