Expect
film, 1hr, 1920*1080p
Expect is a sci-fi speculative half documentary half fiction film shot in Virtual Reality (VR) that explores the hidden details behind how disabilities are represented in science fiction literature and media. The film features Chinese actors with disabilities role-playing as sci-fi characters in VR to rewrite, challenge and reimagine the conventional, ableist sci-fi tropes, such as the image of “super-crip” and the transhumanistic tendency to “fix” or eradicate disabilities through the myth of enhancement. As a film made in VR, Expect includes the process of the crew interacting with VR device, which on one hand enable actors to “carry out” things they can’t achieve in reality, but on the other hand brought even more difficulties and barriers, ironically reflecting the nature of the failed promise of technology to an accessible future.
The work situates itself in the context of Chinese ideological environment where eugenics, enhancement and development are taken for granted, and even people with disabilities might hold a very ableism mindset in this circumstance. While showcasing discussions around what is accessibilities of a cityscape and why those are important, the film explores how personal belief leads to different speculative futures, and why it is so difficult for an individual to imagine a future without ableism, even if they are people with disabilities themselves. It is a question of whether a person with disabilities can have as much respect and self-recognition even when they are not “super-crip”, and the answer requires one to fundamentally challenge the Darwinistic logic in Neoliberalism.
Director & Editor & Art Director: Leilei Xia
Actor & Script Writer & Modeling Advisor: Zeyu, Stephen Lu, Jun, Yanyan, Kong Kong, Ning Li, Lulu, Leilei Xia
Cinematographer: Fanxi Sun, Leilei Xia
All the crew are hired and paid with VCU Graduate Research Grant.
《期待》是一部半纪录片半虚构的科幻虚拟现实（VR）电影，探索了科幻文学和媒体中关于残疾形象的隐藏细节。影片由残疾的中国演员在虚拟现实中扮演科幻角色，目的是重新书写、挑战和重新想象传统的、健全主义的科幻陈规，例如“超级残疾人”的形象和通过增强技术来“修复”或消除残疾的超人类主义倾向。作为一部在虚拟现实中制作的电影，《期待》包括了剧组与VR设备互动的过程，这一方面使演员能够“实现”在现实中无法做到的事情，另一方面却带来了更多的困难和障碍，讽刺性地反映了科技无法兑现通往无障碍未来的承诺的本质。
这部作品置身于中国的意识形态环境中，在这种环境下，优生学、增强和发展被认为是理所当然的，甚至残疾人自己在这种情况下也可能持有很强的健全主义思维。影片展示了关于城市景观无障碍性的重要性及其原因的讨论，同时探讨了个人信仰如何导致不同的未来想象，以及即使是残疾人自己，为什么也很难想象一个没有健全主义的未来。这是一个关于残疾人是否可以在不成为“超级残疾人”的情况下，仍然得到同样的尊重和自我认同的问题，这个问题要求人们从根本上挑战新自由主义中的达尔文主义逻辑。
