T’s World: The Over-identification of Terry Thompson
- Submitting institution
-
Brunel University London
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 006-188282-24584
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- A variety of film festivals, public screenings, and art institution exhibitions.
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
- October
- Year of production
- 2014
- URL
-
https://doi.org/10.17633/rd.brunel.13378982
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
1 - Film & TV
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- In 2011, Terry Thompson disactivated the cages of sixty-four wild animals on his Ohio property, so the animals might escape into the community. Then he shot himself, hoping that the animals would consume him. In conducting this research, I mobilised police reports and interviews to explore the tensions between Thompson's legal rights and the security concerns of the authorities and neighbours. The film examines how Thompson's accumulation of dangerous animals is in harmony with the promised American custom of pioneering and freedom from state authority, but simultaneously incongruent with law. It investigates, “how can the ‘rule of the game’ be understood when the custom permits liberties but the law does not?’
The film was shot in Ohio and the content of the police reports was recreated using 3D imagery. The scenes are framed by a "theatrical" discourse that reference Brecht's work "He Said Yes / He Said No" with its concern with the idea of custom. To create the 3D images, the idea of a paradoxical "game" was incorporated into the form of the film with the intention of a "performativity in form" that transcends the content of the film and forms part of its analysis and commentary. A game world was created using a platform for video game production. All the characters are artificially intelligent "bots" that inhabit T's World, a digital recreation of Terry Thompson's property and surroundings. These automated "bots" are set loose in the world with only the rudimentary rules of the script to determine their behaviour.
The research findings demonstrated that Thompson’s actions were congruent with some strains in American political thought, and incongruent with others. The film gives insight into the political issues of violence, custom and law in the U.S. Ultimately, an over-identification with custom is not allowed and law goes into effect.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
