Europe

Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni

1834 – La Mémoire de Masse ("The Unmanned" series)

2015

1834 – La Mémoire de Masse

-In which predicting its past it lives working and dies fighting-

Fifth episode of The Unmanned, “La Mémoire de Masse” unfolds during the second Canuts revolts in Lyon in 1834. These riots now known as the ‘bloody week’ came as a reaction to the automation of work in the silk industry by the Jacquard Loom and its implementation of the punched card – first historical ‘mass storage’ system allowing
the inscription and replication of complex weaving patterns. This inaugurating event
in the history of workers emancipation movements of the 19th century is actually the first revolt against modern computation. Fully computer-generated, the riot sequence that splits the film in two parts operates a reversal of history by transforming a revolt against the algorithm into an algorithm of revolt.

The collaborative work of Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni is part of a reflection on the history of cinema, science, and technology. For them, cinema is a technological invention which fundamentally transforms our relationship to the world. Giraud and Siboni are fascinated by technological acceleration. So much so that they imagine the possibility of a cinema without a human figure; one which does not subject bodies to the frame, nor bend gestures to duration. Each of their films bring radically different temporalities that are foreign to our present. They choose to film in hidden places, like the particle accelerator under the Louvre museum in La Mesure Louvre (2011), or abandoned places like the Greek temple in Bassae-Bassae (2012) where human absence is hollowly felt. Giraud and Siboni are also inspired by popular culture, micro-histories and major political conspiracies.

This artwork is licensed by KADIST for its programs, and is not part of the KADIST collection.

Details

13 minutes

The Unmanned, Season 1, Episode 5, HD video. With the support of CNC – DICRéAM – Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication and Fonds de soutien à la création artistique et numérique [SCAN]. The project was selected and supported by the patronage committee of Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris.

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Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni 1834 – La Mémoire de Masse ("The Unmanned" series)

Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni

1834 – La Mémoire de Masse ("The Unmanned" series)