Thread 342: East of Empire (3-Channel)

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Winner of the CIFRA Award 2025 (Category: The Networked Interdependencies Award)


Written & Dir. by Senaida Ng & Ricky Kapoor

When an online spat between Indian and Chinese netizens spirals into a clash over colonial wounds, nationalism, and American imperialism, two mysterious users—part human, part machine—push the debate toward an unexpected reckoning with history, identity, and interdependence.

"Thread 342: East of Empire" uses AI as a collaborator by exploring the fine balance between authorship, open-source material (ie. found footage, public archives), and chatbots which are a core part of how the story unfolds. Despite us having done an enormous amount of thorough research through independent sources, we also allowed ChatGPT’s version 5 to have a voice of its own (also literally giving it a voice using ElevenLabs AI voice generator) in enacting the script and challenging our own ideas and biases. With Runway’s Aleph, we generated videos of an imagined future of where this story might lead used towards the end of the film. It felt like holding up a mirror, and this reinforced our belief that regardless of how much ‘bad data’ or controlled biases and boundaries these AI’s may have, if we feed it enough information about reality, it will be able to discern the truth. Moreover, our aim in the process and result of this creation was to test how human and non human entities can form a network of collaboration and understanding to bridge the gap created by opposing forces of propaganda, prejudice, and generational trauma.

This work can be displayed as a 3-channel video installation or single-channel with split screen.


Videos Courtesy Of:
NDTV
IMF
CBS News
BBC News
Sky News
Euronews
Global News
CGTN America
The Economist
New China TV
South China Morning Post
British Film Institute 
Huntley Film Archives
MAP Academy 
Narendra Modi
World Military Channel
TRT World
NOWNESS News
LayG Traveller
Maciej Glowinski
Yauheni Zaitsau
This Person Does Not Exist
TripAway2Day
Ibrahim Bennett
khanhhoangminh
Wang Walking
Cfq938888 Chen
Karma Rayshar
Ram Nath Ghimire
Oscar Diaz
Michael Rogge
Senaida Ng
Jonatas Nas
Cheng Shi Song
Runway Aleph