Control

  • Federico Redaelli
In the context of a reflection about the overwhelming amount of advertising messages and subliminal stimuli that hit the individual every day - not only in the corporate or consumeristic sphere but also, and possibly more worringly,under a political, sociological, and ideological point of view - the audio/video installation Control questions the extent to which the choices and behaviours of individuals living in a "regulated" social context are the result of personal independent decisions or rather seemlessly conditioned by well-calibrated external influences in disguise.
Hinting at William Borroughs' Cut-Ups, Control makes use of disorienting editing techniques, dizzying low-frequency pure sound waves and discordant imagery associations.
The apparatus through which the video is presented, i.e. the big black gift box which winks at Flusser's theories, further reinforces the idea of control on the behaviour of individuals.
The “gift” look of the box bears an intrinsic value of attraction for the receivers, and “challenges” their control on whether to assume an awkwardly uncomfortable position in order to fully interact with the audiovisual content or not.