Connected by Selina Shah has been featured in several exhibitions and festivals since being first presented in 2008, these include: SKIP INTRO, TRANSFORM, YIVF#4 Screening, Open Source Festival, Astronomical Frontiers, Selina.Shah:CONNECTED, the EYE_KEA project International Video Art Event and Video Art and Experimental Film Festival 2010.
The experimental film 'Connected' depicts a cyber-relationship between two parties and explores the paradox of "intimacy without being intimate". The visual content in the film is made up of several small screens that show a variety of seemingly trivial and irrelevant clips. The main focus however is made up of the sounds of typing and the conversation unfolding in text at the bottom of the screen, it is this text that serves as dialogue in this short narrative. Shah's use of audio and choice of video effectively disables the viewers senses and leaves them feeling somewhat helpless.
I think that the way that Shah has presented her theme is quite intelligent, she explores the ins and outs of cyber-relationships through the visual element of her film. The seemingly trivial video presents to us a challenge to rethink just how little we know about the stranger that we find ourselves sharing with.
The typed text that makes up the conversation is the driving force behind the film, it presents us with the would be first time cybersex relationship between two individuals. By letting us into this private affair Shah places the viewer in a uncomfortable place, this is accentuated by the audio made up of typing sounds and seems disjointed and inferior next to the intensity of the conversation.
Shah manages to create in the viewer a feeling of awkwardness and and a sense of disjointedness. To an outside observer there are many pointers in the film to risky or ill advised behaviour. This feeling is continuously built upon as Shah using a multitude of techniques, the one character by typing in caps immediately takes on the role of dominance in the mind of the viewer, even before the subject is broached in the text. Other warning signs include the reference to one person being seen on webcam while the other remains faceless, this coupled with a reference to the 'seen' character "look(ing) young" gives a distinctly predatory feel to the dialogue. The viewer cannot help but develop a sort of concern for the character that is unseen by us, this is even more disturbing because we know that this character is being observed by the dominant character that we are continuously more wary of.
By the way of experimental techniques I liked the way that Shah used sound effects to make up the audio for her film, I think it was somewhat spooky and allowed the viewer to fill in their own gaps. I was also a fan of the video content, and how the ideas of the director were conveyed without showing anything literal. The text acted as the only form of narrative and was justified as it drove the film from beginning to end.
Shah presents us with a branch of the popular world of social networking that most would still feel uncomfortable about. This pushing of our comfort in relation to online culture challenges our current thoughts on the virtual world. Shah aims to make us consider online interaction and if it is a constructive advancement in our society, proposing that this may be the age that we neglect our bodies. In her essay on cyber discourse Shah explains some of her theories and those of others on the virtual age and our activity around it. Shah claims that ‘Virtual culture is a culture of retreat from the world …the loss of the senses of the reality “out there”.'
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