The Common Sense (2014)

New York-based artist Melanie Gilligan's largest project to date, The Common Sense takes the form of a sci-fi film and mini-series which looks at how minds, bodies, and interpersonal relations are shaped by technological advancements within capitalism. This experimental narrative drama tells a story that revolves around a future technology which allows one to directly experience another person's bodily sensations and affect. After a decade of transforming the conditions of work and social life, for the most part in accordance with economic demands, the technology's networks suddenly fail causing massive disorientation. People withdraw and isolate themselves from the public, no longer knowing how to communicate. Once the system comes back online, the story splits into two scenarios: one version shows a period of normalization after the rupture, while in the other people confront the ways that the technology has been exploitatively used for years, some forming social movements to resist the continuation of these conditions.