Espelhos fluidos : filmar os rios do futuro

Abstract

This work seeks to understand the physical and metaphysical dimensions of rivers and how they can be expressed as a cinematographic process. It proposes a film that is analogous to the river in its form, volume and time, through different ontological and artistic perspectives. Three main questions are addressed: how to film the rivers of the future, how to make a mirror film and how to film from the visual cortex. Although these questions may seem impossible to answer in a practical way, possible approaches are speculated, both philosophical, artistic and scientific. The figure of Narcissus in contemporary art reveals an obsession with creation and the media itself. In addition, Narcissus is interpreted as a representation of contemporary social illness, because technical modernity has left human latency dormant in us. The work draws on the philosophy and mythology of various native peoples, especially in the Amazon River basin, who describe the practices of dreaming and connecting with the spirit world. A cure for modern dormancy is proposed through a reflective film that invites the viewer to experience the flow of Narcissus and his metamorphosis into a river. After reviewing rivers, mirrors and the visual cortex from a reductionist perspective, a unity of concepts in the cranial box is proposed in a scientific-poetic speculation. In the mid of these digressions are the artist's dreams and his subjective perception of the natural and artificial world, as well as the technical decisions that thought forces in the construction of a river-mirror-cortex film, which include 360º camera footage and machine learning algorithms. Instead of arriving at concrete elaborations, the essay proposes the liberation of the symbolic state of art and the free formation of art both in the object and in the viewer. In the end, all that remains is silence.