Zach Challies, a Master of Design Innovation student, made the film as part of an assignment for the postgraduate Design Led Futures course last year, under the supervision of Ross Stevens, a senior lecturer in the School of Design.
In Vitro is one of 35 films selected to screen in the competition, which runs from 12 to 14 September in Auckland, and includes panel sessions and guest speakers. The three minute film explores a future where organ-growth is as simple as setting up a fish tank in your own home.
The concept of In Vitro, explains Zach, is an imagining of the future of medical science and growing anatomy. “It’s suggesting that maybe in the not so distant future we will have the technology to make back-up surrogates of our essential organs, the way we do our data, and store them privately in our homes—a physical insurance policy, in case of illness or trauma.
“It’s also asking whether the stigma around vices and self-indulgence will continue when we have the ability to replace any of our damaged organs with a pristine copy of the original,” he says.
Zach is excited to be accepted into a festival where the primary participants are film students—“though that same fact makes it pretty daunting,” he says. “It'll be interesting to see how In Vitro fares.”
You can watch In Vitro here: https://vimeo.com/78789503
For more information about Uni Shorts visit www.unishorts.unitec.ac.nz, www.facebook.com/unishorts or search @unishorts on Twitter.