Resonance

Pale Alpine scenery, trembling focus, plus a silence drowned out by rumbling and static. Distance and fragmentation determine the vibrational space of Resonance. Telephoto views of cloud-covered glaciers. Blurred edges of forest, a view of a dim valley. Or, in the opposite direction, television towers appear in the shimmering light of high Alpine horizons: in particular, the Felsenegg broadcasting tower, built in 1963 on the Albis mountain range southwest of Zurich. Abandoned by people, stripped of its TV transmission and airspace surveillance functions, the electromagnetic radio waves once received and transmitted here echo in Katharina Bayer’s short film, particularly as vibrating images. But it is not only allegorical, artifactual gestures that symbolize the past long-distance connections to the transmission masts located on the surrounding mountain peaks. In addition to the image framing wobbling in the wind, and the image sharpness rhythmically shifting with the use of an open aperture and long focal length, the “natural radio waves” that are made cracklingly audible by radio wave performer Tetsuo Kogawa also show how far this technology is from today’s transmission standards. Additional close-ups inserted into the film depict various structural elements and apparatus of the tower as they were found shortly before its final demolition: steel latticework, radar antenna in blazing sunlight, monitors, switch boxes – which are now the archived traces of a post-war society characterized by information, entertainment, and espionage. Bayer’s film, elegantly composed and metaphorically linked to weather conditions, subtly reminds us that the legacy of these traces is by no means obsolete. (Rainer Bellenbaum)