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PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Saturday 12 March 2016
‘Creative Control’ looks at the near future of personal VR
LINDSEY BAHR This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Benjamin Dickinson, center, in a scene from the lationships you’re trying to
AP Film Writer film, “Creative Control.” The film is about an ad exec who gets lost in the possibilities of Augmenta, manage through text mes-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — What an augmented reality system in a pair of glasses. sages increasingly and the
does technology look like ego roller coaster of social
five minutes in the future? Associated Press media and then on top of
It’s a question that’s on that trying to make a ca-
a lot of artists’ minds late- menta too — putting “Cre- reer.” “It’s much easier to
ly. Whether it’s the Siri- ative Control” somewhere program a digital girlfriend
like companion in Spike between “Her” and “Ex who says exactly the right
Jonze’s “Her,” a beautiful Machina.” things at the right time and
A.I. in Alex Garland’s “Ex “There’s that little boy part just fulfills your needs. I think
Machina” or the ability to of me that really enjoyed there’s a part of all of us
instantly rewind and proj- making a fake product,” that is attracted to that.
ect memories in the “Black Dickinson said. The way technology exists
Mirror” episode of TV’s “The Lodwick helped Dickinson right now offers that false
Entire History of You,” on understand details about hope to people and we’re
nearly every screen there tech design that he hadn’t starting to get lost.”
seems to be someone’s considered otherwise. Big, Just recently, Dickinson
vision of the not-so-distant theatrical swiping move- was in San Francisco meet-
future — and usually a ments in the air might look ing with a company that’s
warning about how the great in something like “Mi- developing Augmented
purportedly convenient nority Report,” for instance, Reality — and it’s coming
technologies are damag- but it’s impractical. a lot faster than he thought
ing our realities. The lat- “If you’re working all day it would be possible when he
est entry is the bold indie doesn’t make sense to be started making “Creative
“Creative Control” (out Fri- reaching out into space all Control.”
day in limited release and the time. Sometimes you
expanding on March 18), need to rest your hands,”
about an ad exec who Dickinson said. “The usual
gets lost in the possibilities approach in science fic-
of Augmenta — an aug- tion is to expand something
mented reality system in a to its most exciting, but ours
pair of glasses. In this highly was to make it feel really
stylized, “Google-utopia” realistic and familiar.”
world, Augmenta even So in “Creative Control,”
looks cool. Think Warby the movements are small
Parker, not Google Glass and ergonomic. Legs can
or Microsoft HoloLens. be used as typing surfaces,
Director Ben Dickinson, and texting can be done
who co-wrote and stars, just by tapping your fingers
didn’t have the VFX bud- together.
get of some of his contem- Like many others before
poraries, but what he did him, Dickinson was inter-
have was time to really ested in how technology
hone in on an idea, and affects our lives.
a few friends in the tech “It’s accelerating so much
world to help — including quicker than our bodies so I
Vimeo co-creator Jake think there’s a trauma hap-
Lodwick. pening,” Dickinson said.
Together they designed “It’s difficult to not just be
Augmenta — from the reti- overwhelmed with the re-
nal projection interface to
a user’s guide. The French
digital effects company
Mathematic brought it to
life. It looks familiar, but
slightly askew. The screens
and monitors are like the
ones we have now, but in
“Creative Control” they’re
sleek and completely
clear. With Augmenta, the
world becomes a screen,
but video messages still
skip in transmission and
texts and emails still pop up
incessantly in front of your
face.
And then David discov-
ers that he can also cre-
ate a virtual version of a
woman he loves with Aug-
