The Chinese horizontal hand scroll is referred to as the first motion picture. From the perspective of a contemporary digital film maker it is very challenging to look once again closer to the relation between East Asian aesthetics and the medium film and to reconsider the early observations in an approach to digital film practice. Proceeding from Chinese thought and aesthetics the traditional concept of landscape painting ‘Shan-Shui-Hua’ is recreated in modern digital visualisation practice to explore form and question the Western concept of linear perspective that aims to represent realistic space. Confronting the tools of computer visualization with the East Asian concept of multiple vanishing points ‘San-e-ho’ creates an artistic artefact contrasting, confronting and counterpointing both positions. Using software tools that generally have been devised to create 2D and 3D artefacts from a Western cultural perspective avoids the pitfalls of echoing and imitating Chinese landscape painting too closely. The concept of ‘San-e-ho’ and the endless scroll are explored through digital filmmaking, video compositing or virtual camera, depths and particle systems.

The ambient ‘video scroll’ presents poetry of the famous Chinese poet Han Shan as a reflection on the modern mountaineers fight against nature ascending and descending the highest peaks counterpointing the Chinese attempt of spiritual  harmony.

In the preface to his 1957 bestiary ‘The Book of Imaginary Beings’ Jorge Luis Borges describes a child’s first visit to the zoo. With wonder and joy the child marvels at the strangeness and mysteries of the unfamiliar creatures that they have never before seen. This encounter with a zoo of the real sits within the
catalogue of a zoo of mythology, inhabited by ‘necessary monsters’ which are imbued with the dreams and fears of those who conjured them. Today our idealistic views of the natural world are becoming outmoded. WE are beginning to encounter a new form of nature that seems more born of virtual worlds of science fiction film. The augmented body, genetic modification and neo biological invention is now confronting us with utterly novel reality of engineered ‘monsters’.

This project engages with the call to redefine the very nature of nature by exploring the potential of monstrous myths and cinematic fictions as critical tools with which to engage the evolving perception of nature in contemporary culture. These questions are developed through ‘’Specimens of Unnatural History’’, a contemporary recasting of bestiaries of the past. As a zoological voyeur it will explore the savannas of body modification, cosmetic surgery and biotechnology to gaze out across the near future population of the virtual wilderness. These ‘necessary monsters’ form critical instruments through which to view the potential of a transformed nature, perverted by the hybridization of culture and technology.