Reality+ (2014)

"Vincent" (Vincent Colombe) is your average looking Joe who's a little disillusioned with his body. Then he reads of a micro-chip that when implanted allows a person to pretty much design their own body by altering their own perceptions of yourself - and of sharing those with anyone else who has had the same surgery. Thing is, it only works for twelve hours each day and then you revert back to normal. That's fine, he reckons, so goes and gets the job done emerging as his own ideal self (Aurélien Muller). Seems this idea is quite contagious as a few of his friends follow suit. Thing is, when do you use it? At work or at play? Twelve hours is tantalisingly too short! Maybe someone could unlock the chip and it could become a permanent arrangement? It's quite an interesting look at the scourge of vanity that drives our relationships, attitudes, self worth and the judgements we make of each other, and also delivers quite a sad indictment of the ease with which we reach for technology to solve our problems or make our lives artificially better without consideration of the consequences. It's also quite poignant that the images we manufacture for ourselves are all so traditionally stylised, beautiful, swarthy, sexy - we could easily all end up looking the same. Clearly the beauty industry has a deep-rooted path to our inner psyche of what we consider attractive. Of course, if it seems to good to be true, then it probably is - but how will it pan out for "Vincent"?