Digital Eden is a multimedia art film that blends video game design, artificial intelligence, and 3D animation, and it is the second installment in a trilogy critiquing contemporary digital technology developments.
The film portrays Digital Eden as a decentralized utopian community flourishing under modern technology. After the speculative digital bubble bursts, the dream disintegrates into a dystopian landscape of consumerism and illusory artifacts of desire.
Amid the collapsing environment, an AI drone named Eve, controlled by hackers, conducts final acts of digital archaeology and documentation.
The snake in the film symbolizes modern technology corporations: entities that shape and digitize human desire, then integrate and upgrade it to perpetually stimulate consumption.
Unlike the original Eden narrative, this digital reinterpretation does not feature singular Adam and Eve figures. Every individual embodies these archetypal roles, constantly enticed by deceptive digital apples offered by technology.
Once the digital apple is bitten, individuals become permanently ensnared within an algorithm-driven landscape, exploited until all value is exhausted.
The film asks whether a truly ideal digital utopia is achievable, or whether every digital utopia is destined to devolve into another spectacle controlled by algorithms and desire.
Installation
- Installation View: Digital Eden: Extend, Art Osaka, 2025. Photo by Yeo Joonsoo.
Media
- Film stills
- Concept drawing
