A Clockwork Orange
Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess
Project Assigned by Judith Dolan
2018 University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA
The piece is a retelling of A Clockwork Orange, set on 4Chan and the dark web. The street violence of the original is shown through cyber bullying.
The story is divided up into four worlds, each represented with a collage. The first is Alex causing havoc online. Like the users of 4Chan, Alex takes delight in doing horrible things cloaked in wit and humor, reveling in the grotesque with a veneer of sophistication.
The second is the world of prison and rehabilitation. The Eyes forced open brainwashing of the original is represented with a brain numbingly bad government or corporate online course. It’s aggressively bland, but also dystopianly invasive.
The third is a rough small town diner. Here the grotesque is out of Alex’s control and used against him. The lawlessness is flesh instead of digital like the first one.
The third is life after rehabilitation. The last one is the hospital, where Alex discovers he’s “cured” and can return to his old ways. It’s sanitary in a disgusting way. It’s a reclaiming the rehab scene, making a clean safe space anything but.
