2023

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Rafia Ashraf

Sairbeen – Technological Advancements, a Dream or a Dystopia?


The idea of social media and virtual reality presents the possibility of a perfect, larger than life experience where everything you want is instantly achievable, yet these systems also actively prey on their users' thoughts and desires to support capitalist systems. Can a utopia really exist when constant surveillance on what you think and behavioral data to predict your actions are the powering source behind them? With our onscreen presence affecting our off-screen decision making and moods so immensely, are all our conscious choices even our own?

Sairbeen is a Graphic novel based on the possibilities of a future of technological advancements, and the social and political atmosphere shifting throughout the world as our virtual and physical words merge more into each other. The story takes place in a time where the world is defined through realities existing only on screens and wires. this novel explores the disconnect from reality brought about by the internet, incorporating political and capitalistic aspects of technology through surveillance and algorithmic control while questioning whether the bounds of human desire can ever be manifested as a physical reality in a world where every aspect of being human is a marketable product, if not, is there a way out?

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