In this film, I experiment with ethnographic research methods and modes of representation to depict analogue film communities, filmmaking practices in Berlin and Vienna, and the mechanical repair and photography milieus in Istanbul. In an age marked by digital technologies, this film chronicles the everyday lives of artists working with obsolete or abandoned technologies, and the mechanics and retailers who keep them alive.
This documentary employs audio-visual cultural research methods to represent analogue practices in the digital age from an actor-centered perspective. Participant observations accompanied by a camera and sound recording devices constitute the primary visual and diegetic layers. On the aural
level, I re-enact anonymously recorded ethnographic conversations and interview excerpts as voiceovers.
Soundscapes of analogue devices, electricity, and water recorded during the field research accompany the film like a soundtrack. To experiment with alternative forms of (non-)representation, I
performed excerpts from my field diary, accompanied by self-produced music that forms the prologue and epilogue of the film.
From the practitioners’ point of view, the fragmented chapters describe the relationships between humans and their tools, which rely on senses, emotions, and know-how in aesthetic productions based on image technologies.