Consensus Gentium
consensus_gentium_promo_imageKaren_Palmer.jpg | Credits: Karen Palmer
consensus_gentium_2Karen_Palmer.png | Credits: Karen Palmer
consensus_gentium_CG1Karen_Palmer.png | Credits: Karen Palmer
consensus_gentium_CG3Karen_Palmer.png | Credits: Karen Palmer
Consensus Gentium (Latin for if Everyone Believes It, It Must Be True!) is a powerful exploration into the implications of today's AI technology.
It is an interactive film that integrates cutting-edge facial detection and AI, which transports audiences on a unique quest to discover what could come about if we succumb to unchecked surveillance. Through a smartphone, participants are tasked to obtain increased mobility to visit their sick Nana through a government surveillance based Global Citizen App. Through various tests, their receptivity towards dissidence or compliance is calculated, by monitoring data for their conscious and subconscious eye gaze interactions, by the device’s front-facing camera, while various characters interact with the participant through the smartphone, to reflect the consequences of their decisions.
Consensus Gentium immerses the participant as a central character in a near future world to experience how marginalized groups maybe impacted by biased AI networks and technologies, in order to spark public awareness through the participant being viscerally immersed and engaging with the subject matter in a personal way.
Consensus Gentium technology plays a transformative role, significantly enhancing the storytelling experience by integrating facial detection and AI analytics. This advanced application of AI enables the platform to interactively adapt its narrative based on real-time analysis of the viewer's facial expressions and gaze direction. By meticulously monitoring these cues, the AI can infer the participant's receptivity towards various narrative branches, effectively personalizing the story to match their implicit preferences and actions. This dynamic storytelling method not only captivates the audience with a tailored narrative journey but also immerses them in a deeply engaging exploration of digital citizenship and ethical decision-making.
Through this innovative use of AI, Consensus Gentium offers a narrative that evolves and branches based on user interaction, showcasing the potential of AI to create immersive and responsive entertainment experiences that reflect the complexities of human emotion and decision-making.
Consensus Gentium (Latin for if Everyone Believes It, It Must Be True!) is a powerful exploration into the implications of today's AI technology.
It is an interactive film that integrates cutting-edge facial detection and AI, which transports audiences on a unique quest to discover what could come about if we succumb to unchecked surveillance. Through a smartphone, participants are tasked to obtain increased mobility to visit their sick Nana through a government surveillance based Global Citizen App. Through various tests, their receptivity towards dissidence or compliance is calculated, by monitoring data for their conscious and subconscious eye gaze interactions, by the device’s front-facing camera, while various characters interact with the participant through the smartphone, to reflect the consequences of their decisions.
Consensus Gentium immerses the participant as a central character in a near future world to experience how marginalized groups maybe impacted by biased AI networks and technologies, in order to spark public awareness through the participant being viscerally immersed and engaging with the subject matter in a personal way.
Consensus Gentium technology plays a transformative role, significantly enhancing the storytelling experience by integrating facial detection and AI analytics. This advanced application of AI enables the platform to interactively adapt its narrative based on real-time analysis of the viewer's facial expressions and gaze direction. By meticulously monitoring these cues, the AI can infer the participant's receptivity towards various narrative branches, effectively personalizing the story to match their implicit preferences and actions. This dynamic storytelling method not only captivates the audience with a tailored narrative journey but also immerses them in a deeply engaging exploration of digital citizenship and ethical decision-making.
Through this innovative use of AI, Consensus Gentium offers a narrative that evolves and branches based on user interaction, showcasing the potential of AI to create immersive and responsive entertainment experiences that reflect the complexities of human emotion and decision-making.
Crew:
Main creator: Karen Palmer
Producers: Thalia Mavros/ Tôm Millen/ Tuyết Vân Huỳnh Producers
Director of photography: Anthony Gurner
Screenplay: Karen Palmer
Casting director Nicci Topping
Assistant director: Caroline Deeds
Camera assistant: Guilio Piccirillo
Sound recorder & Mixer: Rute Gomes & Nikos Nikolalaois
Stylist: Laurel Hunter
Makeup artist: Marialuisa Cosentino
Hair stylist: Sheree Jourdan
Production photographer: Wayne Campbell & Aubrey Fagon
Production assistant: Marcin Weremczuk
Assistant producer: Maya Colombier
Post Production Team:
World Builder consultant: Mario Marquez Lartigue
Lead developer: Tom Shannon
Developer: Ahmed Buttar
Editor: Jack Foster
After effects editor: Cranrust VFX LTD (Jonathan Klahr)
Sound designer: Gareth Fry
Colorist: Nigel Tadyanehondo
Music producer: Cesare Marchese
Music producer: Colin Emmanuel
Set designer (live site installation): Tom Paris
Screen Life Team:
Producer: Jackson Lapsley Scott, Vertical Content (Unless Pictures)
Vertical content producer: Meg O'Connell, Executive Producer (Unless Pictures)
Producer: Steph Walsh, Motion Graphics (Breeder)
Lead motion graphics designer: Shell Weiss
Graphics designer: Ryan McShane
Motion graphics: Rebecca George
Motion graphics: Samantha Gleeson
Screen-life editor :Brodie Rocca
Storyboard developer, Concept Artist: Shaun Beyond Shakoor Bukhuth
Main Cast
Miriam Teak-Lee: Mischi Palmer
Zachary Hing: Global Citizen Officer
Tolu Kingba: Source Code-activist
Sorcha Farnan: Influencer
Keon-Martial Phillip: Black man arrested by police
Clare Owens: Nana
Dean Christie: Police officer 1
Graham Bohea: Police officer 2 (not in final film)
Mei Mac: GC Citizen Female
Aitor Gonzalez: GC Citizen Male
Francoise (Forrest) Mahop: Parkour athlete
Georgia Munroe: Parkour athlete
Daniel Woodrow: Parkour athlete
Flynn Disney: Parkour athlete
Kevin Francomme: Parkour athlete
Jasmine Murray: Protestor
Zara Murray: Protestor
Laurel Hunter: Woman videoing altercation
Production Company Interactive Film Ltd
The project was developed as part of the BFI Development Fund and the National Lottery.
Karen Palmer is the Storyteller from the Future, an award winning XR creator, futurist, and TED Speaker who explores the implications of AI. She enables participants to experience the future today through her immersive film experiences, that watch you back using AI, and facial recognition technologies. She has been featured in Channel 4 & BBC News, CBS News, Wired, Forbes, PC Mag, Fast Company etc. In 2023 Karen won the XR Experience Jury Competition SXSW with Consensus Gentium. Previously she received an Honorary Mention in the STARTS Prize category (2020) ARS Electronica and the Digital Dozen Award for Storytelling. Her work has been exhibited internationally, from the V&A to the Museum of Modern Art, and she has spoken from the Google Cultural Institute Paris to the Sydney Opera House.
Karen Palmer is the Storyteller from the Future, an award winning XR creator, futurist, and TED Speaker who explores the implications of AI. She enables participants to experience the future today through her immersive film experiences, that watch you back using AI, and facial recognition technologies. She has been featured in Channel 4 & BBC News, CBS News, Wired, Forbes, PC Mag, Fast Company etc. In 2023 Karen won the XR Experience Jury Competition SXSW with Consensus Gentium. Previously she received an Honorary Mention in the STARTS Prize category (2020) ARS Electronica and the Digital Dozen Award for Storytelling. Her work has been exhibited internationally, from the V&A to the Museum of Modern Art, and she has spoken from the Google Cultural Institute Paris to the Sydney Opera House.
In Karen Palmer’s Consensus Gentium, an iPhone becomes a dynamic storytelling device where you are immersed in an unfolding narrative taking place in the palm of your hands. Through the film-like narrative, you quickly learn that you exist in a near-future society that is managed through the Global Citizen App, a heightened surveillance technology that determines all features of your city life including mobility. While you are watching the story play out on your phone, the app‘s facial recognition system is closely monitoring your reactions to the events and weighing your threat to their meticulous control. Moving through the city without raising alarm does not come without its challenges. It proves not to be an easy task given the heightened police presence resulting in violence against unarmed citizens and FaceTime calls from your friends understandably upset about the state of racialized violence. The phone watches you back to advance the narrative in response to your facial reactions making each participants’ experience unique. Through a simulated experience, Palmer shows us how AI-driven surveillance tools can make detrimental decisions and yield harmful results with lasting impact.
In Karen Palmer’s Consensus Gentium, an iPhone becomes a dynamic storytelling device where you are immersed in an unfolding narrative taking place in the palm of your hands. Through the film-like narrative, you quickly learn that you exist in a near-future society that is managed through the Global Citizen App, a heightened surveillance technology that determines all features of your city life including mobility. While you are watching the story play out on your phone, the app‘s facial recognition system is closely monitoring your reactions to the events and weighing your threat to their meticulous control. Moving through the city without raising alarm does not come without its challenges. It proves not to be an easy task given the heightened police presence resulting in violence against unarmed citizens and FaceTime calls from your friends understandably upset about the state of racialized violence. The phone watches you back to advance the narrative in response to your facial reactions making each participants’ experience unique. Through a simulated experience, Palmer shows us how AI-driven surveillance tools can make detrimental decisions and yield harmful results with lasting impact.
