When viewers open the door to Room 111 in West Hall, sirens greet them as an accident unfolds. It was the start of Justin Kwan’s “Resuscitation,” a short film taking place in the middle of an accident scene.
The show opened on August 25 and is scheduled to run until September 6 from 10 am to 5 pm on Mondays to Fridays. Kwan made use of four large projectors and surround sound to show his film, which gave the effect that the scene takes place around the viewer. The scene opens, uncovering a frenzied woman crying over her son, who lies unconscious before her. Two EMTs and a firefighter move to aid the boy as passersby look on.
Ron, the newest addition to the paramedic crew, fights to help save the boy, whose grip on life is tenuous. The boy’s mother proves to be a hindrance to her son’s salvation.
Sending the boy to the hospital for help was not an option, as it was against the mother’s religion to have ‘impure’ people guide her son into heaven. Indignant, Ron lashes out in anger, insisting that the boy needs critical help. Without a signed consent form from the mother, the paramedics had no other choice but to perform resuscitation on the spot.
The boy’s conditions worsen as the scene continues, and at some point he stops breathing. The EMTs begin CPR, hoping to give the boy enough oxygen to regain consciousness. Calm countdowns of “6 7 8 9 10 breathe” could be heard silently as the EMTs continued with compressions.
“Guys, I don’t think it’s gonna help,” a firefighter said, words that no mother or novice paramedic wants to hear. After few grueling minutes of resuscitation, the firefighter calls a doctor. The doctor gives his response to the boy’s conditions and inability to regain consciousness after minutes of CPR.
Time of death: 17:45. With his rescue team unable to save the boy, Ron is infuriated, yet he has no choice but to go back into the fire truck and receive his next mission.
The film overall was rather interesting, in a way that there were quite a few things happening at the same time. By turning one way, the viewer can watch as onlookers come and stay to watch. Looking the other direction, one could see the firetruck’s flashing lights.
Kwan’s editing technique for the film was also quite novel. At some point in time, the scenery on each screen switches back and forth to give proper emphasis on a different subject. The main screen—where the young boy and his mother are found—would switch later on to let the viewer see what the EMTs were getting from their fire truck.
“Resuscitation” is quite an innovative piece of work by RPI student and artist Justin Kwan. Those who have seen it have even left comments about how well Kwan portrayed a sense of surrealism in his video, even when such situations are completely probable.
