A FUTURE SURFACE

[The Surface That Knows What We Avoid]

A 46-second film. Digital Media Integration, RIT, Spring 2026.

Three ideas, one kept

I started with three ideas for a surface from the future. One records hesitation at doors and lifts. One shows the places people walk around. One keeps the waiting time of everyone who stood there before. I made the second.

What the film does

It looks at a campus path and a few street corners the way an office might file them. The colour drains out, red lines scan the buildings, and colour blocks grow over the walls. The labels read like paperwork: DWELL TIME, PASS-THROUGH ONLY, SURFACE RECLASSIFIED, NOT A PLACE. The numbers are fictional, written for the film.

Frame at 0:04. The first card. — **0:04**The first card.

Frame at 0:08. A path at RIT. — **0:08**A path at RIT.

Frame at 0:12. A street corner in New York, scanned. — **0:12**A street corner in New York, scanned.

Frame at 0:24. The blocks cover the building. — **0:24**The blocks cover the building.

Frame at 0:28. The surface is locked. — **0:28**The surface is locked.

Frame at 0:32. The blocks are gone and the street is grey. — **0:32**The blocks are gone and the street is grey.

What is filmed, what is generated, what is mine

The campus shots are mine, taken on an iPhone at RIT. The New York street shots are by my classmate Alyssa, who filmed them for me on a trip.

I generated the moving image in Jimeng, on top of that footage. The prompts ask for the real street to stay as it is while red scan lines and colour blocks grow over the buildings. I ran them many times and kept a few takes.

The idea, the prompts, the choice of takes, the edit, the title cards and the labels are mine. The cards and labels are set in After Effects.

A campus path at RIT, as filmed — A frame of my footage.

The same path with a generated colour strip on the ground — The same shot after Jimeng.

The city knows. It just never said anything.

The last card of the film.