VIDEO SCREENING

J.I.

JOHN BUTLER & LINA THEODOROU

2022 | 54 MIN

02 MAY 2023

SCREENINGS START AT 6PM, 7PM & 9PM

ARTIST TALK WITH JOHN BUTLER AT 8PM

J.I. (Jellyfish Intelligence) is an Eco Science Fiction film by John Butler and Lina Theodorou. Set in the Mediterranean, it posits a world destabilized by the advent of biological immortality, a gift of life from a mysterious new species. Part solutionist satire, part transhumanist tragedy, it features fictionalized versions of Buckminster Fuller, Rachel Carson and Ray Kurzweil.

“The start point was the real world phenomenon of vast swarms of jellyfish invading the Mediterranean coast. A story of a priest being called to exorcise this demon by throwing a crucifix into the water inspired us to consider a collision of rational science and reactionary superstition as one of the drivers of the story.

We have attributed this phenomenon to the uncontrolled spread of undersea server farms, which contain the aggregate consciousness of humanity, uploaded via social media. This rich, experiential data has attracted and mutated the jellyfish into a biological quantum computer, a sentient, but inscrutable entity that rapidly influences all of humanity.

The jellyfish serve as an 'allegorical monster', and are to networked society what Godzilla is to nuclear energy. The fact that jellyfish have no brain, just a nervous system, and drift with the tides, rather than determine their own course, makes them the ideal analogy for our networked, anomic society.
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- John Butler & Lina Theodorou

INVITED BY CLEMENS WILHELM