FLAWLESS
by Yushi Chen
The research explores the shift from AI-driven precision to manual production with deliberate flaws reflects deeper anxieties about labor, identity, and authenticity.
Film Logline: When an automated Barbie factory begins producing flawed dolls due to a hidden saboteur, a global backlash against Al-driven manufacturing forces humanity back to handcrafted labor, only to create a new kind of mechanisation.
In 2030, Mattel launches the first fully automated Barbie factory in the United States. Human workers around the globe were laid off. Robots take over the production line, assembling perfect dolls through precise algorithms. But one - the X-9 - begins to produce defective Barbies: crooked eyes and asymmetrical limbs. What appears to be a malfunction is human sabotage.
Under public pressure, the government adopts a sweeping policy: shut down all AI and machine manufacturing. By 2040, society returns to craftsmanship. However, the age of human manufacturing soon revealed itself to be a paradox. To avoid being mistaken for machines, workers must now introduce imperfections. Imperfection becomes mandatory. Mistakes became the new standard.
This film project explores the shift from automation to artificial ‘humanity’, where labour, identity and authenticity are reconstructed under a new system of control. Once a symbol of perfection and empowerment, the Barbie doll is now reduced to an object of ritualised obedience.
What happens when rebellion against perfection becomes just another performance? What does it mean when our flaws are also manufactured?