Director: Nathan Harper

Film: Egregoric Yggdrasil

Bio: Egregoric Yggdrasil is a short looping CGI animation based on an internet cult that worships Gadget Hackwrench, a cartoon character from the popular 1980s cartoon Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers. At first glance, this cult is a joke built on memes and irony, but upon closer inspection, it is laced with sophisticated philosophy and an unexpected sincerity. Their forums mention the ancient concept of the egregore, which describes a nonphysical entity that forms from a group’s devotion towards a singular thing. Images of commercial mass production have a greater reach globally and, thus, a more significant number of devotees to form such an entity. Thus the internet provides a palace to form a collective in which a new form is born with ancient roots but a distinctly modern and commercial shape. Egregoric Yggdrasil depicts an unseen part of this lore where we witness the cyborg goddess in all her iterations emerging from the depths of a digital sea, eager to engage with her followers. What do these new entities say about us and our collective experiences in the digital world?