Future Movement Future – REJECTED

In a not too distant future, an anonymous researcher and their team applied for funding to develop their newest invention: a new algorithmic model for smart cameras which would allow to analyze the movement of cars at a previously unheard-of scale. This system was said to enable new forms of predictive capabilities to emerge: the algorithm would be able to, for example, predict the route drivers wanted to take but had not yet taken – including, for example, their occult inner desires for getting away with a secret lover.

A panel of academic reviewers from three different universities audited and reviewed the proposed system. All that is left are segments of the video-report resulting from this meeting, which became an urban legend among technology researchers.

The short film “Future Movement Future – REJECTED” is the story of a dystopian surveillance future that was barred by institutional refusal. It importantly reminds us about how total surveillance, the “almighty algorithmic eye,” may end up seeing-predicting much less than imagining-dreaming.

Out now on: Surveillance & Society journal, Special Issue on “Surveillance Futures”
Direct link to: Video // Research Statement

The film was also exhibited as part of the The Smartification of Everything Symposium and Exhibition “smART” at the uOttawa Gallery.

Short film, 10'00", 2021.

Voices of the reviewers: Sarah Dillon (University of Cambridge), Cláudio Pereira (Federal University of Bahia), Rodrigo Ochigame (Leiden University)
Screenplay and direction: Bruno Moreschi & Gabriel Pereira
Image research: Pedro Gallego, Bruno Moreschi, Gabriel Pereira
Editing, animation and finalization: Pedro Gallego
Graphic design: Guilherne Falcão
Sound design: David Menezes