by Emilia Tapprest (NVISIBLE.STUDIO), 2019, 22'
Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2020The film is part of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images - 9th edition
Sonzai Zone is a speculative fiction film about intimacy and loneliness set in a dystopian near future after the normalization of ambient communication media. The protagonists Yún and Souvd meet and interact through “Sonzai-kan”, a portable device that mediates human contact. Switching between XR game scenarios, Immersion Arcades and spatial home displays, their adulterous relationship is transformed into an extreme idealization of platonic love. Meanwhile, Souvd’s ex-girlfriend Ntzumi starts an undercover investigation.
Emilia Tapprest (1992, FINLAND/FRANCE-HOLLAND) is a designer and filmmaker who investigates social and psychological implications of emerging technologies on human beings. Her film works tackle themes such as human connectedness and agency in the quantified age, exploring how a system’s underlying logic produces particular ‘affective atmospheres’ in interaction with its social fabric. Working in close collaboration with historian and music producer Victor Evink, their research explores visceral and existential implications of rapid technocultural developments through interdisciplinary worldbuilding and immersive media. She is currently based in Maastricht, and is resident at the Jan van Eyck academie (2020-2021).