Sonica: The High Frontier

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Tuesday, 24 September, 2024 – 7 p.m.

As Earth’s population grows and resources dwindle, the idea of relocating to Mars gathers momentum. John Butler’s four animated films explore the journey from a collapsing Earth to a technofeudalist Martian society, where a hyper-wealthy founding class may create an unjust new world.

The films will be followed by a 10 minute talk by the director John Butler, about the films and his work on them. Presented by Sonica.

The Founder (2m40s)
‘The Founder’ asks who wants to live forever, featuring ‘Dorian-K’, a biologically immortal post human, modelled on Ray Kurzweil.

The Avant Garde (4m20s)
In ‘The Avant Garde’, activism masquerades as art in order to storm a corporate edifice. Once inside, the insurgents find the occupants have fled, destroying all records, burning all books and abandoning all allies. Nothing is left, save their broken promises, but an empty silo gives a clue to their present whereabouts.

The Fourth Planet (34mins)
‘The Fourth Planet’ is a science fiction opera that tells the story of the establishment of the first libertarian colony on Mars. Inspired by the philosophies of Effective Altruism, Longtermism and Technological Solutionism, it is a vision of Mars as a neofeudal tabula rasa, ready to be inscribed with the values of the founder class.

Outer Demons (9mins)
‘Outer Demons’ disrupts the defence industries by bringing the scale and agility of consumer manufacturing to the art of weapons design. Inspired by the ‘Lord of the Rings’ companies such as Anduril and Palentir, this series of product narratives illustrates how self defence is now the responsibility of the individual, not the state.