Link: http://~cz1627/website/index.html
Our project is called Black Mirrors. The word black-mirror is the representation of the black mirroring screens of electronic devices that people abuse in modern times. When people stare at their phones, computer or pads, their screens serve not only as the video player or information provider, but also as a mirror reflecting their faces. Expressionless and lifeless are these faces as if their soul was extracted of life and stuffed up with only random information streams and meaningless stimulations. We want to address this problem in our project. We want to persuade people to draw away from the virtual world and engage in real lives.
At the start of our project we illustrated how people are attending to their phones, in parks, in the subway or the pavement. Black mirrors are everywhere in our lives. Then a dream of an addict of the electronic device is showed, where it starts slow and giddy but gradually becomes stressed and crazy, like how the electronic devices make us. The fast-paced, noisy and monopoly mirror word represents the world of smart devices overdose. It is a symbol and a warning. Only after the black mirrors repressing our mind are broken can we break out of that world and truly enjoy the beautiful life we have now.
The name was inspired by the obstruction we received — no human, always shoot through a mirror and forest. They gave me a sense of cybercity’s feeling and I suggested that we could see forest as a symbolic thing — monopoly repetition, and use mirrors to create such forest. We later decided that it should be about the abuse of electronic devices because the theme fits perfectly. We collaborated throughout the project, exchanging and experimenting with new ideas, but name-wise William was in charge of coding and Elena video editing. I was mainly in charge of providing the materials we use in the project: videos, pictures and soundtracks. I like dealing with photos, shooting videos and listening to strange sounds and I enjoyed this process quite a lot. After this experience, I know better how and where to find these resources and how to construct them under one theme.