The house of mirrors

By Matteo Repetto

Topic: Digital Traces

Medium: Book

Institute: Politecnico di Milano

Year: a.a. 2022-2023

Every day, streaming platforms release a huge amount of films and TV series, at a rate that until recently seemed impossible. This is happening at a time in which algorithms and AI are increasingly indispensable tools for the creation of this contents, which speed up the time and automatically detect our preferences. “The House of Mirrors” is a short-cryptic horror graphic novel that aims to show the reader how the stories we consume today are made up of common patterns, and that however absurd and distant they may seem to us, they are much closer to us than we think, and indeed are often a mirror of ourselves.

Featured image of the project The house of mirrors

Complementary image of the project The house of mirrors

Metaphor used:

The graphic novel contains numerous metaphors that help in the interpretation of it. Television sets as mirrors: they are the main medium through which we enjoy streaming products, and since these products are tailor-made for us, the TV set gets a new function, showing us who we are and what we deserve. Environments symbolise the dark atmosphere and mystery in the production of these self-generated stories and the state of ‘filter bubble’ to which we are subjected because of the stories that are automatically proposed to us. Short stories change visually and directionally from the rest of the graphic novel. This differentiates the moments of the main story from those told by the televisions and recalls the visual style of the AI-generated works. In fact, the stories depicted were all generated by ‘hyperwrite AI’ (link: https://hyperwriteai.com/). The artefact itself becomes a mirror for the reader, and the protagonist is its reflection. This paradox reflects our role in relation to the stories generated: being the result of our actions, we are reflections and mirrors at the same time.

Intended Meaning:

The graphic novel aims to show the importance of automated tools in the film industry and how they should be analysed and understood because they completely change the relationship between viewer and product. Moreover, all the digital traces we leave behind, however simple and insignificant they may seem to us, can be an indispensable resource for the creation of new stories. We are no longer mere users, but also active participants in the creation of new media.

Source:

My preferences on Netflix, more specifically the horror movies I have seen and rated positively.