Dear Shaded Viewers,
ARTSTHREAD announces the winners in different categories, this is definitely one that caught my eye.
A short film by Michael Yoshimura – specialising in Film, Architecture, Animation
Location: Toronto, Canada from Carleton University
Abstract: The thesis uses the medium of the science-fiction short film to address the potential of architecture to narrate the contemporary notion of Shinto techno animism. Shinto animism, traditionally found within elements in nature, has been translated in contemporary Japanese technological culture into techno-animism. The site for this short film is in a shotengai – a local street market. Here, the shotengai urban typology becomes the architectural trope and catalyst from which the thesis explores the relationship of techno-animism’s implications on space.
Plot Summary: “Shotengai” investigates Takaharu’s (the lone character) role in a future society greatly extended through technological infrastructures. The narrative questions if Takaharu’s role, to keep the literal mechanisms and infrastructure of society running, even matter. Set in 2100, Takaharu lives in a humble mid-rise building off a shotengai (a covered street market), somewhere in a dense Japanese city. The story reflects upon his everyday actions as a maintenance worker for a large corporation’s code database. As the years have progressed, Takaharu has become increasingly jaded, and the bits of broken memory which narrates the film gives ques to his past employment, as a black market code hacker.
Sound Track by Stars of The Lid – The Daughters of Quiet Minds
Official Selection
| Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam 2020
| Iso Film Festival 2020
| Future Firm The Night Gallery
| Toronto Society of Architects: Architecture in Film 2020
Website:
myoshimura.format.com
