Recently finished a stop-motion short film called HOP, a piece about life, mortality, and a theory of immortality.
I needed a dreamy version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as the music theme, but I couldn't find a recording anywhere. So I took up a keyboard myself, learned the relevant portions, and you can hear me playing it. I do not claim to be an expert with the piano; indeed there are portions of the song that sound imperfect, but with the somewhat raspy recording, that was the intention. I chose not to fix the slight errors, use an expensive instrument, nor seek an impeccable recording studio. I like when stop-motion is a bit choppy, not completely fluid, so as to reveal the imperfect nature of humankind. So the song needed to match.
The theory of immortality in the video was a contemplation of the contemporary transhumanist movement. Mark O'Connell recently wrote a book called To Be A Machine about the topic. "Transhumanists believe that technology — specifically, a direct interface between humans and machines — is the only way our species can progress from its current, far-than-ideal state. Evolution is now in our hands, they claim, and if that means shedding the evolutionary training wheels of flesh itself, so be it." More info at NPR.
Click on the Videos Tab on this webpage to watch the video.
