This short animation is inspired by Silent Adaptation, which powerfully explores themes of silence, adaptation, and the fragile relationship between humans and the environment. In Silent Adaptation, the artist employs silence and the figure of a lone protagonist — who follows the last trace of pure water — to depict a desperate world plagued by environmental pollution and the protagonist’s hopeless quest. I was deeply moved by its serene, contemplative atmosphere and the way it conveys an environmental narrative without relying on dialogue.
Drawing from this visual storytelling approach, my animation imagines a post-apocalyptic mechanical world where water has been completely eradicated and now exists only as legend. The protagonist, a future human who has been transformed into a machine and assimilated into this desolate system, stumbles upon a relic from the past: an ancient photo album containing numerous images of “water.” Inspired by one particular photograph of the vast ocean, he embarks on a futile journey, echoing Silent Adaptation where the protagonist follows a balloon carrying water. For a fleeting moment, the photograph allows him to glimpse a time when clear waters, blue seas, rain, and the natural water cycle still existed.
Back in reality, the protagonist climbs upward from the underground, driven by the hope of finding a vibrant, colorful landscape. However, upon opening a hatch to the surface, he is met only with a barren, black-and-white wasteland and a heavy, still black sea — reminiscent of the oil-like black water that overruns the world in Silent Adaptation.
By weaving these elements together, I aim to expand the visual language of silent environmental storytelling, creating a narrative that resonates with Hao’s work while expressing my own interpretation of ecological despair.
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Check out Tairan Hao’s Silent Adaptation.
