*
'Brains in the State of Suspension'
2025
Music: Nalyssa Green
What is it like to be a consciousness untethered to any physical thing? A human intelligence in the form of a brain that is dying to dominate a body?
STORY
In a human-free world, brains wake up from cryogenic sleep and are in search of new bodies. Due to the lack of human bodies, they start possessing inanimate objects. After dominating everything, they notice that their fixation with control, led them to create monstrous entities. In a moment of irony, the brains realise that to defend themselves against the monsters, they must in effect destroy themselves. Their own intelligence is the monster and must be terminated.
CONCEPT
What would it mean if we used our intelligence differently, “ and did not treat everything around us as a prop to our own drama” , as J. Bridle notes.
The story is a remark on the domination of human intelligence, reason and the patriarchy. The metaphor of the brain, whose relentless drive to dominate, reflects humanity's willingness to destroy even its own self in order to exist.
The film, though not typical horror, draws from the genre's exploration of the liminal and in-between.
“ Cosmic horror writers are less interested in shocking you than with the boundary between the natural and the supernatural” - E. Thacker
2025
Music: Nalyssa Green
What is it like to be a consciousness untethered to any physical thing? A human intelligence in the form of a brain that is dying to dominate a body?
STORY
In a human-free world, brains wake up from cryogenic sleep and are in search of new bodies. Due to the lack of human bodies, they start possessing inanimate objects. After dominating everything, they notice that their fixation with control, led them to create monstrous entities. In a moment of irony, the brains realise that to defend themselves against the monsters, they must in effect destroy themselves. Their own intelligence is the monster and must be terminated.
CONCEPT
What would it mean if we used our intelligence differently, “ and did not treat everything around us as a prop to our own drama” , as J. Bridle notes.
The story is a remark on the domination of human intelligence, reason and the patriarchy. The metaphor of the brain, whose relentless drive to dominate, reflects humanity's willingness to destroy even its own self in order to exist.
The film, though not typical horror, draws from the genre's exploration of the liminal and in-between.
“ Cosmic horror writers are less interested in shocking you than with the boundary between the natural and the supernatural” - E. Thacker
It seeks to explore the threshold, the hybrid, the never reaching condition, the endless drive to reach the desired object, that always leads to another liminality that never satisfies. A monster that the human never seems to be willing to accept.
“ The monster always represents the destruction of boundaries and so we need monsters and we need to recognize and celebrate our monstrosities” - J. Halberstam.
The story is told through fragmented, non-linear forms, reproducing feminine structures of narratives, challenging traditional climactic, linear ones. In these types of structure, the journey and the process itself are important.
FORMAT
A live-performed CGI short film that attempts to interweave notions of liminality, feminine narratives, human intelligence, and horror theory.
This project attempts to experiment on film-making and immersive cinematic experiences. During the performance, the audience enters a space surrounded by three large projection panels. One screen displays real-time visuals captured by a live camera, which is passed around for the audience to film themselves. These live images are manipulated on the spot using a custom-trained AI model, transforming the participants into strange, evolving forms. A live theremin performance accompanies and interacts with these visuals, adding an eerie soundscape. The other two screens play pre-rendered CGI sequences - constructed from 3D scans, video, and digital environments - that unfold fragments of the story. A voice-over sounds through the piece, guiding the audience through the narrative. Together, the live and pre-recorded elements create a layered, immersive cinematic experience.
* Research for this project was conducted during my residency at Onassis AiR, in Athens. It was performed live during the Open Days of the residency programme. Also, it was part of the INTER:ACTIVE exhibition at CPH:DOX 2025.
** Below you can watch the 2-channel version of the film, without the AI screen.
“ The monster always represents the destruction of boundaries and so we need monsters and we need to recognize and celebrate our monstrosities” - J. Halberstam.
The story is told through fragmented, non-linear forms, reproducing feminine structures of narratives, challenging traditional climactic, linear ones. In these types of structure, the journey and the process itself are important.
FORMAT
A live-performed CGI short film that attempts to interweave notions of liminality, feminine narratives, human intelligence, and horror theory.
This project attempts to experiment on film-making and immersive cinematic experiences. During the performance, the audience enters a space surrounded by three large projection panels. One screen displays real-time visuals captured by a live camera, which is passed around for the audience to film themselves. These live images are manipulated on the spot using a custom-trained AI model, transforming the participants into strange, evolving forms. A live theremin performance accompanies and interacts with these visuals, adding an eerie soundscape. The other two screens play pre-rendered CGI sequences - constructed from 3D scans, video, and digital environments - that unfold fragments of the story. A voice-over sounds through the piece, guiding the audience through the narrative. Together, the live and pre-recorded elements create a layered, immersive cinematic experience.
* Research for this project was conducted during my residency at Onassis AiR, in Athens. It was performed live during the Open Days of the residency programme. Also, it was part of the INTER:ACTIVE exhibition at CPH:DOX 2025.
** Below you can watch the 2-channel version of the film, without the AI screen.
