Mentor: Alena Alexandrova

Independent reviewer: Anders Kreuger

Arnhem, 2011

Abstract

I
 am 
afraid 
of
 an 
industrialisation 
of
 spectatorship, 
this 
relieves
 an 
audience 
from
 the
 labour
 of
 looking, 
or 
listening
 for 
that
 matter.
This
 text
 is
 about 
translation,
 about
 storytelling 
and
 about
 how 
a
 production 
or 
documentation 
is
 influenced
 by
 the
 recording 
device.
Throughout 
this
 text 
I
 give
 examples
 of 
translation,
 of
 storytelling
 as
 a
 more
 poetic
 form 
of
 speech,
 and
 of
 artists
 working 
in 
film 
and
 video 
and 
whose
 work
 can 
be
 seen
 as
 an 
unravelling,
 or 
as 
a
 revealing
 of
 those 
fragments
 that
 are
 part 
of
 the
 history 
and
 language
 of 
cinema,
 and 
who
 further 
lay 
bare
 what
 this 
means;
 its
 implications.
 All
 of 
these
 examples
 can 
be 
seen 
as 
strategies
 to
 offer
 an 
alternative 
and
 different
 mode 
of
 looking. 
I
 use
 these 
strategies,
 as 
means 
to 
turn
 given 
social
 conditions
 into
 knowledge.
The
 social
 condition 
I
 am 
concerned 
with 
are
 English
 as
 being 
not
 merely
 a
 language 
but
 a
 dominant 
technology,
 and
 an
 instrumentalisation 
of 
language
 as
 a
 means 
of
 power,
 and 
with 
film 
now
 that
 offers 
the 
reassurance 
that
 it
 already 
watched
 itself
 and
 leaves 
the 
spectator 
with 
nothing 
to
 do.
Finally,
 and
 as 
to
 conclude, 
I
 attempted
 to 
put
 the 
acquired
 knowledge 
into
 practice,
 by 
using
 the 
figure
 of 
the
 collector
– the 
collector 
as 
a
-cultural 
stereotype, 
as 
example.