If moving to another planet is starting to seem like a good idea, watch this
Better than SpaceX! This week's Exhibitionist in Residence has bought you a ticket to Euphoria
The Doomsday Clock is now at 2½ minutes to midnight, and by the time you read this, who knows what executive order Donald Trump will have pushed through. Earth has seen better days — so when you watch Amélie Tourangeau's short film, "Euphoria," try to restrain yourself from taking its sales pitch too seriously.
The short, which we're airing on Sunday's episode of Exhibitionists, is an ad for a brand new planet, and Euphoria, per the title, is its name.
It's beautiful! It's safe! It serves the most delicious coffee in the galaxy! And, if you act now, this pink-and-blue paradise could be your new home.
Tourangeau, 28, is a freelance illustrator, designer and animation director in Montreal. And while the landscape illustrations you'll find on her website capture the everyday magic of the places she's been — spots like the tranquil archipelagos of Sweden, or the sidewalks of The Plateau — last summer the UQAM grad was devouring stories about space travel and not just science fiction.
News about the space race to Mars was particularly fascinating, she says. Elon Musk says his SpaceX program will blast people to Mars within the next decade, for instance, and last October, President Barack Obama talked U.S. plans to colonize Mars by the mid -2030s.
"It got me inspired," Tourangeau tells CBC Arts, and she began developing background designs for her own brave new world.
"I don't really want to go to Mars, but I find it fascinating that there are people working on this, who want to try to make it real," says the artist.
"It's hard to know what will happen with the future," she says, but imagining a place like Euphoria — or a human settlement on Mars — "is a way to have an answer."
So if she wouldn't go to Mars, would she buy a one-way ticket to Euphoria?
"Ha! That's a good question. I don't know that it's the most wonderful place in the world," says Tourangeau.
"I still enjoy having the sensation of the wind on my face and not wearing a [space] suit all the time," she laughs. Plus, Euphoria is pretty reliant on AI — "and that could be kind of creepy."
The film, in a way, is a reminder that space isn't necessarily a "fallback" for humanity. Says the artist: "Maybe sometimes we forget that we're lucky to have what we have."
Watch the film:
Find more from Amélie Tourangeau on her website and on the new episode of Exhibitionists. Watch online or Sunday at 4:30 (5 p.m. NT) on CBC Television.
Want to see your creations on CBC Arts? Just send us an email! You could be an Exhibitionist in Residence this season.