Reflective Encounters

“Do desktop films count as live-action or animation? Either way, this triptych short animates what could be our screens as we seek to learn more about a new system of healthcare driven by AI. However, just as some of the online commenters in the film fear that the new tech is a Trojan Horse for mass subjugation, Nanodoctor - Iterations 1 to 3 hides its true theme until the final iteration.

At first the film seems to be about the tech being advertised but it increasingly reveals itself as a commentary on online discourse and its seemingly degenerative quality. It zeroes in on the dissonance between the sleek sheen of online corporate video, the crude passions of the comments section, and eventually the irony-poisoned paranoias of online conspiracists - all residing in the same petri dish. By cleverly hinting at a healthcare theme within the first iteration, the short prods us to observe online spaces through an epidemiological lens, as we witness the flawed (in)humanity of real people infecting the utopian ideals of medical technology. Amid Covid conspiracies and anti-vaxxer ascendancy, Nanodoctor - Iterations 1 to 3 has its finger on the pulse of 2021, but it taps into a more timeless melancholy induced by the inevitable failures of our utopian dreams.”

— Cathy Brennan