December 26th, 4:36PM
December 26th is a short critical design fiction film that explores a near future where location tracking, biometric data and emotional surveillance are combined with new AI analytics technologies to drive customer conversions.
Project Overview
December 26th, 4:36pm poses multiple questions to viewers about their sense of agency and their acceptance of everyday surveillance by private companies.
December 26th was one of the most emotionally compelling films from the Between Lines Project, acting as a catalyst for personal reflection amongst viewers—drawing out fears for parents and other family members who viewers saw as ill-prepared for the future.
Through overlays, the film makes visible small pieces of the larger AI-augmented algorithm that assesses her emotional state, purchase history, and pathfinds her route home past emotionally triggering locations. This approach serves dual purposes: (1) it allows viewers with technical understandings to project their knowledge and fill in the gaps, and (2) it allows viewers to come to their own conclusions about the politics of such a system.
The visible nature of the surveillance through the graphic overlay breaks viewers out of passive acceptance and pushes them to consider their own relationships and understanding of these technologies.