STONE DESERT
How it all started
Immortality:
When I was 17 I read in a semi-scientific magazine that immortality will be reached in 2050. That was in 1973. And I was, shit, just too late for me. I always had a feeling I was born in the wrong times.
VR
Some years later when I was already involved in video art, I and my friends had a discussion about the technological future of a video camera. My position was that there will be no video camera as we have a perfect build in a machine called “The eye”. But I realise that if we will be able to “record” and “save” the input in our brains we will be also able to receive the import recorded or saved by other brains or machines. So we will be able to watch someone else’s reality, but also feel and live someone else’s reality.
Power of information.
Imagine an old Egipt. A priest stands on the top of a pyramid. Below all the people of Egypt are assembled. He is angry and shouting to his people. You are not good, you are not obeying me and I will punish you. I will take you the light away from your life’s. I will destroy the sun. And you will all die in the darkness and cold. As he finishes his sentence the sun starts losing its power. Just in a few seconds, it became darker and colder. The sun is gone. People start screaming and begging… please, please, do not destroy us! The priest raises his hand… only this time and if you swear you will obey me, I will save all of your lives. As soon as the promise obedience to him, the
God:
The simple version:
Genesis 1:27:
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
As in my opinion, these words were written by a human we can read it as a goal for humankind:
So Man created God in His own image; in the image of Man, He created God.
And we are getting closer and closer…
Back to analog
Draft story
Thousand and thousands of human statues in a stone desert. They are all white, standing on that white stone. Intense sun and nothing moves. They are all different but, at the same time, the same. They are all in a pose, which looks like they are frozen in time. Motionless. Face after face, body after body. Black birds are sitting on their heads and walking around as if they are not there. But suddenly, something scares them. They fly away. Was there a movement inside the eye? Is the finger on the hand moving?
One of the statues is starting to move; an eye opens a salve drops out of a semi-open mouth. The movement is slow and clumsy (Butho dance 1980 was the inspiration for movement).
Short summary:
After gaining full movement capability, our “hero” moves inland. On the journey, he finds several items which transform him into a “warrior”.
Now he is entering the post-civilization world. Destruction, decay of urban architecture, empty and scary. Deserted and grey. Is he observed? Followed?
He enters the underworld and finds himself in front of the huge metal door. A church of a kind? He enters. Space full of computers and monitors, full hi-tech environment. It is a monitoring station of the “Stone Desert”, where he was coming from. It is clear that all white bodies in the desert are vehicles for the virtual life of the machines.
One of the monitors displays the messages: “Error” and “Autocorrect in 24h”. It is him.
Hordes
At the moment he could make a decision and. intervene on the screen, the grand of savages enters the space. It is clear this is their sacral place. A church. Something they don’t understand and are afraid of. And an alien has violated this sacred place. He must be killed at once.
But he is not. A woman leader saves him. He is a perfect slave, so she wants to have him.
He starts a new life in the “barbaric” society.
Survival of the fittest
Personal slave of gang Leader Boris
yes, she, Boris, is the strongest in the group. One of many groups. And they have a supreme leader. Head of them all. And all is allowed; power is the only rule. And they fight every day… for anything. In the big ring, also a leftover of the technical past. Hundreds of cameras broadcast the fits on the big monitored wall, and excited crowds are going mad.
His life is in constant danger, but he is a survivalist. And he has technical memory of his previous digital life. In the graveyard of history, he finds things, and he makes things, which makes his Master stronger and stronger, and his position better and better.
Love Story
He becomes first a lover and then a partner of Boris. But it is short-lived as Boris is killed in one of the duels on the big screen. Now he becomes the gang leader and one of them. Or is he? He is a regular visitor of the computer church and sitting next to his monitor, wondering…
To be or not to be a King
Personal slave of gang Leader Boris
yes, she, Boris, is the strongest in the group. One of many groups. And they have a supreme leader. Head of them all. And all is allowed; power is the only rule. And they fight every day… for anything. In the big ring, also a leftover of the technical past. Hundreds of cameras broadcast the fits on the big monitored wall, and excited crowds are going mad.
His life is in constant danger, but he is a survivalist. And he has technical memory of his previous digital life. In the graveyard of history, he finds things, and he makes things, which makes his Master stronger and stronger, and his position better and better.
Love Story
He becomes first a lover and then a partner of Boris. But it is short-lived as Boris is killed in one of the duels on the big screen. Now he becomes the gang leader and one of them. Or is he? He is a regular visitor of the computer church and sitting next to his monitor, wondering…
