The Power of Flow. The Flow of Power, installation view in MASS, 2020, Pylon Lab, Dresden
State of Flow (work in progress) exhibited in MASS, Pylon Lab, Dresden, 2020
The Power of Flow. The Flow of Power, 2019, film stills
THE POWER OF FLOW. THE FLOW OF POWER.
2020
Film | 18 mins
Through an immersive experience the film addresses how the notion and term of flow and state of flow have been monetised by our current economy and accelerated society of 24/7 consumption, production and performance.
The film navigates through the various uses of flow in crowd management, economics and in simulating the crowd. But also through visuals and sounds of flow, such as water streams, sea and the antigravity experience of outer space used for relaxation, deep sleep and meditation purposes. These modes of relaxation are an instrumental part of the continuous flow linked to our current economic systems and accelerated production modes, acting as artificial/small pauses for a better corporal endurance and performativity. The notion of flow inherent to our bodily survival system of circulation of blood, oxygen and nutrients are now hi-jacked by our current economic system.
How ultimately the notion of flow has been turned into a bio-political tool which intent is to optimize the efficiency and performativity of our individual and collective behaviour.
The film uses found footage from internet platforms such as YouTube. Quoting the reality which the users encounter when online, searching the given topics. The film uses the notion of navigation and immersive experience throughout the clips which are assembled to create a continuous flow. The flow embarks the viewer into a voyage where the notion of flow is addressed from several perspectives but also as an embodied, physical experience of flow through the technics adapted for the screen and virtual experience.
When watching the film the viewer become user, in the sense that you can identify with the flows proposed by the film such as the flow of the digital image as presented by the deep mind dog fractal… and the motivational immersion of the computer game tetris and Lara Croft, Tombraider to the relaxation videos and sleep tubes.
The film work in dialogue with the chapter with the same title by addressing the same topics but proposing a visual and aesthetic yet physical experience of the referred ‘flows’.
The film begin with a sequence from the late sixties addressing the origins of the notion of flow, that of liquids and minds to achieve a peaceful and inclusive state of mind. A buddhist/taoist approach which was appropriated and transformed by the west as new age in the 90s and today monetised and complementary to the current accelerated society and distraction economy. A mindfulness as enabler of the exhausting society where the individualistic economic and social contract proposes ‘you’, the individual as the only solvent of any professional and social problem.
Trailer of The Power of Flow. The Flow of Power, 2020
The montage editing process of the film proposes an associative analysis by juxtaposing clips from various flows. The navigation is using the logic of a flow and bound together by the different motion effects, rhythm and temporalities of the sequences as well as the immersive experience of hypnotical trans effects. Putting the viewer into a position of experiencing the flow while the overall composition of the film equate to a critical analysis. Being in a state of flow is a phenomenon becoming a tool which is used for other economic means rather then the welfare of the user. There is occasionally a transparency in the obsolete attempt to implement a state of relaxation on a platform such as YouTube, which logic is to actively withhold the viewer and to navigate, click to further/other clips and topics interlaced with ads, when there is a chat-flow which appear on the right hand side of the relaxing film or sound. This multi-active page represent the symbiotic clash between mindfulness and the distraction economy.
Other clips in the film refer to displacement as flow, may it be on the bigger scale of human flows such as migration and refugees but also the more local functional mechanised motion enablers such as walkways and escalator, featuring one of the earliest of its kind.
The film which was finalised in 2020 has been presented and exhibited in the the group show A Crowded Sky at IMPAKT in Utrecht alongside works by artists Clemens von Wedmeyer, Lawrence Lek, Tools for Action och Lantian Xie & Jaebum Kim and curated by Jasmijn Vissr and Stefan Schäfer.
But also in the group exhibition MASS at Pylon Lab, Dresden, alongside artists Boromir Doringer and Clemens von Wedemeyer. In this show the work in progress State of Flows (a collaboration with choreographer Rebecca Chentinell) was also exhibited together with the film.
The film was also screened within the context of a webinar I made within the context of Walking during Lockdown organised by Walkative Society and during a lecture at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in January 2021.
Exhibited in —
A Crowded Sky, IMPAKT, Utrecht, NL, 2020
MASS, Pylon Lab, Dresden, 2020
Walking cities in lockdown, Walkative Society, Stockholm, 2020