Composing the Incomprehensible: A Cinematic Inquiry into Anthroposcenic Proximity

• Main Author: Vola, Joonas
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer Nature Switzerland 2023
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39500-0_12; https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-39500-0_12

Abstract This work presents a post-qualitative inquiry into using cinema as a method for studying proximity. The vastness of spatiotemporal dimensions makes the comprehension of the Anthropocene through the lens of closeness a major dilemma. One can try to perceive this epoch in terms of a landscape: a ‘scopic’ scenery seen from a distance or, in contrast, a shape composed from the land by repeated acts and mass of actors. This dominant human influence from the network of actors invested in this geological era in the making is visible in an experimental documentary film, Koyaannisqatsi—The world out of balance (1982). The film utilises timelapse and slow motion to de- and rehumanise the mass and speed of human movement, strategies implemented alongside its musical score, a soundscape of repetitive phrases and shifting layers. These cinematic techniques reveal the ‘anthroposcenic’ in mundane life, locating the hyperobject of the Anthropocene as a perceivable ANThroposcenery.