‘The Deus ex Ma(s)china Series’ by Lorenz Foth
Bachelor of Architecture (2018-21)
University of Innsbruk
Key supervisors: Professor Bart Lootsma, Bettina Siegele and Giacomo Pala
Deus ex Ma(s)china is a series of (dystopian) animated short films about an AI (called 'Deus ex Ma(s)china' or simply 'DEM') that takes control over world politics.
This AI intends to establish global social equality, sustainability and a better and peaceful world. The AIs goal is to improve the life conditions and the life quality for all humans (and other living beings).
The series plays in a time span between 2035 and the early 2040s. The timeline begins 15 years after the time it was written and produced in. In this future setting automation has replaced human labor and has caused for many humans to lose their jobs. Because of their financial situations as unemployed, most humans cannot afford to flourish in their job-free-lives. This, however, changes in the year of 2035, when a computer scientist (fictional character Deborah Williams) develops the machine learning system Deus ex Ma(s)china, to aid humans and the world. Machines take care of labor and sustainability while humans can live a life of creativity and continuous education and exploring. Therefore, humans can spend more time having fun and less time worrying. Yet, along the storyline, some people start conspiring against the machine learning system, resulting in conflicts, and eventually even war and destruction. A war between humans in support of the DEM and anti-DEM fanatics. The DEM itself is not involved in the war. This portrays a new challenge for the AI. How can it end the war without making use of violence?
Along with its story, the series is equipped with numerous (sometimes hidden) comical details and very unique and sophisticated pen-drawing aesthetics. Style-wise, it pursues untimely and post-modern characteristics.
The title ?Deus ex Ma(s)china? is a wordplay of the expression Deus ex machina and the german expression ?Maschine? (which translates to machine in english).
Deus ex machina, translated from latin to English, means ?god from the machine? - and is a term used to describe the event of a seemingly unsolvable conflict being solved abruptly and surprisingly by an unexpected force in a story plot. Bringing a surprising effect and e.g. making a happy ending or a comedic moment possible ? as suggests Varun Gwalani in ?Believe? (Varun Gwalani in ?Believe?, 2013, p. 218).
But how does this relate to the series of animated short films?
A machine, by definition, relies on a mechanism that is powered in order to create an intended reaction as a result of applied forces and controlled movement (Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd edition, 2010).
The previously mentioned occurrence of the abruptly solved conflict is given a divine character. What if this occurrence literally were to be a machine? Or rather machines? Machines and the related possible large-scale automation could potentially resolve many social and environmental issues if it causes some major changes in political systems.
When presuming so, what would life look like for people once they work significantly less? And how could Architecture behave and change in order to uphold the positive outcomes of this possible occurrence?
Lorenz Foth / Bachelor of Architecture / University of Innsbruck / 2018-2021
My name is Lorenz Foth. I am a 24 years-old German architecture student at the university of Innsbruck in Austria, expected to graduate in July 2021. As part of my studies, and as a hobby, I took up 2D animating, producing architecture-related fictional short films and related theoretical research material.
Science fiction, Dystopia, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Sustainability
