Digital Tarkovsky

by Metahaven

In the US, adults spend an average of two hours and 51 minutes on their smartphones every day. That is eight minutes longer than Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. We’re not interested in telling you to put your phone down and start paying attention to the real world. Instead, we want to investigate the kind of experience we have whilst staring at these tiny screens and the digital platforms that inhabit them. We are interested in calling this something other than smartphone addiction. We are interested in calling it cinema.

Digital Tarkovsky is an extended poetic exploration of how our experiences of visual entertainment and time itself are changing in the era of the smartphone and near-constant connection. This essay applies the ‘slow’ cinematic art of Andrei Tarkovsky to our interaction with the digital, visual reality of screens and interfaces. Digital Tarkovsky is a way of tracing what cinema, storytelling, and time mean in our platform-based world.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Film, Design, Art Design, Technology, Philosophy

152 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2018

About the author

The work of Metahaven consists of filmmaking, writing, design, and installations, and is united conceptually by interests in poetry, storytelling, digital superstructures, and propaganda. Films by Metahaven include The Sprawl (Propaganda about Propaganda) (2015), Information Skies (2016), Possessed (2018, with Rob Schröder), Hometown (2018) and Eurasia (Questions on Happiness) (2018). Publications include PSYOP (2018), Black Transparency (2015) and Uncorporate Identity (2010). Their work is screened, published, and exhibited worldwide.

Reviews

[Sam Tornio]

The authors seem to be pointing toward a kind of stance in the digital world, a spiritual “rubric” for evaluating our tetchy age. More than a meditation on creating or consuming media, Digital Tarkovsky is a meditation about living with media.

[Anastasia]

παρα παρα πολυ ενδιαφερον, αν και πιθανοτατα εχω καταλαβει ενα γενναιο 40% απο ο,τι ελεγε

ειναι τρομερο ποσο εγωκεντρικοι και ανυπομονοι μπορουμε να γινουμε, και ποσο πρεπει να φροντιζουμε την προσοχη μας

ελπιζω να μην βαρεθω να το ξαναδιαβασω, γιατι θελω να το ξαναδιαβασω, ισως και συντομα

[Bookfreak]

Στοχασμοί πάνω στην έννοια του χρόνου στις σύγχρονες κοινωνίες των smartphones και των πλατφόρμων κοινωνικής αλληλεπίδρασης, με τη βοήθεια των ταινιών του Ταρκόφσκυ. Ενδιαφέρον, πυκνό θέλει επανάγνωση.

[a____]

Internet time, as conceived by swiss watchmaker swqtch, was a single, global clock ticking for all mankind, obliterating timezones.It has been called time's version of Esperanto.

[Nedislav]

I had a weird experience with this book. I guess that even enhances the idea of it as Metahaven meticulously explore Tarkovsky’s cinematic style and make many connections to other parts of our world. It was incredibly interesting to see how Western designers look at his work as extremely philosophical while the slowness and solemnity cuts deep into he modern day fast-pace world.

They were discussing about core cinematic styles like the passage of time. Concepts like “A-time”, “B-time” and “langue duree” which to be honest I didn’t fully grasp. Also Dziga Vertov found his place in the whole story relating to Kink-eye.

Of course, the main allure of this essay is the connection to our modern times, at the “age of social media”. Now I look at visual content on the Internet and Instagram in a slightly different way. Metahaven also reminded me why I watch films and what makes “going to the pictures” special.

Why going outside of your house to have a glimpse into another universe for 2 hours and it is so powerful that it can occupy your thoughts for hours and even days after the end of the screening.

In general, I liked both parts and of course they are integrated, however I felt that the second part was a bit underdeveloped.

I started reading with the idea that I am going to learn more about social media as some sort of new world experience, I was presented with a short introduction and then jumped straight into Tarkovsky. Afterwards, there were only a few pages left talking about instagram again. I wanted a bit more.

Anyways, it is a great book and if you like Tarkovsky, you should read it.