Directors’ Statement
in·flu·ence emerged from a symbiotic collaboration between a filmmaker (Evan Luchkow) and a scientist (Kelly Sutherland). We embarked on an intuitive process of co-creation; blending our artistic and scientific interests using tools from our respective fields to create a film that reflects the unique melding of our creative voices. It is a film that provokes us to reflect on our place in the physical and metaphysical world.
We approached the ideation stage of "in·flu·ence" with open minds, treating the process as an experiment, starting with a central question: “How do we think about the ways we influence the world around us?” We took inspiration from Sutherland’s research into the invisible fluid motion of jellyfish swimming mechanics, translating this idea to encompass the unseen physical and social interactions between humans and our environments. We pursued this question by collecting visual and verbal data from a diverse array of contributors, including artists, educators, and linguists.
The film’s visuals feature ordinary interactions among humans in nature, but also reveal unexpected moments of humour, tenderness and joy against the backdrop of New York’s Central Park. Sifting through this footage was a process of discovery, leading us to apply scientific software designed for visualizing flows around organisms to the images of everyday human interactions, revealing unseen details and fresh insights. Ordinary images took on an ethereal quality once filtered through this scientific lens, heightening the complex interplay between scenes of everyday human interaction and the thoughtful rumination of offscreen voices. The result is a film that prompts us to contemplate how our simplest movements, decisions and interactions have the potential to ripple out with unanticipated and potentially unknowable effects.
in·flu·ence merges Luchkow’s empathetic exploration of humans and the natural world and Sutherland’s focus on unseen physical phenomena, creating a film that transcends conventional disciplinary boundaries. Our work not only reflects how scientific approaches and technologies can be used for artistic effect, but also asks the viewer to consider how ideas and aesthetics can be implicit in the technologies themselves.
– Evan Luchkow and Kelly Sutherland