I LOVE YOU, KEEP GOING

A bicycle-powered film installation about oil and the spirit of nature by filmmaker Ari Gold.

3 film chapters invite the audience to ride bicycles.
Shadows become part of the image. 
Their action changes the world.

“I Love You, Keep Going” was born while I was bicycling in a heavy traffic jam in California. I wondered if it might be possible to invoke a story about nature, and my country’s addiction to oil, in such a way that an audience could feel these opposing forces in their bodies rather than simply their minds. Working with Iranian film editor Arya Ghavamian, whose nation’s history is entwined with oil, I will create three looping films which invite the visitors to mount bicycles and “change the story.”

In Chapter One, where nobody bikes, we see the oil business winning the heart of the world. In Chapter Two, where one person enters the future alone, the fear of death and destruction become activated. In Chapter Three, where multiple cyclists join forces, transcendence and harmony with nature become possible. Viewers may passively watch the world’s destruction, or become part of the story and change the future in a positive way. Those who enter the artwork on the mounted bicycles become a part of the transformation, their pedaling altering the outcome of the story of our planet.

We are in a decisive decade; we will only survive this century if we listen to nature. After a friend showed me how plants can communicate through generated music, I became intrigued by the possibility of a kind of “biofeedback” object-lesson for humans. “I Love You, Keep Going” is the result of that investigation. In a miniature test-run of the concept in Texas—the most oil-rich state in the US—I was struck by the reac_ons of the “test pilots”, who smiled, sped up and even held hands at the same moments, as though choreographed in advance. As with plants, the human soul’s emotional health changes through the body first.

Edited and co-produced by Arya Ghavamian.
Software & Build by Peter Armstrong (USA), and Alba Corral, Jude Serena & Raul Nieves (España). 
Has been featured at festivals & museums in Texas, Colombia, Brazil, Spain, and Latvia.

Contact Ari for more information.