The idea for Voalesce rose from a growing sense of unease and discomfort. As we watched our timelines and social circles tear themselves apart with vitriolic polarisation, increasingly heading for the extremes, we realised that the most dangerous thing happening around us was not the proliferation of one brand of opinion; it was rather the cartelization of opinion. The attempt on either side of any debate to form one perspective and the coercion of humanity to accept just one version of a story.
There should be space all around us for disagreement. But it should perhaps always be for the good of our society. Divergent views and opposing opinions should coexist and then come together, grow and thrive for the improvement of humankind. That is what coalescing means to us. And we want to do it with the medium of our age – an internet video channel.
The maiden project for this series spurred from a Facebook rant. Teeming with frustration at the continuously receding depths of arguments on social media, my friend Abhishek Anid Dutta vented his feelings out on Facebook and that caught my eye. I suggested we should make a video essay out of it. Over the next week, we sourced a bunch of Creative Commons footage and a soundtrack, and he hunched over his computer piecing together the video. What emerged was Boxes.
