See a Dog, Hear a Dog

Jesse McLean

2016 | 00:17:42 | United States | English | Color | Stereo | 16:9 | HD video

Collection: Single Titles

Tags: Animals, Language, Technology

Taking its title from a sound design maxim and using it as a conceit to grasp the desire for connection, See A Dog, Hear A Dog probes the limits and possibilities of communication. In this liminal cinematic space, the fear of conscious machines is matched with a desire to connect with nonhuman entities. Algorithms collaborate and improvise. Dogs obey/disobey human commands, displaying their own artistry and agency in the process. Technology, from domesticated animals to algorithmic music to chat rooms, reflects human desires but has its own inventiveness. Can we ever truly communicate with a machine, with a nonhuman animal, with each other? Our anthropomorphic tendencies, our fear of replacement by nonhuman forms, even our interpersonal limitations, can’t foreclose the possibility of connection and understanding, a great unknown sometimes called trust.

"With YouTube dog videos, chatbot dialogue windows, and iTunes visualizer, among other sources, See a Dog, Hear a Dog — McLean’s latest analytic tragicomedy of infinite human desire and finite technological capacity — considers the deficits and surpluses produced by attempts at communication among humans, animals, and machines; both directly, and as mediated by one another."
— Colin Beckett

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Premiere

Projections, New York Film Festival
New York, NY
2016

Exhibitions + Festivals

International Film Festival Rotterdam 2017

Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, UK, 2017