The blood of birds brings sorrow, yet the blood of fish does not. Blessed are those gifted with a voice.
鳥の血に悲しめど、魚の血に悲しまず。声あるものは幸いなり。
- Saitō Ryokuu
ARIA is a CGI animated short film that explores the entangled
futures of gender, technology, and memory through the figure of a female AI
agent named ARIA. Set in the fictional smart city Dream Harbor in the year
2050, the film imagines an East Asian metropolis where nostalgic urban
aesthetics coexist with a hyper-digitized surveillance regime. Though
speculative, the narrative draws deeply from real-world histories, reflecting
how East Asia’s unresolved pasts continue to shape its technological futures.
On the verge of deactivation and disposal as e-waste, ARIA transforms into a virtual being and enters into a final conversation with her supervisory operating system. This intimate exchange challenges the myths of techno-optimism and accelerationist progress. Both non-human characters—ARIA and the Operating System - embody the dual roles of the supervised and the supervisor, revealing a recursive power dynamic where humans and machines continually co-shape one another.
Rooted in empirical research, the work highlights how East Asian approaches to AI desgin differ from Western paradigms, particularly in the persistent gendering of robots and service technologies. Drawing from state policies like China’s 2049 development agenda and Japan’s Innovation 25 and Moonshot R&D program, ARIA critically examines how national dreams are encoded into machines. The film foregrounds the temporal tensions of the region—where imagined futures and chronopolitics remain haunted by historical traumas.
While ARIA’s hyper-sexialized form may seem like a science fiction, her story is grounded in the real politics of design, labor, and identity. This is not a dystopia—it is a mirror. Through game-Engine cinema and speculative narritive, ARIA offers a poetic intervention into how we code gender, dream futures, and remember histories.
On the verge of deactivation and disposal as e-waste, ARIA transforms into a virtual being and enters into a final conversation with her supervisory operating system. This intimate exchange challenges the myths of techno-optimism and accelerationist progress. Both non-human characters—ARIA and the Operating System - embody the dual roles of the supervised and the supervisor, revealing a recursive power dynamic where humans and machines continually co-shape one another.
Rooted in empirical research, the work highlights how East Asian approaches to AI desgin differ from Western paradigms, particularly in the persistent gendering of robots and service technologies. Drawing from state policies like China’s 2049 development agenda and Japan’s Innovation 25 and Moonshot R&D program, ARIA critically examines how national dreams are encoded into machines. The film foregrounds the temporal tensions of the region—where imagined futures and chronopolitics remain haunted by historical traumas.
While ARIA’s hyper-sexialized form may seem like a science fiction, her story is grounded in the real politics of design, labor, and identity. This is not a dystopia—it is a mirror. Through game-Engine cinema and speculative narritive, ARIA offers a poetic intervention into how we code gender, dream futures, and remember histories.
YU is a filmmaker, CG artist, and
lawyer whose work explores hyperreality, virtual humans, and digital culture.
With a background in law, her practice critically engages with governance,
identity, and the socio-legal implications of digital embodiment. She
investigates how emerging technologies reinforce or challenge historical
structures of power, particularly around gender, memory, and the representation
of female bodies in digital spaces. Her research also examines chronopolitics,
exploring how digital memory, automation, and AI-generated
narratives reshape historical consciousness and reframe imaginaries of the future.
narratives reshape historical consciousness and reframe imaginaries of the future.
Jin Keon is a contemporary artist and director whose work critically
examines overconsumption, capitalism, and modern societal structures. With over
20 years of experience across art, fashion, and digital media, he blends visual
and installation art with commercial filmmaking and design. His practice uses
humor and satire to expose contradictions in consumer society, prompting
reflection on social roles. Jin Keon has exhibited globally, participated in
Takashi Murakami's Geisai, and continues to create thought-provoking work that
challenges dominant