Resigning Mass
A project by Tristan Lim
in collaboration with
Rafi Abdullah & Darius Ou
Presented by I_S_L_A_N_D_S
Special Thanks:
Pey Chuan Tan
Nigel Tan
Chloe Tan
Knuckles & Notch
in collaboration with
Rafi Abdullah & Darius Ou
Presented by I_S_L_A_N_D_S
Special Thanks:
Pey Chuan Tan
Nigel Tan
Chloe Tan
Knuckles & Notch
Resigning Mass centres itself around a script compiled from conversational scenes found within various movies, forming a collaged conversation between two parties. This script becomes the material in which the project’s characters are literally and metaphorically shaped from, in their forms and lives.
A script composed from conversations within multiple movies forms the premise of Resigning Mass. These mundane conversational scenes are collaged together to form a new conversation between two parties, covering topics ranging from life routines to sinning. This script becomes the commandment that shapes every aspect of Resigning Mass’s characters. Images are extracted from the same movie scenes and converted into 3D models, which are used to shape the character’s bodies. These scenes are skinned across their surfaces, a reminder of their origins. In animated videos, the character’s move in an erratic, spastic manner, as the same script is converted into data that drives their movements.
Narrative force essentially becomes literal, governing all aspects in which the character’s are presented. The characters have been ’pre-scripted’- they are forced to embody content written by others, both conceptually and formally. They are puppets stringed along literary lines, with no control over the paths they take. Their twitchy movements exacerbates feelings of uncontrollability and tension. The visual language of vinyl toys in their presentations further these qualities- they are packaged and circulated in an exacting manner, their cartoon hands and feet espousing their status
as caricatures, simplifications.
A sense of loss pervades- a resignation of fate, present in the title of the show. As an aberration of the term ‘mass resignation’, which connotes departure, a seemingly collective choice to leave, Resigning Mass takes an opposing tone, of an individual giving into the path laid out, having been exhausted, overcomed; bringing to mind questions of fatalism and predeterminism. These qualities seem to reflect the manner in which media is produced, consumed, and how they shape the way in which we perceive our lives. Stories of destiny, succumbing to or freeing oneself from its binds; Of staged realities, real/reel lives- wills toyed by powers beyond and unknown.
To find out more about the loose ideas and inspirations behind the project, please
visit the Are.na channel here.
A script composed from conversations within multiple movies forms the premise of Resigning Mass. These mundane conversational scenes are collaged together to form a new conversation between two parties, covering topics ranging from life routines to sinning. This script becomes the commandment that shapes every aspect of Resigning Mass’s characters. Images are extracted from the same movie scenes and converted into 3D models, which are used to shape the character’s bodies. These scenes are skinned across their surfaces, a reminder of their origins. In animated videos, the character’s move in an erratic, spastic manner, as the same script is converted into data that drives their movements.
Narrative force essentially becomes literal, governing all aspects in which the character’s are presented. The characters have been ’pre-scripted’- they are forced to embody content written by others, both conceptually and formally. They are puppets stringed along literary lines, with no control over the paths they take. Their twitchy movements exacerbates feelings of uncontrollability and tension. The visual language of vinyl toys in their presentations further these qualities- they are packaged and circulated in an exacting manner, their cartoon hands and feet espousing their status
as caricatures, simplifications.
A sense of loss pervades- a resignation of fate, present in the title of the show. As an aberration of the term ‘mass resignation’, which connotes departure, a seemingly collective choice to leave, Resigning Mass takes an opposing tone, of an individual giving into the path laid out, having been exhausted, overcomed; bringing to mind questions of fatalism and predeterminism. These qualities seem to reflect the manner in which media is produced, consumed, and how they shape the way in which we perceive our lives. Stories of destiny, succumbing to or freeing oneself from its binds; Of staged realities, real/reel lives- wills toyed by powers beyond and unknown.
To find out more about the loose ideas and inspirations behind the project, please
visit the Are.na channel here.
