Luukkaankangas - Updated, Revisited

Synopsis

"In Finland, webcams of the Finnish Road Administration record permanently pictures of all important roads. These images are then placed in the Internet in an interval of fifteen to thirty minutes. Before their departure, the Finns thus first can read back their streets as an image to decide whether they use them or not. Crucial is perhaps that the cameras record the images automatically without cameraman, they thus are mere function-images without any aesthetical reference. The systematic blank on the part of the production faces a highly individualized reception.

Dariusz Krzeczek – himself user of these images – designs a singular cinematic dramaturgy out of them. The serial montage of the individual images, their disfunctionalizing and gathering lets these become readable as completely different images. Through the study the streets experience a peculiar animation, inspiration. They are perceived as organisms that are changing with the play of lights and shades, with the weather conditions and seasons. The streets pulsate, vibrate, mutate according to seemingly mysterious laws. They impress, since often no cars are seen, as a formation with self-referential character.

Positioned in elevated locations, the recordings fabricate a distanced, controlled visualization of the street blocks. Foucault says: 'The more anonymous and functional the power becomes, the more individualized become those who are subjected to this power'. The more intense the Road Administration's power controls the streets by means of webcams, the more these appear as individuals, as unique organisms, claiming each on its own a particular aesthetical way of existence. Perhaps, the country roads and highways are given proper names, in order to do justice to their individualization." – Marc Ries (© medienturm graz)