Defragged

I have watched with fascination my friend's machimina, which has the interesting name Defragged. Of course those of you familiar with video games might not be surprised at all by such a name. After all, what else a grenade can do? If you are a computer versed creature you also know what the term means.

Now, what my friend's work does is, in my opinion, to "defrag" what her main character sees as reality.

Let me give you my own personal experience from watching the video. The beginning is a close reminder of a Quake game. Then, at a critical point I really had the feeling of a malfunction of the game that my friend intended to give us... but, is it a malfunction of the game? Recalling that the character was chasing Hossman before the malfunction a thought comes to my mind. Why the character didn't shoot merciless Hossman as it has been doing with others? It was not because of lack of ammo... maybe the failure is not in the program.

The character is now alone and in an introspective search that reminds me a David Lynch's movies situation, specially in the "mirror" scene of Lost Highway. The character here should know that the other is not his specular image in a mirror because of the side on which one of them are carrying their guns.

The clones are part of that introspective search that tests the boundaries of the character's perception. At the end, the single shot that kills the character is like a return to the real time, real space and the action of a snipper. However, when I realized that the score was -1 I just could think that the character somehow shoot himself.

For me, Defragged is a metaphore. Someone who kills merciless ends up alienating themselves and kills something inside them.