Experiencing Interruptions?

The Life and Times of G

The Life and Times of G is a single channel version of an immersive four screen video installation that explores the tension between two opposing modes of technology and cognition. Inspired by Ursula Franklin’s concepts of holistic and prescriptive technologies, the piece examines how adaptive, individual-centered processes contrast with rigid, conformity-driven systems that increasingly shape human experience. The work layers this with Iain McGilchrist’s exploration of the brain’s left and right hemispheres, drawing parallels between the dominance of the analytical, prescriptive left hemisphere and society's shift toward mechanization, control, and efficiency.

The central character, G, is portrayed by two dancers, representing these opposing forces within both the mind and technological systems. Their movements, choreographed to embody both the freedom of holistic thinking and the constraints of prescriptive systems, take place against shifting landscapes of natural and industrial environments. The dancers’ costumes, made from discarded consumer goods, accumulate throughout their journey.

  • Ian Johnston
    Director
  • Ian Johnston
    Writer
  • Ian Johnston
    Producer
  • Hiromoto Ida
    Key Cast
    "G"
    Shogun, Man in the High Castle, Midway, Origin
  • Acacia Schachte
    Key Cast
    "G"
    Radioactive
  • Slava Doval
    Key Cast
    "G"
  • Ian Johnston
    Choreography
  • Acacia Schachte
    Choreography
  • Hiromoto Ida
    Choreography
  • Slava Doval
    Choreography
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Art, Dance
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 16, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 CAD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ian Johnston

Ian Johnston studied architecture at Algonquin College and Carleton University in Ottawa and spent five years working at the Bauhaus Academy in post Berlin Wall, Dessau, Germany. He currently lives on the unceded traditional territory of the Sinixt people in Nelson, BC, Canada.

Johnston’s primary interest lies in the cycle of goods that he investigates, through site-specific sculptural and video installations, how things we consume populate our daily lives, define relationships we have with each other and ultimately define social structures. His practice is an extensive reflection on consumerism and the ensuing refuse.

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Director Statement

Ian Johnston’s work combines an engagement with material processes and a critical examination of consumerism. Trained in architecture, his practice explores the life cycle of consumer goods, probing the environmental and social implications of mass consumption. His installations often highlight the paradoxical relationship between our seemingly unlimited appetite for products and the finite resources available to sustain this demand.
His works, The Chamber, and Fish Tales, feature a vast, inflatable form that expands and contracts, resembling a living organism. Accompanied by a soundscape the pieces conceal and reveal their consumerism related contents with protracted breathing cycle drawing parallels to practices employed for coping in times of an overabundance of information and ecological and social upheaval.
Johnston’s work of the last ten years uses video to broaden his exploration of these themes. through the integration of video and sound. His immersive video installations, At the End of the Tunnel, Fine Line: Check Check and The Life and Times of G, employ a multi-screen format which in the latter juxtaposes dancers with technology, and built and natural landscapes. Drawing from his architectural background the large format multi-channel installations serve to disrupt and transform the viewers relationship to the screen whereby they are choreographed by the work and have a spatial and physical experience.
Through his evolving practice, Johnston continues to challenge viewers to reconsider the value systems that drive consumption, blending architectural precision, material experimentation, and media innovation to pose fundamental questions about sustainability and societal norms.