Fiction Machines - Oporavak (video stills)

Fiction Machines is a multi-component output comprising a body of video art works, a journal article, a curated symposium and a journal special issue. The research considers how media art works can be developed that expose, rewrite and critique the mechanisms of contemporary control technologies from informational and affective perspectives.This item contains documentation of the initial video work Oporavak that was made in response to the research questions, in the form of video stills. The full film is documented in another item, via Vimeo link. Oporavak (2016) (4:40 minutes) proposes a methodology for what it calls ‘information recovery’ and the solving of ‘integrity problems’. Taking its inspiration from data recovery solutions and appropriating the language of achieving ‘complete visibility’ via forms of HD technology and big data, the film is part alternative software training video and part the voice of a subversive machine. It takes the intent of information restoration into a new context with its apparent ability to manipulate all sorts of digital and non-digital materials via its sentient interface and performative actions which can operate at molecular level. The film utilises the voice of an unreliable narrator, which acts to draw viewers in and raise their awareness of inbuilt human desires for clarity and visibility. It also attempts to make viewers aware of the affective content and remixing tools that are constantly used to manipulate their senses within post-internet culture and it does this by exposing the software tools and revealing the video effects that are being used. The final section of the film looks towards a ‘sensing mechanism’ that has the functionality to manipulate and alter any type of visual material at its source and the capability of connecting with and manipulating the subconscious of its viewers.