Reflecting your heart's desire: "Project Black Mirror" and faux-Kickstarting Siri's mind-reading routine

Curator's Note

This viral campaign was executed in November 2011 by 4Creative (Channel 4's in-house marketing and promotions agency), prior to the initial series transmission of Black Mirror in December 2011 on Channel 4.  It not only opens a dialogue concerning Channel 4's historical affiliation with spoofs, hoaxing and satirical programming (such as Brass Eye and Nathan Barley), but also sheds light onto the relationship that the gaming/technology communities have with "vapourware" (projects that are announced and sound too good to be true, subsequently sinking without trace). The "project" featured within the campaign video also illuminates the fine line between repulsed fear and lustful desire vis-a-vis technology, if online reactions to it were any indication (linking our brains to Apple products can only end well, if our widespread fears concerning "Big Data" and fearful knowledge of AI-behaviour in science-fiction are any indication!).  It featured a technological innovation which was both fantastical yet representative of the next potential step in computing: from voice-activated mobile technologies to thought-activated ones ("hacking" Apple's assistant, Siri, in the process), seeking the assistance and support of the Kickstarter crowd in order to achieve such goals. 

 "Project Black Mirror" was, in short, extremely effective in conveying the style, tone and preoccupations of the television programming that it was promoting. It prognosticated upon pre-existing technologies and twisted them into foreboding shapes, whilst also questioning the impact that such devices/developments might have upon humanity's relationship with one another.  It also opened up a wider discussion concerning the nature of experiment and innovation (something which ostensibly hews close to the remit obligations of Black Mirror's parent broadcaster); is it being done for the betterment of humankind/audiences, or is experiment being undertaken quite simply because the "inventors" can (or must, in order to profit from consumers)?  4Creative's campaign created viral buzz within the technology community and on social media, with the type of conjectural technologies showcased by the "project", which would subsequently feature within the series itself, undoubtedly having an unsettling impact upon potential audiences before a single second of the programme was broadcast on Channel 4, planting the seed of disquiet and queasiness that is Black Mirror's modus operandi.


I'm quite a big fan of Charlie Brooker's work, enough to immediately notice that the examples of satirical programming you use both involved him as a writer, but this being said this viral campaign for Black Mirror completely passed me by so thanks for bringing it to my attention. For me the video sort of highlights how technology is indistinguishable from magic in terms of how lay-people understand its workings, as key to making the video work was the clever utilisation of technological sounding 'magic words'. The key point you make here for me is the one regarding the fine line between 'repulsed fear and lustful desire', so to keep it relatively broad I just wondered if you'd considered the psychoanalytic implications of the campaign? (perhaps in relation to the Death Drive?) Also, I'd love to hear any extra comments you may have on "vapourware" as it's an area I'm quite interested at looking at myself in relation to spectrality.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Robert! I'm glad that you picked up on the deliberate referencing of Brooker's other television writing work in the examples I gave - this was partially to try and generate reflection on the themes and issues that have cropped up in series that he has previously been involved in (Barley's satirical depiction of new technologies and web environments; Brass Eye's destructive mockery of the political elite) and which appear in some form or another in Black Mirror. Your comment about language as magic (or as plain obfuscation), designed to baffle the technological illiterati and credulous, again ties into Brass Eye, where language was subsequently taken to heightened and absurdist extremes. I would certainly concur that the reason why the video "works" for the layperson is that, despite being aesthetically amateurish, the language deployed sounds slickly convincing and is cleverly scripted - it is believably couched in terms (and utilises technologies) that are just about in the contemporary vernacular and public consciousness. Of course, the moment that the tech. community started paying closer attention to the video, the "spell" was broken! "Vapourware" is something that I have a tangential interest in, as my research in the past has often been preoccupied with both media ephemera and "forgotten histories". In particular, moments in media history that occurred in the transitional moment between the shifting from analogue to digital production and distribution, meaning that many experiments, conversations and bits of content have fallen down the back of the internet's sofa, only recoverable if one knows what to look for and where to look. It is in these moments (particularly around the turn of the century) where media institutions (broadcasters especially) started to fiddle around online, making grand promises for new types of content and new spaces of interaction... which subsequently swiftly dissolved into the aether when it became apparent such schemes weren't tenable or usable. Fragments of these moments still haunt the internet, which the Internet Archive and amateur archivists have exhumed so that we may pay our respects. I think the reason why The Entire History of You ranks as a favourite is because of the notion that this speculative technology, rather than providing a benefit, instead facilitates the haunting of ourselves with a presumed-forgotten past with tools from the future! Note: That paragraph certainly built up a head of steam there - apologies for the ramble! Re: Psychoanalytic implications of the campaign - I hadn't considered this at all (and I had thought my line to be a little throwaway). Intriguing. I have little knowledge of this field, but perhaps somebody else would like to chip in at this point?

Thanks for the reply. Very much interested in both media ephemera and 'forgotten histories' myself that's why I've been drawn to 'Vapourware', but in particularly via the music genre 'Vapourwave'. I think part of the reason the music genre strike accord with people is that it reflects that despite having access to the largest archive in the world it's also very unstable. I mean this in the sense that platforms come and go, nothing on the internet remains entirely readily permanent. Take for example the closing down of Yahoo Geocities which saw masses of our early internet history has been pulled and destroyed. Yet equally nothing entirely disappears, for example posts we think we've deleted could easily have been cached or archived elsewhere beyond our knowledge.

You're absolutely correct about the inherent instability of the Web, given that it is endlessly iterative, shifting into new shapes, deploying new languages and killing old ones, making elements of its history either impossible to access or to read... It's interesting that you mention Yahoo's Geocities, as this was a major preservation project undertaken by the Archive Team in 2009 after hearing that it was to be shuttered. It was subsequently made available as a massive torrent file for anybody to download. What's even more interesting is how this data was subsequently redeployed: as part-artwork, part digital archeology projects. Lialina & Espenschied's "One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age" (2013, Photographer's Gallery, London) and "Deleted City" by Richard Vijgen (again exhibited in London, this time at the Barbican) are two which immediately come to mind, the latter operating as an interactive visualisation of Geocities as ACTUAL cityspace! These artworks managed to lend a sense of physical permanence to ephemeral creations, which I guess is the goal of anybody who works in the field of digital archeology. Note: "Vapourwave" is a new one on me - one which I will most certainly be looking into with interest. Thanks!

I hadn't seen this either, so this was quite intriguing to encounter. Very insightful discussion. First thought came to mind was that this sounds like "The Entire History of You" in different form - and I remember you saying that you enjoyed that episode in particular in response to my discussion yesterday. I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on the invasive nature of this "next step" in technology and human consciousness. The episode reminded me very much of Futurama's eyePhone in which the device is implanted in the head and behind the eye. Of course, Matt Groening is much more light-hearted in his depiction, but there seems to be a similar anxiety as far as how "linking our brains to Apple products can only end well," as you say. Beyond the the physically invasive (even penatrative) nature of the "installation," what are your thoughts on the apparatus as an extension of the (post)human body?

Thanks for the kind words, Michael! Whenever posthumanism is brought up, I always think of Donna Haraway's assertion that "we are all chimeras" and "cyborgs" now, or Stelarc's robotic augmentations, or the speculative communities featured in Warren Ellis's "Transmetropolitan"! However, looking at contemporary (and less invasive than optic tech like the Argus II implants) technologies like Google Glass, the Apple Watch and the iPhone, one could argue that all this wearable technology which monitors us closely - recording/tracking our movements, our heart-rates, our voices, what we see and hear - has already brought us to a "posthuman" state. "The Black Mirror Project", speculating on the notion that our technologies can monitor and map our brain-wave patterns to the point where it can discern our desires without us having to voice them, therefore represents a more complex version of the versions of posthumanism which we've already witnessed (in art, television and real-life), making it all the more convincing (and aiding in the process of fooling the audience). I believe that the underlying panic or unease (which is bubbling under the surface of Black Mirror) is once again linked to notions of autonomy and agency - when we cede power and allow technology to either act as a memory prosthesis (as we do now) or a driver of innovation strategy, then at what point does the process become automated, rendering human input redundant? Re: "The seed" in "The Entire History of You" - perhaps the point that is trying to be made within the episode is that technology in and of itself is not a dangerous or malicious thing. It's the consistent ABUSES of technology by neurotic humanity (represented by the lead character's obsessive playing and replaying of memory), as well as the potential to exploit it for gain (raised in the notion of "seed-jacking" mentioned in the dinner-party scene), which is what makes it potentially harmful. The "seed" is essentially a micro flash-drive with a really slick search algorithm, which, like the fake tech in the campaign video above, is based on technology which not only COULD happen, but is something that is being striven for and desired! Re: "APPLE TERROR" - if there was a whittling down of corporations to a mere handful and only ONE was responsible for technological or communicative innovation, would you trust that they would not abuse the access that they would undoubtedly demand to your data (and perhaps your mind) for the sake of a more pleasurable/comfortable user/leisure experience? Heh.

Like the other commenters, I too had never seen this video and was glad to see it brought to light here. As part of my science fiction class I used to screen Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995) which features a wireless headset that allows the user to view and feel 'clips' of recorded memories (either their own or someone else's). One of my students remarked on the similarities between the function of the device in The Entire History of You and the one in Strange Days. This video showcases a similar device yet again. I was also reminded of the fake TED talk used to promote Prometheus and while it's aesthetically (and intentionally) far more slick than what we see here, the hoax as promotion element is similar. Is there a certain correlation between our anxieties about what very nearly amounts to wet implants and the increasing verisimilitude of their portrayals in shows like Black Mirror and elsewhere? I'd love to hear what others think about this.

Hi there Sarah - thanks for your excellent observations, especially in the parallels drawn between "The Black Mirror Project" and the promotional viral videos of other contemporary sci-fi, as well as "The Entire History of You"'s evolution of the technologies and ideas concerning memory featured within Bigelow's film. I have to admit that I am a huge fan of Strange Days, having watched it many many times. I'm not sure if it was the distinct fashion stylings of Lenny Nero, the sub-PJ Harvey wailing of Juliette Lewis or the fact that they were using modified DAT/Minidisc recorders to represent really interesting memory technologies which hooked me in, but the film (and its themes) has certainly stayed with me regardless! Although Strange Days often voices concerns about our anxieties regarding the harmful potential of memory augmentation (mostly through the assertions of Angela Bassett's character that such technology is going to "fry (Lenny's) brains") , I would say that another cyberpunk film made in the same year is closer to the panicked debates that surround such potential technologies: Johnny Mnemonic (from the William Gibson story). The film has certainly not aged terribly well. However, the notion that computer data being packed into a mind in order to transport information from place to place, with a potentially fatal consequence if not removed, is an resonant one; partially as it espouses a longing to shift from posthumanity back to humanity in order to survive, but partially because it is surmised that carrying around/absorbing that much excess data will inevitably lead to some form of lasting harm (physical in reference to Mnemonic, psychological in terms of TEHOY and both in relation to Strange Days). I believe that the horror and panic over such increasingly realistic "implants", depicted in newer sci-fi like Black Mirror, crops up when they are portrayed in a light which displays them being taken down dark and abusive paths - our anxieties would be undoubtedly exorcised entirely if such technologies were shown to have a positive impact and were used in moderation. However, excess always makes for a decidedly less dreary and more unpredictably terrifying narrative, no?

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