Ben Wilson, Chewing Gum Man – Hidden Worlds Beneath Your Feet

You see dirty, discarded, flattened blobs of gum – Ben sees a canvas!


Ben Wilson, Chewing Gum Man – Hidden Worlds Beneath Your Feet
 
I met Ben Wilson (aka, Chewing Gum Man) in October 2023, just a week away from over 600 of his tiny paintings (on London's Millennium Bridge) being destroyed forever!
 
I spoke to Ben and a few of the hundreds of passers by who stop, watch, chat and shake his hand – I asked them about the work and why it was so important to them, to London and people across the world…
 
Welcome to Ben's world and work.&nbsp;
Next time you're in London I guarantee you'll visit Millennium Bridge and you'll never be the same as a result...

Ben Wilson, Chewing Gum Man: Hidden Worlds Beneath Your Feet

In a near future, Adam's life unravels as eerie visions of his sister Claudia, drenched in seawater and shadows, haunt him. Society teeters on collapse, with chips governing minds and drones enforcing laws. Struggling to grasp reality, Adam confronts dark truths of his past as Claudia nears a dangerous, irreversible cliff edge. Based on the first chapter of my feature"After Adam," this short is a visually stunning, mind-bending exploration of control, sacrifice, and the cost of life.

In a not-so-distant future, Adam lives in a world where technology dictates emotion, thought, and reality itself. Society teeters on the edge of collapse, Adam's life begins to unravel when eerie visions of his sister Claudia, drenched in seawater and shadows, haunt his every step. In a world where chips govern minds and drones enforce laws, Adam grapples with forces far beyond his control. As his grip on reality slips, he must confront the dark truths of his past and the growing storm within, all while Claudia inches closer to a dangerous, irreversible choice. 
This short is based off the first chapter of my script "After Adam" which is a visually stunning, mind-bending journey that explores control, sacrifice, and the terrifying cost of survival in a world on fire.

After Adam

As part of MINA XIII we are presenting the #EcoSmartphoneFilm category. Curated by Max Schleser and Gerda Cammaer. 

#EcoSmartphoneFilms is a new special program within MINA with a selection of the best and smartest environmentally themed mobile films. #ESF is looking for mobile filmmakers interested to share their stories and creative solutions for all kinds of environmental issues in the form of eco-centered short documentaries, narrative movies, experimental or animation short films, all shot on mobile. Our mission is to inspire critical understanding and creative solutions through the power of mobile film, to raise awareness about environmental topics and to promote mobile film production about environmental protection and ecology in all its aspects. We are looking for short mobile films that show the planet’s beauty as well as the local, regional and global environmental challenges we are facing; films that highlight inspirational stories about people working to protect the environment as well as stories of nature taking revenge in its own way, or surviving against all odds. 
Featuring:
SINGLE USE ABUSE BY LUCY BOND &amp; LEO MITCHELL
SEAS THE DAY BY RASHID HUNT
SOWING SEEDS BY TYLER GALSTER
CREATING A SAFE SPACE FOR TIBAL SAHARIYA YOUTH TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO SAFE WATER IN RURAL RAJASTHAN, INDIA BY RENU SISODIA
FASHION VICTIMS 2.0 BY MARIA LORENZO
FLOWERS BY YEN L
LOOKING CLOSE BY ARABELLA STEELE
BECAUSE WE CAN BY IAN GIBBINS
MOLECULAR MEMORIES BY PATRICK KELLY
LINK BY HIROSHI ATOBE
LIMBUS BY M.C. JONET

Ecosmartphone Films

<blockquote style="text-align:start;">Filmed on Lutriwita (Tasmania) this documentary explores waste as a resource. Filmed at Leander Oakley's Earthship, he shares how he is living in a sustainable building made from tyres, cans, bottles. "This building is designed to go with nature, not against it".</blockquote>

Re-Tyre in an Earthship

‘DURANGEN’ means ‘grow’ or ‘growing’ in a number of dialects of the traditional Bundjalung language, and this documentary features six matriarchs speaking about their insider perspectives on plant art.

‘DURANGEN’ means ‘grow’ or ‘growing’ in a number of dialects of the traditional Bundjalung language, and this documentary features six matriarchs speaking about their insider perspectives on plant art.
Discussing our artworks in the film highlights the contribution of women’s work in growing culture, alongside some of the many native plant companions revered in daily living for us as Aboriginal people since time immemorial, but are now under threat from recent floods, fires, drought and pests. It is essential for us to have an archival record and be able to reshare this, especially as it involves the irreplaceable biological heritage of the plant queendom.
As senior artists and cultural practitioners of the matriarchy, we each represent different clan groups that make up some of the Bundjalung Nation and are featured in collaboration with cyberTribe: Euphemia Bostock (Munanjali), Faith Baisden (Kombumerri), Tania Marlowe (Nyanbul), Deidre Currie (Minjungbal), Jasmin Stanford (Githabul), and myself as Artist Curator Filmmaker, Jenny Fraser (Migunburri).
The artists interviewed for the DURANGEN documentary were also part of a world first Bundjalung plant art showcase in Japan, representing Australia at the 2023 JAALA Biennial held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The self-funded group collection featured a range of weaving, textiles, ceramics, photography, film and text, all with a focus on a bio-regional approach to native plant uses.&nbsp;

DURANGEN

The film is part of the Journalistic Category of the Community Digital Story Festival.

Zinzara are suffering from heavy sound pollution

Paramount Group

Brick kilns are increasing, agricultural land and people's lives are under threat.

Living in a plastic world

Slum, environment and life

Natural Gas used as fuel in urban areas

Khulna dwells in health hazard due to garbage

Reduce Reuse recycle

Capturing sustainability in action

Bus without Business 

Sucker fish plight: habitat loss

Water or Poison?

Bangladesh's Battle Against Air Pollution

The film is part of the Independent Category of the Community Digital Story Festival.

CoolConsolationKcSaranga

NALUBALE

The film is part of the DIU Best Story Category of the Community Digital Story Festival.

Save the river, save the country

Urban

River erosion, faridpur

Bangladesh Air pollution

The film is part of the DIU Best Story Category of the Community Digital Story Festival

Towns with greenery 

It starts from you. Waste management

The Tale Of Garbage

City-Life with Nature

The film is part of DIU Best Story Category of Community Digital Story Festival

Rising temperature falling hope

The film is part of DIU Best Story Category at the Community Digital Storytelling Festival. 

Life of a Bottle

A collection of smartphone films presented under the MINA #EcoSmartPhoneFilms, curated by Max Schleser and Gerda Cammaer.

Films in the collection:
1. Beneath the Lonesome Sky by Rob Layton (4:11)
2. Sophia’s Dream by Namo Safideen (2:28)
3. Green by Holger Mohaupt (1:00)
4. Afternoon with Ants by Ian McDonald (5:00)
5. Cockroach by Claire Ford (2:16)
6. Back of my Shed by David Egarr (2:49)
7. Spin Cycle by Clancy Tate (2:19)
8. Round and Round by Cael MacLeod-Smith (3:11)
9. Neighborhood by Jack Cochran &amp; Pamela Falkenberg (4:11)
10. NarroWing by Poppy Adams (3:43)
11. Reductio by Matthew Foster (3:40)
12. Forks by Alexandra Guillossou (1:03)
13. Corona Diaries: Flowers by Susan Detroy (1:50)
14. Fragrance by Pannatee Chitwises (1:21)
15. Syron (9:58)

Image credit: "Sophia’s Dream” - Namo Safideen

#EcoSmartPhoneFilms

Interesting intersections can be observed between the so-called new ecologies and the development of storytelling towards immersive media. 

Interesting intersections can be observed between the so-called new ecologies and the development of storytelling towards immersive media. The climate crisis is the most significant issue in our times and consequentially, we need to explore new forms of re-connecting with nature through digital media.
Scatter explores imaginative landscapes as a dynamic environment where these new ideas about ecology and media can take form.&nbsp;

This experimental smartphone, immersive media production, aims to explore ecologies that otherwise remain hidden or unnoticeable. Our basic premise for Scatter is that the current environmental crisis involves a crisis of the imagination that requires a different kind of art and a different kind of action, one tailored to 21st-century storytelling.

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