Geoffrey Pugen
Utopics | 2008 | 24:33mins | BetaSP | Canada
Geoffrey Pugen is a graduate in both Theatre Arts from the University of British Columbia and in Integrated Media from the Ontario College of Art And Design. With converging skills of media manipulation, athletic sensibility, and theatrical satire, Pugen’s work deftly blends a futuristic aesthetic with social critique. Pugen explores the intersection between the virtual and the real in a hyper-techno society. His current work metaphorically depicts the effects of a techno-scientific vision/determinism on the creation and re-visioning of the human body. His videos, music and art have been exhibited nationally and internationally in Berlin - Transmediale, Australia - International Digital Art Awards, Poland, New York, Chicago, Miami, and Toronto. He is a recent recipient of the K.M Hunter Award for Interdisciplinary Art.
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“Both science and popular culture are intricately woven of fact and fiction….Primates are a way into thinking about the world as a whole.” - Donna Haraway
The digital age has given humans the ability to extend and modify their identity via cyberspace. In response to this new cultural climate, people are returning to metaphors of the ‘animal’ and the ‘natural’ to investigate the character of our post-millennial environment. Theorists like Haraway have examined how we project our desires onto animals: as noble ideals, as sentimental fantasies, as repositories of evil, as the sublime or the abyss. Utopics is a media project that attempts to contribute to this complex terrain, a satirical yet deeply serious work that explores the myriad dysfunctional ways that humans attempt to ‘master’ our fellow animals and nature as a whole. Utopics is an experimental film depicting a self-help lifestyle program and cult. The film follows various participants from around the world as they journey to Canada to partake in the Utopics program. Each of the users is struggling to find his or her identity and has become obsessed with Scott Martin, his teachings and his promise of personal change. Utopics is an international mythological self-transformation program that promises to help individuals find true love and ultimate freedom by discovering their true nature. Based out of Canada as an online technological, spiritual and scientific institute, the program is free to use and distributes information about their program and all users. Their office and “Metamorphosis Retreat” Zenith is located in Northern Canada. New participants register online to create their animal avatar and become users of the program. In order to fully complete the program, users must travel to Canada and participate in the retreat and its ceremonies.
Featured in: Animal Mirror
Featured in: SIGNAL Artist Talk: The Land
