Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of the Arts, London
About Now MMX
About Now MMX investigates the effects of the global economic recession. The film reveals a cinematic map of the connections between the various architectural, transport and social networks comprising the city of London. Recession is proposed as a term for economic decline and as a description of how perspective flattens a three-dimensional space onto a flat plane. Filmed from the twenty-first floor of the Balfron Tower in east London, a studio space belonging to Bow Arts Trust, the capital is systematically surveyed from this viewpoint to establish the co-ordinates from which the cinematic map is constructed. Several large photomontages of the landscape were used to plot camera framings and movements. Mapping is achieved by sequences of horizontal and vertical tracking movements filmed through different lenses whilst the camera is filming at the time-lapse rate of 1 frame every 2 seconds. The film interrogates a dialectic between the urban metropolis and the forms of its visual representation. As its title suggests, the film is about the here and now: the 10 months of the film’s production coincided with an economic downturn.
The film was part-funded by a grant from the National Lottery (Arts Council England). It was realised as a result of the Bow Arts Trust International Artists’ Residency Programme at Balfron Tower.
Raban directed, shot and edited the film. David Cunningham collaborated on the sound track. Shot on 35mm film, About Now MMX is intended for cinema projection. The film premiered at Tate Modern 2010. In addition to cinema screenings in Scotland, Germany and Canada, ‘About Now MMX’ has been screened internationally as a continuous installation.
