Nick Flaherty's Night Lights Denver Proposal Notes
By Nick Flaherty
WHY THIS? WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
When I started developing the concept for this project, I wanted to explore how pop culture aesthetics change along with our sense of optimism for the future. Specifically, I was interested in how the early 2000’s was driven by a fascination with new technologies and high hopes for the upcoming millennium. Everything was designed to look otherworldly, colorful, and shiny. The impending doom of humanity was easier to ignore, and the future was still fun and exciting.
I was wondering if that kind of optimism could be reclaimed, even during such a time of extreme collective tragedy. I thought the theme of regeneration worked well with this too, imagining a way to visually represent our hope for the future being reborn in spite of the struggles of our modern day.
But through further research, I started to become more critical of exactly what the Y2K aesthetic was really about. I still love the look and feel of it, but I can’t help but fixate on the way this optimism was used to emotionally manipulate us into buying lots of new expensive tech products. Computers were once clunky and intimidating, so apple made them cool and youthful looking, like they’re from another planet. If you buy this product, you are now living a more advanced and futuristic life. This is not just a tool, it is part of your identity, it is who you are. This kind of advertising has been around since long before the new millennium, but I think it really reached a new extreme here when it comes to technology. So even though the super shiny Y2K aesthetic died around 2003, the treatment of your technology as part of your identity only got stronger. Suddenly we have social media, a new monster we only just now realized we weren’t prepared for, after allowing it to consume our entire existence.
Modern technology isn’t about bettering people’s lives or bringing us into a brighter future, it’s about commodifying identity, feeding our insatiable need to feel distinct in this bottomless ocean of voices screaming over each other. No one is safe from this. Advertisements can now target all demographics and all insecurities. We don’t need optimism for the future to sell you stuff anymore, because now we have your search history. Those illusions of hope are growing more and more obsolete. The new American Dream is to attain the incredible privilege of not hating yourself. So Stay On That Grind! Never Give Up! Never Stop Hustling! Awaken Your True Form! Your Future Awaits!
The most overt form of this I could think of was a world in which people can just buy new bodies. This practice would be held up as a way for us to truly be free, to liberate ourselves from the conservative confines of the past. And if you can’t afford it, that’s your fault. The companies that make these bodies gut you for personal data, which is then weaponized against you to craft the ultimate image of completion, the ideal self. I want to show this process in the animation, and then use the citizen’s reaction to imply that this type of thing is actually very hurtful to people. Maybe the citizen knows they will never be able to afford this kind of body. They’ll go through life constantly being told that what they are isn’t enough, while also being unable to change it. Or maybe they do believe that they can reach that level of wealth, but their struggle to get there is leaving them feeling exhausted, lonely, and dehumanized. Either way, I primarily want audiences to connect with the citizen’s emotional state, a mix of longing and grief for a future that may be lost forever.
