Augmented Reality And Loneliness: Magali Barbé’s ‘Strange Beasts’
A new video entitled ‘Strange Beasts’ has been doing the rounds on social media this week. Directed by Magali Barbé, the film purports to be a trailer for the next generation of augmented reality gaming — but in actual fact, it is a short fictional work, and a commentary on the increasing encroachment of virtual reality and augmented reality upon our lives.
A sense of unease, which will be familiar to viewers of Charlie Brooker’s “Black Mirror” series, quickly sets in.
It’s an impressive bit of film-making, well narratized and with expertly rendered CGI monsters. The effect is convincing — this could well be the next thing in augmented reality technology — and it plays against expectations to ensure that the ending is a shock; I knew something was going awry, but I somehow expected Weber to fall into loud madness, rather than the quiet loneliness we see.
See the full story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chris-townsend/strange-beasts_b_15686092.html