According to Consequence of Sound, Neon Indian frontman Alan Palomo was commissioned by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art to create a film about human relationships with increasingly pervasive technologies. The finished product, which you can watch below, is called ”Outer Osmo Ghost Mode.”
It’s like The Sims—you know, if The Sims explored the existential void of modernity. The film revolves around digital avatars Elda and Dell Banner, who were created to explore a “proto-virtual internet exploration program,” but were then abandoned by their users. At the core of the short film is an interrogation of our obsession with social media and the irony of the distance created by technology meant to connect us. “Essentially, they have become the digital ghosts of the Banners,” Palomo explained.
“I am now operating in ghost mode,” Dell Banner states flatly to his virtual wife (a line that could come in handy today when nosy relatives keep asking you what you’re doing with your life. The music that accompanies the animation is spectral and understated; Palomo describes it as “optimistic, futuristic” sounds eroded by “eras of digital degradation and (coming) off distorted, distant, and otherwise anachronistic.” Happy Thanksgiving!