Consensus  Gentium
(Latin for if Everyone Believes It, It Must Be True!) is a powerful exploration into the implications of today's AI technology.  

It is an interactive film that integrates cutting-edge facial detection and AI, which transports audiences on a unique quest to discover what could come about if we succumb to unchecked surveillance. Through a smartphone, participants are tasked to obtain increased mobility to visit their sick Nana through a government surveillance based Global Citizen App. Through various tests, their receptivity towards dissidence or compliance is calculated, by monitoring data for their conscious and subconscious eye gaze interactions, by the device’s front-facing camera, while various characters interact with the participant through the smartphone, to reflect the consequences of their decisions.

Consensus Gentium  immerses the participant as a central character in a near future world to experience how marginalized groups maybe impacted by biased AI networks and technologies, in order to spark public awareness through the participant being viscerally immersed and engaging with the subject matter in a personal way. 

Consensus Gentium technology plays a transformative role, significantly enhancing the storytelling experience by integrating facial detection and AI analytics. This advanced application of AI enables the platform to interactively adapt its narrative based on real-time analysis of the viewer's facial expressions and gaze direction. By meticulously monitoring these cues, the AI can infer the participant's receptivity towards various narrative branches, effectively personalizing the story to match their implicit preferences and actions. This dynamic storytelling method not only captivates the audience with a tailored narrative journey but also immerses them in a deeply engaging exploration of digital citizenship and ethical decision-making.  

Through this innovative use of AI, Consensus Gentium offers a narrative that evolves and branches based on user interaction, showcasing the potential of AI to create immersive and responsive entertainment experiences that reflect the complexities of human emotion and decision-making.

Links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rh-JXjPZrfjk3uIfEp0grxmlnUugvZe-Hv73xk_d9SU/edit?usp=sharing

Crew:

Main creator: Karen Palmer

Producers: Thalia Mavros/ Tôm Millen/ Tuyết Vân Huỳnh Producers

Director of photography: Anthony Gurner

Screenplay: Karen Palmer

Casting director Nicci Topping

Assistant director: Caroline Deeds

Camera assistant: Guilio Piccirillo

Sound recorder & Mixer: Rute Gomes & Nikos Nikolalaois

Stylist: Laurel Hunter

Makeup artist: Marialuisa Cosentino

Hair stylist: Sheree Jourdan

Production photographer: Wayne Campbell & Aubrey Fagon

Production assistant: Marcin Weremczuk

Assistant producer: Maya Colombier



Post Production Team:

World Builder consultant: Mario Marquez Lartigue

Lead developer: Tom Shannon

Developer: Ahmed Buttar

Editor: Jack Foster

After effects editor: Cranrust VFX LTD (Jonathan Klahr)

Sound designer: Gareth Fry

Colorist: Nigel Tadyanehondo

Music producer: Cesare Marchese

Music producer: Colin Emmanuel

Set designer (live site installation): Tom Paris



Screen Life Team:

Producer: Jackson Lapsley Scott, Vertical Content (Unless Pictures)

Vertical content producer: Meg O'Connell, Executive Producer (Unless Pictures)

Producer: Steph Walsh, Motion Graphics (Breeder)

Lead motion graphics designer: Shell Weiss

Graphics designer: Ryan McShane

Motion graphics: Rebecca George

Motion graphics: Samantha Gleeson

Screen-life editor :Brodie Rocca

Storyboard developer, Concept Artist: Shaun Beyond Shakoor Bukhuth



Main Cast

Miriam Teak-Lee: Mischi Palmer

Zachary Hing: Global Citizen Officer

Tolu Kingba: Source Code-activist

Sorcha Farnan: Influencer

Keon-Martial Phillip: Black man arrested by police

Clare Owens: Nana

Dean Christie: Police officer 1

Graham Bohea: Police officer 2 (not in final film)

Mei Mac: GC Citizen Female

Aitor Gonzalez: GC Citizen Male

Francoise (Forrest) Mahop: Parkour athlete

Georgia Munroe: Parkour athlete

Daniel Woodrow: Parkour athlete

Flynn Disney: Parkour athlete

Kevin Francomme: Parkour athlete

Jasmine Murray: Protestor

Zara Murray: Protestor

Laurel Hunter: Woman videoing altercation



Production Company Interactive Film Ltd

The project was developed as part of the BFI Development Fund and the National Lottery.

Karen Palmer is the Storyteller from the Future, an award winning XR creator, futurist, and TED Speaker who explores the implications of AI. She enables participants to experience the future today through her immersive film experiences, that watch you back using AI, and facial recognition technologies. She has been featured in Channel 4 & BBC News, CBS News, Wired, Forbes, PC Mag, Fast Company etc. In 2023 Karen won the XR Experience Jury Competition SXSW with Consensus Gentium. Previously she received an Honorary Mention in the STARTS Prize category (2020) ARS Electronica and the Digital Dozen Award for Storytelling. Her work has been exhibited internationally, from the V&A to the Museum of Modern Art, and she has spoken from the Google Cultural Institute Paris to the Sydney Opera House.

In Karen Palmer’s Consensus Gentium, an iPhone becomes a dynamic storytelling device where you are immersed in an unfolding narrative taking place in the palm of your hands. Through the film-like narrative, you quickly learn that you exist in a near-future society that is managed through the Global Citizen App, a heightened surveillance technology that determines all features of your city life including mobility. While you are watching the story play out on your phone, the app‘s facial recognition system is closely monitoring your reactions to the events and weighing your threat to their meticulous control. Moving through the city without raising alarm does not come without its challenges. It proves not to be an easy task given the heightened police presence resulting in violence against unarmed citizens and FaceTime calls from your friends understandably upset about the state of racialized violence. The phone watches you back to advance the narrative in response to your facial reactions making each participants’ experience unique. Through a simulated experience, Palmer shows us how AI-driven surveillance tools can make detrimental decisions and yield harmful results with lasting impact.