Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink
Yang Han
China / 2024 / Animation, Experimental / 6’50”I2501413
SYNOPSIS
Facing the increasingly severe pollution of heavy metals in the oceans, humanity primarily tackles it by reducing emissions, yet the metals that have already entered the ocean require tens of thousands of years to settle. The ocean itself never speaks; it only silently endures and accepts. The escalating content of heavy metals reflects humanity's exploitation of nature. This work approaches from the perspective of metallothionein, a crucial protein within marine organisms, which represents the only means to mitigate oceanic heavy metal pollution. Its presence symbolizes nature's subtle response to human overexploitation. Utilizing AI text modeling technology, metallothionein is endowed with the ability to speak, faithfully recording everything within this "collective" composed of human and non-human actors. At this moment, nature is not an entity separate from human society but a dynamic network built through the interaction of various actors. The intervention of artificial intelligence technology can be seen as a new way to reconnect this heterogeneous network, allowing us to more clearly feel the interactive effects between individuals and the environment, reflect on anthropocentrism, and view the shared fate of humans and nature from a holistic perspective. By making space for other objects in the ecological collective, and reconstructing a "collective" interwoven with diverse actors where humans and objects closely collaborate, we can more clearly perceive our own existence.