Written and Directed by Pete Gomes
Hi8/ dv /computer [1997]

SCREENINGS INCLUDE: Architectural Association, Institute of Contemporary Art, Cybersalon, Space 1999, Leeds International Film Festival,

Visually influenced by cybernetic cinema and the works of Whitney Brothers, Jordan Belson and '2001', this short narrative film explores computers, consciousness and emotion.

Using text to speech programme, a computer speaks a monologue about life, death and memory.

Visually the film explored low resolutions and pixellation, and the image was enlarged specifically to degrade the image surface.

Part of a series of mandalic films, including, Drop, Cycle, Sensory, and End Beginning.

The companion film to Artifical Sentience is End Beginning which shows a man speaking a monologue about memory and perception.

This film was described and explored in the piece 'Bridging the Digital Divide' for

Filmaves #3 magazine which examined the roots of computer filmmaking in the context of the digital revolution.

This was the first film I made on computer and the credits include all the 1996 software and hardware I used to make it, including Photoshop 2.5 and Mac Performa 5320.

Owning to my inabiltiy to process large images, the film was actually made at 160x120 and I blew it up and mastered onto Beta SP. I worked extensively to achieve a particular pixelated texture.