Images dominate our lives: from ultrasounds in the womb that let us look at an unborn baby, via the panopticum of surveillance cameras to predictions of the future based on radar images. By only showing these images, supported by a voiceover, Low Definition Control – Malfunctions #0 poses questions about the certainties suggested by this perception. Automated pattern analysis of images in public space will increasingly label everything out of the ordinary as suspicious. Someone who stands still too long to eat a sandwich where other people walk on will be noticed. In this way, public space is becoming a risky place.
That grand words about risk prevention and security have turned into ‘political superglue’ prompted Michael Palm to make this reflection about the consequences of automating our perception. What if people withdraw entirely from the automatic-control industry because they can’t process the data fast enough? And what if only the computers are left – who will then decide about security and risks? –Rotterdam
Born in 1965, attended the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Department of Film and Television (Film Academy), and the University of Vienna, where he studied philosophy and drama. Filmmaker and editor. Composes film music, sound editor, and sound designer, freelance film scholar and author.
Countless lectures and publications on theory and aesthetics of film and cinema, lectures on film theory at the University of Music and Performing Arts and at the University of Vienna. Lives and works in Vienna. —http://www.mischief-films.com
