Technocalyps I – Transhuman
Part 1 of 3 part video documentary video (HDcam), colour, sound, 52 min. (concept, script, directing, editing)
Part 1| Transhuman
Leading scientists from the different fields of genetics, artificial intelligence, brainresearch and nanotechnology talk about their research. Their prognoses for the near future share one idea: we are on the edge of a transhuman era where we face the option to improve or surpass human kind as we know it.
Technocalyps is an intriguing documentary trilogy on the notion of transhumanism by Belgian visual artist and filmmaker Frank Theys. The latest findings in genetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, bionics and nanotechnology appear in the media every day, but with no analysis of what seems to be their common aim: that of exceeding human limitations and creating higher, transhuman forms of life. The director conducts his enquiry into the scientific, ethical and metaphysical dimensions of technological development. The film includes interviews by top experts and thinkers on the subject worldwide, including Marvin Minsky, Ray Kurzweil, Terence McKenna, Hans Moravec, Bruce Sterling, Robert Anton Wilson, David Noble, Margareth Wertheim, the Dalai Lama and many others.
“I love this documentary, especially the third part on the religous and the technological – just brilliant.”
Sohail Inayatullah, professor Futures Studies at Tamkang University, Taipei (Taiwan)
“Technocalyps legt de primitieve basis van onze kennisontwikkeling bloot en lokt de wetenschap weg uit haar veilige en klinische laboratorium naar de veel troebelere waters van menselijke hoop en overmoed.” De Standaard
“Technocalyps is een indrukwekkende trip doorheen technologische ontwikkelingen en wetenschappelijke fantasieën, maar is bovenal een rijke ideëendocumentaire. Frank Theys heeft ervoor gezorgd dat de vaak utopische discours van de wetenschappers wordt afgewisseld met de nuchtere blik van de kunstenaar. Het is die blik die uiteindelijk klaarheid brengt door de vaak complexe theorieën aan kunsthistorische en filosofische bespiegelingen te verbinden.” hART
“Le film Technocalyps (est) autant un documentaire sur les dimensions scientifiques, éthico-morales et métaphysicques du transhumanisme qu’un véritable travail artistique sur l’image. (…) L’imagerie de Technocalyps, de par la vérité des images utilisées, de leur provenance et de leur réalisation technique sort du cadre habituel du genre documentaire. Ce film transmet les tensions émotionelles et expressives d’un sujet épineux et estompe les frontières établies entre l’art et le documentaire. Finalement, en paraphrasant Dominique Baqué selon laquelle il faudrait ‘penser le document (…) comme une formidable machines à penser’, on constate que Frank Theys a construit une “machine aux images” (documentaires et artistiques) afin de repenser les formes et les contenu du document.”
| Written & Directed by | Frank Theys |
|---|---|
| Concept, Research & Interviews | Michel Bauwens & Frank Theys |
| Executive Producer | Bert Leysen VOTNIK |
| Coproduced by | Toneelhuis – Kunsten FESTIVALDesArts – Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg – Eris Films |
| With the support of | Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds – Evens Foundation |
| Music | Johan De Smet – Francisco Lopez |
| Production Manager US shooting | Geert Van Goethem – Bert Leysen |
| Production Manager Studio Shooting | Phyllis Digneffe – Rian Koopman |
| Assistant Director | Hans Van Nuffel |
| Director of Photography | |
| US shooting | Chris Renson – Hans Sonneveld |
| Europe | Hans Sonneveld |
| Canada | Jan Dellaert |
| Far East | Bart Maes |
| Japan | Lieven Van Baelen |
| United Emirates | Lut Vandekeybus |
| Studio Shootings | |
| Camera | Frank Theys |
| Light & setting | Frank Haesevoets – Joris Durnez – Ivan Renette – Geoffrey D’hondt- Gijs Moeyersons -Filip Van Berendoncks |
| Sound Engineer | Bart Maes |
| Make-up | Monique van Hassel |
| Editing | Hans Meijer – Frank Theys |
| Compositing | Peter Claes – Edith Kaldor – Basiel Korsmit -Frank Theys |
| 3D Animation | E-Spaces – Philippe Van Nedervelde – Elena Polatina – Vladimir Galinsky -Basiel Korsmit – Viktor Vicsek – Ruud Terhaag |
| Production Assistant | Karin Vandenrydt – Johanna Collier |
| Archive Research | Jan De Coster – Joost Vandesande – Bert Leysen |
| Voice Over | Jay McMahon |
| Legal Advice | Johan Blomme – Yasmine Kherbache – Els Vanheusden – Dirk Vervenne |
| Interviewees (in order of appearance) | |
| Dr. Joseph Rosen MD | Professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hemphire |
| Natasha Vita More | transhumanist artist |
| Dr. Theodore Berger Ph. D. | Biomedical Engineering, USC Viterbi School of Engineering ,University of Southern California, Los Angeles |
| Bruce Sterling | science fiction author |
| Dr. Robert White Ph. D. | neurosurgeon, cleveland medical hospital, Ohio |
| Dr. Gregory Stock | Director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, UCLA’s School of Public Health |
| Dr. Eric D. Green | Ph. D. NHGRI (National Human Genome Research Institute), scientific director |
| Dr. Jean-Jacques Cassiman | Dr. of Biogenetics at the KULeuven |
| Max More Ph. D. | President of the Extropy Institute |
| Hans Moravec Ph. D. | Principal Research Scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University – Author of ‘Mind Children’ |
| Ray Kurzweil | CEO Kurzweil Technologies Inc. – author of ‘The Age of Spiritual Robots’ |
| Mark Tilden | Robotics Physicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Anne Foerst | Theologian at MIT AI-lab |
| Dr. Michel Baudry | neurologist at the UCLA |
| Dr. Yang Dan | Professor of Neurobiology , University of California |
| Prof. Jeff W Lichtman | Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA |
| Dr. Thomas De Marse | Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida |
| Dr. Marvin Minsky | Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science Professor, Prof. At MIT |
| Ralph C. Merkle | engineer of nanotechnology at Xerox Park |
| Prof, Dr Carlo D. Montemagno Chairman | Department of Bioengineering, Roy & Carol Doumani Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Boelter Hall, University of California, Los Angeles |
| Robert Anton Wilson | author |
| Terence McKenna | ethno botanist, author of ‘The Archaic Revival’ |
| Dr. David Noble | Historian, author of ‘Science & Religion’ |
| Kirkpatrick Sale | author of ‘Rebels against the Future’ |
| Prof. Dr. Hugo De Garis | Head of ‘UTAH-BRAIN project”, Utah State University / Artificial Brain Project |
| Dr. Stephen Coles | gerontologist |
| Dr. Aubrey De Grey | Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK |
| John Rodriguez | president of Transtime Inc. |
| Jim Yount | president of The American Cryonic Institute |
| Margareth Wertheim | Historian, author of ‘God & Physics’ |
| Dr. Richard Seed Ph. D. | Physicist, cloning researcher |
| Anders Sandberg | Ph.D. Computer Science |
| Mark Pesce | Lecturer of Interactive media, developper of VRLM |
| Ian Buruma | author of ‘Occidentalism’ |
| Dr. Kayazuki Hamada | president of the Future Technologies Research Institute, Tokyo |
| Lama Karta | |
| Dr. Richard Thompson | Ph.D. Mathematics – member of the Vedic Movement |
| Youssouf Kazen | Rabbi of the Jewish Hassidic Commnunity |
| Frank Tipler | Ph.D. Prof of Mathematics , Tulane University, author of ‘The Physics of Immortality’ |
| Prof. Dr. Osman Bakar | Georgtown University, Malaysia Chair of Islam in South East Asia, Centrum for Muslim-Christian Understanding, History and International Relations |
| Rael | spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement |
| Michael Grosso | philosopher |