A short story written by Will Self, 'iAnna' is a thought-provoking text that offers us a unique perspective of the negative impacts of technology and social media addiction, as well as the repercussions it can have on our physical and mental health.

 

 

The brief was to design and produce a title sequence (20 seconds) and a web banner (5 seconds) in response to this short story. Our task was to analyse, deconstruct and understand the key themes and ideas presented within the text to produce innovative visual and aural responses.

 

As a module in Year 1 of my bachelor's degree, this was the first time I explored screen design, motion graphics and time-based media.

 

The design elements I chose, help represent the key themes in the story and incorporate other details and characteristics described in the text. After studying 'iAnna', conducting vigorous research into the key themes, and drawing my own conclusions, some of the ideas I represented visually and/or aurally are listed below:

 

• Dopamine and its molecular structure (representing social media addiction)

• SOS in morse code

• Blurred lines between reality and fantasy

• Parallels between breakdowns and glitches in humanity and technology

• The merging of humanity and technology (becoming one)

• Being plugged in

• Viruses and hijacking

• Buffering

• Isolation