Cyborg Generation – Films – Visions du Réel

Miguel Morillo Vega
Spain | 2024 | 63 min
World premiere
Languages : Catalan, Spanish, English
Subtitles : English, French

An encounter with several cyborg artists persuades 18-year-old Kai to acquire a new sense. He develops a cybernetic organ which allows him to hear cosmic rays from space as sounds. A tender and extraordinary transition then unfolds, a quest to be one’s best self, far from the standards of normativity.
The screening will be followed by a performance of the protagonist Kai Landre at 9:30 PM at the Bar du Réel.

At the age of 18, Kai Landre meets the artists Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas – the first people to be declared "cyborgs". In search of his own identity, he decides to develop a sense unique to him, which will enable him to capture cosmic rays from outer space and transform them into sounds on a 128-note scale, according to the distance from which they originate. But implanting such a device in his skull requires a surgical operation that must be carried out in total secrecy. During this transition, Kai will have to confront not only the transhumanism sceptics, but also his past and his origins, in order to be able to assert the identity that he aligns with. Shot over several years, from Barcelona to Princeton University, where Kai is invited to speak, Miguel Morillo Vega's film paints a portrait not only of an exceptional sound artist, but also of a generation seeking to reinvent itself, against the backdrop of a society that has built its normative system on Judeo-Christian thought. In a depiction that is at times inspired by retro-futurism, yet remains very contemporary, Cyborg Generation explores the possibility of an augmented, hopefully better, humanity.
Aurélien Marsais

Cyborg Generation, 2024