Films that have the cosmic resonance that this work leaves bring about a sense of awe as equal to its sense of importance. Director Andre Silva’s odyssey of a film appears to be an experience from an extraterrestrial force, yet it feels so familiar. Revelation to the Disembodied is an experimental animation work that meditates on the interconnectedness present in our lives with technology, nature, reality, the nature of reality. The film intersects biblical mythology, the story of Adam and Eve, with a present-day framework of humanity and its creation of artificial intelligence. It is a very spiritual work that leaves the viewer with a vast ocean of connected ideas to contemplate as more waves roll onto the shore of the mind. This enigmatic piece deeply moved me, and I was lucky enough to be able to discuss the film with director Andre Silva along with all the ideas and concepts that spring from the core of this work.
When I asked Andre about the conception of this film, he brought up his fascination that he has always had about the commonalities between technology and the natural world. Silva remarks, “Our modern civilization and technology now is sort of an outgrowth of that [the natural environment], sort of a natural outgrowth of that rather than something that is separate from it.” Andre argues that we can better understand the direction of technology by looking to where it is rooted and identifying the similarities between the creation, technology, and its creator, nature, and humanity. Andre points to these similarities being found in the striking resemblances between the maps of the internet, the universe, and of the neurons in the brain. The film expresses, through its visuals, words, and direction, these ideas of synchronicities between technology and nature. The title of the first of three sections in the film, “i. the language they created invaded them” hints at that intangible border between technology and the environment. Could our own definitions of what makes something natural and what makes something a piece of technology be blinding us from the obvious commonalities found among the two? Or the truth that they are one in the same?
The film illustrates technology as a product of humanity, which is a product of nature, which is a product of the universe. This chain carries through it eternal principles of patterns and creation that don’t stop between humanity and technology. Silva says, “We have operated in various kinds of programs like either social programs or religious programs or philosophical programs, but also, we are now creating programs. We are now sort of the creator Gods, so to speak, of these online environments.” These online environments, which are rooted in the environments of nature and humanity, are beautifully visualized in the stunning animations from the film.
Revelation to the Disembodied was a project that took around three years to complete. This time and work come through clearly from the images. The animation brings to life these ideas of connections between the two different, yet similar, worlds of nature and the environment. The viewer is taken on a space trip of sorts and brought through a dimension of evocative and mesmerizing visuals as if being spoken to by God. The auditory experience is equally as mystifying. There is a sense of remembering that we must do as we are being shown everything presented to us. Ideas of being “reborn” are mentioned and truly strike a comic chord from within. These ideas are communicated through the blend of visuals and sound. As for the sound, lines of dialogue come through in a dreamlike form. Identical lines overlap and come in and out which evoke ideas of patterns, simulation, and communication. By communication, I mean this feeling that a bigger force is trying to communicate with us throughout the film. It is on the part of the viewer to tap into that greater force and intuitively understand the film. Regarding the sound, Andre Silva says, “It forces you to let go of a linear way of following a conversation and to almost let the words be like sound effects as it were that are sort of just filtering into your unconscious.” This is a fascinating way of describing the mechanism happening in the viewer as voices flood into the mind which then must be understood by some part that is not conscious. This, I feel, describes the experience of the film. While it is not a linear or traditional narrative, there is a story happening and we as the audience are very involved in its being.
Each visual has a life of its own. The animated images feel like they live somewhere beyond this film, and they are simply passing through for a bit to deliver a message to the subconscious. One of the more striking visuals from the film was a shot of the sun surrounded by ocean waters creating a vortex that the camera moves through to bring the viewer closer to the sun. I asked Andre how this shot was filmed and created. He mentioned the location of the shot, Masonboro Island in North Carolina, being a place, he liked to go to. Silva says, “It’s completely undeveloped… I feel like when I go out there I kind of leave the noise of ‘civilization’, so to speak. And it’s a completely different space out there and so I’m really inspired by that.” This remark from Andre sparks an interesting insight to be made when connecting it to the ideas of technology and nature in the film. Andre’s removal from technology and civilization in that space to capture that shot is reflective of the necessity to truly be present with nature and understand it to better understand technology. The online network, Andre says, is an “outgrowth” from all we see around us. The fact that a shot of the sun and the ocean is the most striking from a film about technology and its roots from nature, says a lot about the core force that threads all of creation: technology, nature, humanity, the universe. This is connected to the idea I mentioned earlier about rebirth from the film. In the second section of the film titled, “ii. the luminous object at the end of time”, voices of Adams and Eves are heard which evoke mystery. One of the lines said is, “I don't have many memories from before I was reborn, but one does stand out.” The idea of reincarnation does not necessitate the reference to religious and mythological texts, although it could as there is a great role of mythology present in this film; but think about reincarnation with the framework of the film’s ideas of nature, technology, humanity, and creation. There is a common force of creation that motivates everything we see. Nothing goes untouched. It moves through nature, humanity, and our technological creations. The role of the concept of rebirth and reincarnation would be to understand that everything we see around us is a rebirth of that that came before. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Because of this, patterns are present from creation to creation and certainly present in the chain from nature to technology. The phrase, “the luminous object at the end of time” could be hinting at this life force that moves through all of creation. Since, in the face of the totality of existence, time truly is an illusion, who's to say that that object at the end of time is not the same thing as the force of creation moving through all things. Everything in existence is being pulled towards the object and everything in existence is being motivated by that force of creation. We, the viewer, are being pulled towards the sun as we experience time and creation, this oceanic field of energy. The importance of all of this is the identification of the connectedness of all things and the principles of patterns in creation that ring true in the relationship between nature and technology. Technology, while scary, is not totally out of our hands. We have the ability to understand it, it just may not come from looking at it, but rather at what is creating it. And to do that, we may have to look at ourselves.
One of the wonderful aspects of this film is its relationship with the viewer. I couldn’t help but feel as if I was the main character in the story. The visual and auditory experience gives us a first-person perspective in this ride. There’s a memorable moment where the voice of Eve says, “Look up at the stars.” Then, the black screen fades into a sea of stars floating in outer space. The film is talking to us and we are following its guidance. The words appear on screen: “In that moment I know I am seeing a vastness I can’t comprehend”. Through all the intriguing concepts portrayed in this film, the mystery of it all strikes the most. The film is a challenging one and calls the viewer to tap into the power of the unknown. Silva wants this film to be “something that’s constantly growing” and “something where the mystery continues.” He does not want to contain the potentialities of his work. Each experience from each viewer will have different takeaways. When asked about the openness of his film, Silva remarks, “I feel that when I'm in a state where I’m a little confused or a little stumped, I feel that my world becomes a little bigger. Because I realize that there’s something that I wasn’t looking at before.” The film is an opportunity to contemplate the concepts at hand in a manner that opens your mind up to new possibilities. There’s a lot to appreciate about the enigma Andre Silva and his team have created with this film. I feel that the questions it provokes as opposed to answering make this a very important film.
Technology and its relevance to our future is only exponentially expanding. We, as creators of this, have an obligation to use its power in an intentional way. By doing this, we need to understand it. Andre Silva discusses the concepts of parallels between technology and nature in a way that not only helps us see our online networks in a different light but opens us up to a grander mystery on existence and creation itself. This confusion is important because it forces us to find a new way of seeing things. During the sea of stars shot, Eve says, “Isn’t it funny that you can see so much further in the dark.” Referring to this moment, Andre Silva says, “Sometimes we need to be in the dark in order to see further and not be blinded by our preconceptions of ‘this is the way how the world is. This is how things work. This is how my life is.’” This was the part of the interview that stuck with me the most. It’s true. Understanding the nature and projection of technology can feel like a dark area considering how fast it is advancing. A lack of answers forces us to be the life that finds a way. This way is guided by what we know about creation and the patterns that link creations. The film pushes us intellectually and intuitively to find, or rather, remember this way.
Besides my words about the metaphors of rebirth and reincarnation, earlier in this review I talked about the film feeling extraterrestrial yet familiar. I argue that this film is tapping into an inner part of our collective souls that we have all long forgotten. This inner part has been here long before we as individuals were born. This part is the force that links all of creation from the stars to nature to technology to the film and the viewer themselves. This is why I feel this film is best understood intuitively. It may not necessarily be about discovering something but about remembering something. Perhaps that is what the title - Revelation to the Disembodied - is trying to suggest. Could this film be calling us to remember an eternal truth - a revelation - that we have all been disembodied from? The film is not so clear in the ways we are used to. It is by no means straightforward. It has a life of its own and the magic lives in the cosmic chord it strikes within each viewer. And this chord, I believe, contains our greatest power to unlocking the secrets to the universe that are vital to dealing with the technological advancements that we have seen and are yet to come.
Revelation to the Disembodied screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, February 10 as part of the Short Program #3. The film will be Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ.
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