Program
As part of Smålandstriennalen, the short film “Death of a fantastic machine” will be shown at Vinden Smedjegatan 6 in Skillingaryd. Screenings will take place during the Vaggeryd municipality’s art and culture weekend on October 17-18.
The film was created by Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck from Plattform Produktion and is a short depiction of the history of the camera and photography from the 19th century to today’s image society. The film examines how algorithms determine what we consume and how images are used to radicalize and polarize the audience.
Today, people spend an average of seven hours a day with screen-based content.
Today, there are around 45 billion cameras on Earth and every minute 500 hours of material are uploaded to the internet.
“We spend many years in school learning to read and write, but almost no time learning to understand the camera and critically analyze images – even though they dominate our lives,” say the directors. “The way we use cameras today is polarizing society. Algorithms determine which images we see, and they are based on fear and conflict – we are fed a gloomy worldview because it brings clicks and profit.”
In January, the report Visual Literacy and Preparedness was released, commissioned by the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency. In order for us to be able to resist disinformation in the event of a crisis or war, visual literacy needs to be promoted in the same way as reading comprehension and source criticism of text.
Educators Annefrid Sjöman and Elin Ljungqvist are currently working on developing a teacher’s guide for the film. With a focus on media and information literacy, they give students tools to understand how digital images, algorithms and technology affect emotions and behavior. The guide is being developed in close dialogue with teachers and students and is created to be inclusive, practical and method-developing. The material should be able to be used in all subjects in Swedish schools – with a particular focus on strengthening students’ visual literacy as part of the school’s democratic mission.
In conjunction with the film screenings at Vinden, they are conducting a workshop focusing on affective image analysis that shows in an educational way how photographs and promptographies affect us.