Elisabeth Caravella
Howto - Film - 2014
presented as part of the exhibition Panorama 16
Film
“How to” is the rote term used for internet tutorials. Originally intended for computing, these explanatory screen captures are generally made by amateurs. Detecting the cinematographic potential of these screencasts, I wanted to make a new-generation fiction documentary filmed entirely from my computer screen. The film and the installation both offer a suggestive answer to the appropriation of the tutorial. Whether through a linear or immersive experience in real time, they question the idea of what is off-camera and the concept of heterotopia initiated by Michel Foucault. These concrete spaces, physical localisations of utopia, accommodate the imaginary in the same way as a child’s cabin or a theatre stage. In Howto we have a theoretical space, at once a software and a dance scene: the choreographic moments reveal both computer “folds” and ghostly drapes that the dance brings to life, exacerbates and metamorphoses. Like a mirror, the tutorial is filmed with the screen that shows it. Heterotopian and utopian, it is the image of a reality.
Elisabeth Caravella
Production
Acknowledgments
Le Studio Mocaplab à Paris, Remi Brun et Frank Vayssettes, Robert Henke, Aina Alegre, Emilie Duval, Jérémy Gobé, Eloi Strée, Lyes Hammadouche, Ludivine Sibelle, Raphaël Holt, Christian Laroche, Yasmina Benari, Romain Renault, Romain Baujard, les équipes techniques du Fresnoy, ma famille et la promotion Raoul Ruiz.
