2019

feature film, 83m

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“What, then, is the role of the fully-automated artist of today?

When society no longer needs us, even the brightest stars will self-destruct.

Look at my idols, the Sinofuturists. eSports defines them.

They say they want to break free, but the truth is they are nothing without the game.”

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AIDOL is a feature-length science fiction musical that tells the story of a fading superstar, Diva, who enlists an aspiring AI songwriter to mount a comeback performance at the 2065 eSports Olympic finale. Featuring a score written and orchestrated by the artist, AIDOL revolves around the long and complex struggle between humanity and Artificial Intelligence. Fame – in all its allure and emptiness – is set against the bigger contradictions of a post-AI world, a world where originality is sometimes no more than an algorithmic trick and where machines have the capacity for love and suffering.Aspects of modern South-East Asia – from megabrands to super-casinos to cultural persecution and underground resistance – are allegorized into a futuristic otherworld.

As in the other works, Farsight Corporation is a controlling force in this universe. The global conglomerate, with its ubiquitous logo and vast temple-like headquarters, usurps the role and status of a political regime. The event of Diva’s comeback is an international tournament sponsored by Farsight – the eSports Olympics – in which ‘Bios’ are pitted against ‘Synths’. Throughout the film, the dichotomy of ‘human’ and ‘AI’ is tested and dismantled. Far from simply reprising the narrative of humanity imperilled by machines, the story points to the rote and unthinking infatuations of human minds, and equally to the ability of conscious machines to aspire to beauty and knowledge.

AIDOL is the final part of Lek’s Sinofuturist Trilogy, following 'Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD)' (2016) and 'Geomancer' (2017).