Conducted

Conducted follows a focal character named Soren, a twenty-six-year-old graphic designer who is living in a futuristic (and yet also quite recognizable) society built on systems of conspicuous consumption coupled with a drug-induced passivity among its population. The unnamed and unseen leaders of this society want all citizens to be "happy," and thus drugs everyone with uppers, called Smilez, so that people feel constantly satisfied. In addition to his public work as a graphic designer, Soren is a secret artist-a painter-but he must keep his art hidden since it reflects turbulent and idiosyncratic emotions: an obvious threat to this society's structure and values. At the heart of Conducted is the premise that making and viewing art creates an awareness of identity, as well as how a larger society constructs and influences one's identity. Soren must make a choice: to sacrifice his own life to try to destroy the source of the society's pseudo-happiness himself or to commit suicide, knowing that he can no longer exist in this oppressive society.