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    Author archives: Konrad Wakolbinger

    The De-Sub­jec­ti­vat­ing Power of Cinematic Images, or Becoming-Class at the Movies

    The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. The spectator is to be receptive. He is to be the violin on which the master is to play. (Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism)

    Night Mail — The focus on work

    "Night Mail" (1936) was commissioned as an image publicity film by the British General Post Office and went down in film history as a ground-breaking documentary. Directors Harry Watt and Basil Wright succeed in creating an ode to workers and modern technology by enriching their naturalistic style within the film with poetic elements and always keeping the human aspect in mind.

    Night Mail — The Poetic Gaze

    When the eminent film scholar Amos Vogel was forced to flee Vienna to the United States in 1938, the 17-year-old had already made the decision to devote his life to film. One experience that would define his future was a screening of "Night Mail" (1936) and this film still doesn’t fail to impress today.

    THE WALKING MAN

    Work ennobles. Work makes life sweeter. Sayings like these apodictically inscribe the principle of work into people's consciousness as the right and good thing to do. When American TV show us an example of this ideal, it is to double-down on the proliferation of the message of ‘a hero of labour’ : James Roberston – the walking man.

    Sie sind eine Ikone der Sowjetunion, eine Art sowjetische Freiheitsstatue: Die mit Hammer und Sichel in Richtung einer leuchtenden, wunderbaren Zukunft tanzenden Titanen Arbeiter und Kolchosbäuerin. Die Figurengruppe krönte den sowjeti Pavillon auf der Weltausstellung in Paris 1937, mit dem die junge Sowjetunion ihren Platz unter den Industrienationen beanspruchte. Die rund 24 Meter hohe Statue von Wera Muchina und Boris Iofan symbolisierte den Zusammenschluss von Arbeiter- und Bauernschaft und sollte selbstbewusst Fortschritt und Errungenschaften des ersten sozialistischen Staates ausdrücken. 1937, 20 Jahre nach der Oktoberrevolution, verkörperten die jugendlichen Gestalten des Arbeiters und der Kolchosbäuerin die idealtypischen „Kinder des Oktobers“: Sie waren Angehörige der sehnsüchtig erwarteten „ersten sowjetisc Generation“.1 Das Paar, das seit 1939 in Moskau steht, erschien auf Briefmarken, Plakaten und Postkarten und dient seit 1947 Erkennungszeichen des staatlichen Kinoproduzenten Mosfilm. Als Schlüsselwerk des Sozialistischen Realismus wurde die Monumentalstatue Vorlage für Parodien und visuelles Klischee für die Werbung.

    Fitness to work?

    Under the topos ‘health’, a comprehensive optimization and enhancement logic is implanted into people. Fitness is one of several influencing factors in establishing innovative, exceptional and performative entrepreneur of oneself.

    HenneckeAmPodium

    Adolf Hennecke — Hero of the Battle of Production

    Where labour and the heroic merge: the glorification of labour in real socialism.

    Effi­ci­en­cy kills

    US economist William J. Baumol found out why the efficiency principle is killing the service sector - and ultimately contributing to the COVID-19 mortality rate.

    Forced labour even after death

    A capitalism-critical reading of the zombie film on the occasion of the release of Zombi Child (2019) by Bertrand Bonello.

    The bossy Apps

    What remains of the great promise of the gig economy: freedom through autonomy.

    Still, Lazzaro is happy

    Alice Rohrwacher's film about the dubious liberation from a relationship of subjection

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