Scene 1: The Beginning
See Also
The other works in The Beginning.
The Man Who, Victor Balanon
Zsa Zsa Zsu, Tromarama
Maze Out
2017
oomleo
Single-channel video (GIF animation) with sticker installation
Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum
Film
Society
Film art became more popular after the invention of the internet[5]. It pushed for the portrayal of thoughts through more than just words or paintings, and digitalised what was once only available on paper.
In this section, Cinerama attempts to explore how digitalisation led to filmmaking. Beginning with the most basic component of videos—pixels—‘The Beginning’ explores how these pixels are put together to form a full picture. I will be talking about my thoughts on the first work in Cinerama: oomleo’s Maze Out.
oomleo’s piece, Maze Out, presents the time when digitalised film became commonplace. Deliberately using pixel art, it explores the start of modern technology. Pixels were the symbol of computers in the 80s[6], but have since become a retro symbol of early technology.
With the computer comes the internet. Interconnectivity is what comes to mind when one first thinks of the net, and I felt that this was what oomleo was striving for. Every individual drawing come together to form a bigger picture, just like pieces of information we read on the internet. Drawings of machinery double up as part of his narration about internet technology, and the TV screen that shows the animations are the screens of our smart devices, where there is a world of information behind the screen which we are oblivious to.
The moving pixels, displayed on the sole screen in the exhibition room, is extended throughout the room in still, through wallpaper stickers. It is almost as if life was captured into an image, and I was invited to explore the characters in oomleo’s story in detail.
Aptly, Maze Out talks about internet’s influence on humans. This piece reflects on how life has been moving in a pace so fast, people have started to fall behind[7]. People have become so minute in this world of technology that the main focus of the work is the machinery, and we have to squint just to observe the workers.
Maze Out is a social commentary about technology’s prowess; about how it is larger than life; about how it has consumed us.
