![\"Zeke](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Zeke-Fairley-in-Mexico-1.jpg\")
He notes the inherent conflict of desiring to live off the grid while also insisting on perpetual online connectivity. \u201cWhat is \u2018going off the grid\u2019 when you\u2019re addicted to the internet?\u201d he wonders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The look of the \u201cCabin Boy\u201d set reaches back to the infamous case of Ted Kaczynski, the notorious Unabomber, who killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995 in a nationwide mail-bombing campaign. Kaczynski staged his attacks from a remote cabin in Montana, targeting people he believed were advancing technologies and philosophies that threatened social norms and devastated the natural environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fairley studied photos of the cabin\u2019s interior that were taken after Kaczynski had been apprehended by authorities and set about replicating its appearance for his film. In a basement studio in the Center for Media Arts, Computing, and Design, he has reconstructed a strikingly similar cabin interior from plywood and furnished it to suggest a spartan lifestyle with a hoarder\u2019s sensibility, from the frayed office chair to the stained carpet to the empty cans of hard cider and Pabst Blue Ribbon on the shelves. Fairley opened up the set for viewing by the Clark community during last Thursday\u2019s ClarkFEST, the semesterly celebration of students\u2019 intellectual and creative endeavors, where he gave visitors a tour and shared the genesis of the project that earned him a Steinbrecher Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interior scenes will be shot on that set; exteriors will be filmed next month at a Vermont cabin owned by a friend of Fairley\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cCabin Boy\u201d screenplay features another key character, a postal worker named Jay (played by Clark sculpture professor James Maurelle) who unknowingly has been delivering the components of the bomb to Dylan (portrayed by Quinn Fay \u201924). The plot tracks the evolving relationship between the men, and the repercussions when Dylan achieves a measure of notoriety. In a meta-twist, a local art museum wants to recreate the cabin as part of an exhibit. But Jay resists, insisting the details of Dylan\u2019s story have been misrepresented to the public \u2014 a commentary, Fairley says, on the popular fascination with true-crime dramas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fairley aspires to a career behind the camera, citing the gritty films of the 1970s as among his favorites. (As he was being interviewed for this article inside Bel\u00e9n Casa de Pan, Fairley was approached by a Clark alum who\u2019d been sitting at a nearby table. She acknowledged overhearing the conversation, handed him a list of film titles she\u2019d scrawled on an index card \u2014 several of them from the \u201970s \u2014 and gently insisted, \u201cYou need to see these.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to Clark, Fairley has had a strong start to realize his cinematic dream. He was among a group of Clark students who spent a portion of their summer filming in and around Mexico City to capture the stories of communities most impacted by climate change and water scarcity. The project, which was done in tandem with an ongoing Clark-led research study funded by the National Science Foundation, will culminate in a Spanish-language documentary about Mexico City\u2019s water struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n