-Written by Michelle Vorob.
Passive Power, stylized as paSSive poWer, is an experimental short film by J.B. Ghuman Jr., which can be described one of two ways, depending on how it hits you. One, you can describe it as an audio-visual sensory experience. Two, you can describe it as an unsettling cacophony of sight and sound. Ironically, the narrator is telling you to chill and disconnect as you look inside to the core of your being, but what you see and hear during this narration is a man in a bioluminescent leotard, dancing like he's high.
Watching paSSive poWer felt like a sensory assault to me. It was a jumbled mess that had quite the opposite of a meditative effect. When someone is high and they think they're doing something profound, but it actually makes no sense, is what I perceived to be watching. If you told me the purpose of this video was to distract me while I was actually, in fact, being hacked, I would believe you. I don't know what this thing is supposed to be.
Now, if paSSive poWer was audio only, I think it may have had a different effect, despite some techno music and voice excerpts. The visuals literally gave me eye fatigue. I couldn't make out most of what I was seeing, whether it was words and phrases displayed around the “room” [it was a VR stage], images displayed on the screen behind the bioluminescent dancing man, or any other of the numerous shapes and effects that were flying and appearing around the “room.” I felt like I walked into a planetarium being used for an experimental installation [and not in a good way].
Maybe it's me. I tend to not be a fan of artsy or experimental pieces. They hit me as pretentious, insane, or as if they were secretly done in jest. Of course, we know all art form interpretation is completely subjective, but I can't imagine many people watching paSSive poWer and finding it to be a positive experience. I do not feel calm. I did not have an epiphany. I feel eye fatigue. And annoyance. And suspicion of the creator's intent.
I'm tempted to say don't bother watching paSSive poWer. If you're visually sensitive, like literally, on a sensory level, don't watch it. If you're curious and you have ten minutes to kill and are in the mood to watch a TED talk that goes nowhere at a defunct Photon location, give it a shot. Maybe it's so bad it's good.
Directed & Written by J.B. Ghuman Jr.
Starring J.B. Ghuman Jr.
2.5/10 = AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS
Comments