anya alinea

SIMS_2020. 2020. HD Video.

A disquieting take on existence that begins with a seemingly absurd connection between the Mayan calendar and a Gotye song and ends but ends with a confusion of selfhood and a disguised empathy for others. Questioning the world as a series of simulations, alinea ultimately targets the siloed world-building that algorithmically builds fortresses around our own take on reality while keeping others’ versions at bay. -RW

Video transcript:

The world as we know it is fake. I know it is hard to believe but just hear me out. The year 2012 is the year civilization ended according to the Mayan’s highly detailed calendar. The prediction of such has been disputed but there is proof right in front of us that the year 2012 was the beginning of the end of times. 2012 was a very big year for music. “Somebody that I used to know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra was on the top of the billboard charts for 2012. Remove all of the vowels in the title and you get 13 individual letters. 13 is the number of main dieties in the Maya pantheon. Remove all of the consonants instead and you’re left with 9 individual letters. The Mayans believed that beneath the earth lay a realm consisting of nine layers called Xibalba. This is not a coincidence. This is the universe repeating significant numbers because that is what simulations do. They repeat the information put in them. Take a moment to self evaluate. Are you even here in this space, consuming this content? Are you truly here or are you just going through the motions as you have before. Executing each task with strangely average efficiency- not truly feeling like you’re living in the moment?…feeling robotic and mechanical…I know I am. I lay awake at night thinking about it. How has my life come to this? I’m simply a vessel for actions to be channeled into. I’m not here. I’m not real. I’m just a cog in the machine. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m not real. The world as we know it is not real. What proof is there that anything is? I can feel myself sitting, staring at this computer screen, the light drawing into the back of my eyes- but does that make it real? How can I trust my senses. My senses are just directives executed through programming. Are you real? Am I real? Are you god? Or am I? Am I you or are we one in the same? Who and what am I? Who, and what, are you? I’m not real to you but I am real to me. Are you real? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the world as you know it is fake.