For the last since 6 months, alongside fellow director and editor Tommaso Di Paola, I’ve been working on an experimental film project funded by a grant from The Barbican as part of their Life Rewired season. Extra Life, a short documentary which explores identity in video games and virtual worlds, finally went live this week and can be seen in the Life Rewired exhibition at The Barbican Centre, as well as online here.

Made entirely “in-game” and anonymously, the film features interviews with various people in the guise of their digital avatars, as they explain the process of creating and existing as their avatar in these vast virtual worlds. Influenced by anime and films like Sword Art Online and Ready Player One, Extra Life poses questions about the future of digital avatars and, as the line between our real lives and our digital lives blur, what, ultimately, it means to be human.

The film will be available to watch at The Barbican Centre throughout the month of August, and will launch on my website and Vimeo channel in the coming weeks.