KatharineDwyer
Power and Control
My interest in capitalism is around how it exerts control over the population.
Foucault outlines the contemporary move to the 'societies of control.' In prior disciplinary societies power was limited by institutional walls, but these are now obsolete. Deleuze describes a domination which is insidious because it is internalised and therefore continuous.
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Time
For a modern white collar worker, there is no lack of money or material comfort as technology enables a 24/7 workplace. As Debord said in Society of the Spectacle, time is a commodity, and one that is now in short supply.
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Berardi describes cognitive capitalism, where we have become human nodes at the end of a network.
Information workers spend their time waiting. For an email. A phone call. Not paid for fixed hours of labour, instead they must remain constantly alert: ‘on call to decode and retransmit information back into the global cycle of production.’
What is wealth?
Possessing the economic means to consume (or the use of your time to acquire those means)? Or instead the capacity to enjoy the world?
"Capitalism is the imperative to unlimited accumulation of capital by formally peaceful means. There is no satiation point to this abstract process, therefore it is interminable."
'Work in Progress'
In this short film the sky reflects in the gleaming architecture of Canary Wharf. Its image slowly evolves in the mirrored surfaces.
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The external fascias of these towers are a landscape devoid of human scale or contact. The activity and power of the organisations within is made opaque as we look up to those in charge.
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This film evokes a mood rather than using a specific corporate form. Slowed to a barely recognisable rhythm, the constant pressure of the soundtrack is the tick of an office clock.
'Work in Progress' (2016) Digital video 4m 14s
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Jennet Thomas's work includes low budget effects, and has said that she has a preference where possible for physical effects over digital alteration.
Click for link to film extract of
'The Black Tower'
This non-narrative work evokes a first person experience of the office via a (shaky) hand held camera.
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A desk and a Blackberry device surrounded by pulsating, glowing strings of light. As the camera moves and tilts on its axis, lo-fi visual and sound effects as well as increasingly frenetic editing are the antithesis of the stage managed corporate promotional video.
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Technical
The footage was shot with physical wool strung about the office set. Green screen (keylight) in Adobe After Effects introduced the pink colour and red pulses, and includes the use of rotoscoping masks. Office and mobile phones, photocopiers and security locks provide the soundtrack.
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German Expressionism and the Dutch Tilt
Allegedly the first use of a camera tilted in relation to the scene was 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920). It is still widely used and has become synonymous with showing unrest and disorientation.
“Many whips are inside men, who do not know how they got there, or indeed that they are there”
Wright Mills, C White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1956)
New York: Oxford University Press
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'Many whips are inside men' (2016)
Digital video, 2m 02s
Canary Wharf
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Locus of power
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Entirely artificial and inorganic
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Highly controlled, observed and policed
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Physical microcosm of a control society
Architecture​
The nature of the infrastructure around us is a metaphor for the corporate system and the modern world.
Easterling describes the disposition of a system (of infrastructure) as: "the character or propensity of an organisation that results from all its activity." Notably, this may not be the same as its declared intent.
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Ellin elaborates this in relation to corporate spaces:
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Onsite canteens, hairdressers and drycleaning are convenient, but remove an excuse for leaving to go home.
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Corporate campuses outside city centres are highly controlled environments.
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The vast glass boxes and indoor atriums are modern panopticons, with employees are on display as they work.
“Today we can enter our air conditioned arks and float on the waves of the digital deluge…
Those who can, isolate themselves in a pressurised and hyperconnected capsule…keeping linked to other arks, while at the same time, on the physical planet down there, barbarian hordes swarm and make war.
…physically removed…though ubiquitous, virtually present in any place according to their desires.”
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Berardi, F The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy (2009)
Los Angeles: Semiotext(e)
Towering cityscapes are well-used but also well understood as a metaphor for a gleaming or dystopian future in many films, from dank LA (Bladerunner) to shiny Buenos Aires (Starship Troopers).
Click to enlarge images and see credits
Marx describes the arrogance of bureaucracy, proliferating systems and rules to give the illusion of controlling the world, the blue sky and beyond.
Black Swan theory describes rare, high profile and unpredictable events that come as a surprise. But which in hindsight seem entirely obvious. Psychological bias can prevent us from acknowledging true cause and effect, instead feeding our illusion of control.
Speed
The constant pressure at work: to keep moving, keep folding, not stop for fear of everything collapsing. Imperfect creases are acceptable: doing something is better than doing nothing.
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Size
Those with power often mask or diminish it, in order to keep using it. Displayed on a small ipad screen, the imagery is uncluttered with only shirt cuffs situating it in the world of work.
“To the bureaucrat, the world is a mere
object to be manipulated”
Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Part 3, 1843
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'To the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated' (2016) Digital video, 3m
Koyaanisquatsi: Life out of Balance (1982) Dir Godfrey Reggio
A experimental documentary montage of images of the man made
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Click to enlarge image and see credits
and natural worlds.
There is no conventional plot or narration. Long takes are accompanied by a score from minimalist composer Philip Glass. The low pitch and repetitive motifs contribute to the hypnotic quality of the imagery.
Associational Form
Disparate or unexplained imagery prompts the audience to create their own meanings:
"...the purpose is to make a familiar emotion or concept vivid by means of new imagery and fresh juxtapositions"
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Here, the editing of the imagery is non-specific, deliberately not providing any direction per the 'Kuleshov effect.' Instead the upward perspective and a slow, eerie, electronic soundtrack contrast with the sunshine and bue sky behind the looming towers.
Other Works
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