Aluminium
Beauty,
incorruptibility,
lightness and abundance,
the metal of the future
The Rest of Now,
Manifesta7, Bolzano,
Italy, July-November
2008
"Aluminium" is a
futurist graphic book
and film about the
social history of
aluminium. In 2009 it
will be 100 years since
Marinetti set out the
Futurist manifesto in
which advocated the
consumption of metal
bolts and engine oil to
turn men into machines.
Marinetti believed in
speed, machines and
violence, values that
for him were epitomised
in the recent invention
of aluminium. Drawing on
archival footage from
the aluminium industry,
Harwood derives
algorithms from the
Futurist Manifestos to
create the books cells
by recording only the
differences between key
video frames. Caption
texts are gathered up
and edited together by
issue crawlers as they
search across the
Internet. "Aluminium"
takes the futurist logic
of the 20th Century and
turns it back upon its
self.
“We have been up all
night, my mates and I,
beneath the hum of the
microwave transmitter,
electricity piped in
through high-voltage
aluminium conductors.
Transported here by
motors, alloy rims with
deep polished lips, fat
pipes and chrome
spinners, bright as our
souls. Like our
machines, we are ruled
by the internal glow of
electric hearts.
Trampling underfoot, the
earth, we wear down the
heels of violent Chinese
pirates: Nike-faking
factories slaving along
the Cambodian border, we
have been discussing
right up to the limits
of our programming and
scrawling across filthy
keyboards to create
these demented
writings.” Filippo
Rossi
The Rest of Now,
Manifesta7
“The extraction of value
from any material,
place, thing or person,
involves a process of
refinement. During this
process, the object in
question will undergo a
change in state,
separating into at least
two substances: an
extract and a residue.
Coffee beans and coffee
grounds, coffee grounds
and a coffee pot, a
coffee pot and a cup of
coffee, a cup of coffee
and a shot of caffeine,
a shot of caffeine and a
slight spike of energy,
a spike of energy and a
decision, a decision and
its consequences, the
consequences and a
fragment of history, a
fragment of history and
an aluminium factory, an
aluminium factory and
aluminium, aluminium and
a coffee pot, a coffee
pot and coffee grounds,
and so on..." Raqs Media
Collective
Aluminium was produced
for The Rest of Now,
Manifesta7
(Bolzano/Bozen, Italy
2008 ) Curated by Raqs
Media Collective
The film and book
Aluminium are showing
at Alumix building
Bolzano/Bozen until
November 2008
www.manifesta7.it
For more information about the book see - www.grahamharwood.org/aluminium or contact at grahamharwood.org
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