Like every film, this audiovisual work is a metaphor that pretends to be a mirror of reality. It is an interpretation, a translation of reality into the language of fllm. The documentary records of the working environment and activities, which may seem hopeless, are looped into algorithms. Algorithms are basic units of apparatus, and apparatuses are our normative experience, no matter in which social strata they are experienced. When looking for an adequate ontology transcribed into form, the apparatus, which captures the symptoms of the present and spews them out in the form of images, is precisely such an ontology. Vilém Flusser wrote about it: “All of history, politics, art and science is sucked in by the apparatus to be transcoded into its structural counterparts; into programs that repeat in loops. The apparatus is the aim of history.” He continues: “Technical images cannot be deciphered by revealing the motives behind them (pretexts) but by revealing the structure of the apparatus. This is the only way in which we can hope to manage these apparatuses. This is the challenge our images face us with.”
Script:
- There was once a magician in every village
who communicated with other worlds.
Věra has an idea about what is expected of her.
She understands her responsibility
and even how global stability is connected with it.
She has another job, too.
She cleans offices at night.
It’s a special offer,
please don’t hang up.
It’s a good deal for you.
Yes, it might pay off.
No, don’t worry, this call is monitored.
You don’t have to be afraid of anything.
Yes, exactly, free of charge.
So back to the question, what are your expenses?
Yes, that’s real.
Hold on.
- Zdeněk knows that if he didn’t come to work,
Nothing would happen. But he always comes anyway.
Indifference is the spring of history, he once read.
He wants to be useful.
He could do something else,
but things would be similar elsewhere.
Yes, I’ve been here a long time.
Nothing’s happening.
How much longer?
Wasted time.
- Milena works in a retail store.
She is constantly restocking goods on the shelves,
so the continuity is not interrupted.
She comes early in the morning every day for her shift.
When necessary, like today, for example,
she even stays longer.
I understand.
It’s stuck.
I’ll be done in a minute.
Yes, it’s unpacked.
I can go to the back.
I went to the fridge in the morning.
I’m not going to the freezer again.
- Katarína works in the propaganda section.
New lists of products
are printed every day,
because orienting oneself in our world is difficult.
She has sacrificed her health, but it doesn’t matter.
She believes that chaos would ensue without brochures.
Penalty?
I don’t get it.
Even now?
I don’t get it, is this a joke?
How long has it been going up?
-
Arsenij likes his work.
He always wanted to build homes.
The work environment stimulates his imagination.
He walks through the finishes houses
and imagines their new inhabitants.
One day it will be his and his children’s turn.
Wait!
Right, but I don’t want it.
How come I can’t return it?
I can’t cancel it?
You can’t do that!
You can?
Personally?
-
Pavel often observes the empty spaces
That he guards.
He’s looking forward to the space ship
That will land there one day.
Building the best of possible worlds excites him.
It’s a shame that he probably won’t live long enough to experience it.
I’ve beeped out.
Yes, I’ve beeped out.
I beeped out at 19:20.
No, the one there is broken.
No.
I should go around again?
Contributed by
Zbyněk Baladrán