Through cynical satire, Tech-No-Logic serves as a condemnatory critique of modern technologies detrimental effects. From the deterioration of community unity and connectedness to the devastating conditions iPhone workers endure. The piece explores the insidious reality which lies behind the dazzling products our society continues to consume so thoughtlesly.
Sign City presents us with a humorous perspective on the bizarre ways in which humans are regulated in public spaces via signage. Through the use of compounding voiceover, Sign City exposes the hilarious and befuddling abundance of peculiar and unnecessary signs surrounding the CBD and around RMIT’s city campus.
Films by Elaine Leong, Haylee McCormick & Daniel Orbach
Click below for a Q&A with the filmmakers.
WHAT WAS YOUR TOPIC FOR EACH FILM?
From an overarching perspective, the general theme governing both our documentaries is the the role that media plays in determining social behaviours on an individual and institutionalised level.
Specifically for out found footage documentary, we focused on the disjoint between the glossy visuals typifying smartphone advertisements and the wasteful realities that eventuate in peripheral zones (such as West Ghana) through their promotion of consumerist culture and unethical e-waste dumping.
In terms of our shot footage documentary, we honed in on the repetitive and often tautological nature of public signage. Chiefly, we wanted to reveal the absurdity of some of the rules themselves, which are not only immediately absurdist in their statements (i.e.: don’t light fires in a university campus) but also inherently nonsensical and symptomatic of an overarching bureaucracy which is more fixated on restricting public behaviours than promoting critical thinking and engagement among crowds.
We arrived at these thematic concerns through a shared appreciation and desire to create a humorous commentary on otherwise well-known political concerns. In experimentally approaching the documentary form through an ironic rhetoric, we wanted to expose and critically question some of the dysfunctional and often blunt stroke logical processes propagated by institutions of authority.
ANY DIFFICULTIES FACED DURING PRODUCTION IN YOUR APPLICATION OF ‘EXPERIMENTATION’ / POETICS ?
We initially struggled with making our films impactful in the sense that we hadn’t taken a firm stance on the messages we were trying to get across. Originally, we looked at the idea of regulation and what that meant for society. This tied in with our idea of making our shot footage film (Sign City) about our obedience as people and what that meant for a societal context. We also knew our found footage film (Tech-No-Logic) was going to be concerning our obedience to our technology, with the point being that technology has enslaved us.
But as we found out with both films given the time constraints, both ideas were practically limiting. So instead we decided to focus on the films individually rather than being underpinned by overarching theme and link both films by focusing on their imagery and the significance of it.
Specifically, in the found footage film we applied experimentation through contrasting polished, marketing footage of mobile phone technology against the cold and raw imagery of addiction, factory labour and extreme waste. This was done for the purpose of exemplifying the falsities of the way the technology was marketed.
Similarly for our Sign City, we contrasted the symbolism of street signs with our narrations of them. Using a heightened tone over time and conflicting layers of voices, the aim was to highlight the messages of the signs to audiences, and by progressively make them look as outlandish, we would provide a sense of how unnoticed the signs are in everyday life.
HOW DID THIS PROJECT CHANGE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL AND POETIC DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING?
Making these films helped us in developing an understanding of the many different ways to communicate a political message in a poetic way. Both of our films depended quite heavily on irony, with Tech-No-Logic attempting to point out the contradictions of technology by comparing Microsoft advertisements with harsh imagery of waste produced by technology, connecting them with the slightly over the top instrumental audio.
In Sign City we attempted to push the conventions of documentary, conveying a message about public restrictions through fast cut clips of signs around the city accompanied by a repetitive, unpleasant soundtrack. Through the process of making these films we considered ways to experiment with the documentary form in order to elicit audience reaction that we wouldn’t have previously thought of. Although there are some flaws in the films, making them allowed us to further understand the many ways that film poetics and political documentary can be used together.