David Cronenberg, who scarred the psyches of a generation with movies like Videodrome, Scanners, The Fly, and A History of Violence, is back with this bizarro art project about a mysterious "self improvement" technology called POD. Of course it is designed to network with your brain.
I think there might be more than a little satire of the quantified self movement here. Plus a lot of Cronenberg's usual affectless freakiness.
All we know so far is from the press release:
Enabling participants to experience what it is like to live inside a David Cronenberg film, TIFF and the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) have co-produced BODY/MIND/CHANGE, an elaborate multi-media production with creative direction by Lance Weiler starring David Cronenberg that presents the plausible science fiction found in his work as scientific fact.
Participants can sign up now at www.bodymindchange.ca where they can register to be one of the first to receive the next generation bio-tech recommendation engine, called Personal-On-Demand (POD).
In Body/Mind/Change, Cronenberg partners with BMC Labs, a fictional biotech firm, to develop biotech enhancement implants inspired by the intellectual property found in his films, such as Scanners, Videodrome and eXistenZ. Cronenberg is the first participant in the project. At launch on October 25, registered participants will be guided through an episodic interactive narrative that functions as a simulator for training their PODs. Completing this three-part experience will guarantee them a unique POD generated from their behaviour during the simulations. Their POD will be available for pick-up at the close of the David Cronenberg: Evolution exhibition in January 2014 at the BMC Labs installation, located in the CIBC Canadian Film Gallery on the 4th floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
I love that Cronenberg just keeps getting weirder and more intense as he gets older. And despite the fact that many of his recent films have been hyper-realistic, you know that his heart is still in the crazy, futurist biotech world he began exploring with his very earliest films in the 1970s. I can't wait for my POD.