The central theme of my short film is the exploration of a pseudo-scientific phenomenon,
reflecting on the relationship between humanity and nature/microbiology
by anthropomorphising a fictional bacterium and exploring its fictive 'dance',
imitating the style of documentary fims.
As for the technique, I first conducted a scientific research and then captured footage
of existing microorganisms - Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes - using a microscope. I then put it all into a pseudoscientific context, invented a fictitious dance
for the bacteria and 'documented' this phenomenon. I wrote the text myself,
but I used AI to create the soundtrack, to make it seem a bit more
'mechanical and clumsy' like the narration in nature films.
Here you can see my research.
It is based on the swarming motility of the Escherichia coli (a real phenomenon),
however the other parts are completely fictional,
fake bibliography, 'publications' written and photoshopped by me, and AI-generated diagrams.
You can find a flipbook version below.
What was my aim? I structured my text to be believable at the beginning
and then I started to make it more and more confusing, unbelievable,
so that by the middle everyone could feel that something is off.
I wanted to reflect on the social effect, that fewer and fewer people are able to look at a work of art,
scientific research or news critically.
For example, fake news is becoming widespread so fast nowadays, the appearance of AI
is also increasing the spread of deepfake content, and people are very easily led to believe it.
Unfortunately my project had a similar effect, many people believed it without question.
