AUTOMATED FUTURES
ABOUT
Automated Futures is a sensory ethnographic documentary film that illustrates two eras of American economic history by juxtaposing a specialty fiber-optic cable used for high-frequency trading against the decaying infrastructure of the once industrial Rust Belt, emphasizing an eerily parallel detachment from human lives in both of these planetary-scale built environments. The film documents 827 miles of Spread Networks' flagship dark fiber line through the now post-industrial towns of La Porte, Elkhart, Toledo, Cleveland, Mesopotamia, and Manahoy City. Based on Ulysses Pascal's thesis research on the materiality of financial infrastructure, the documentary addresses the operative tension between human agency and technological interdependence within the cultural context of American Independence Day celebrations. Video and audio recordings from the summer of 2013 serve to archive the paradigmatic disjunction between the interests of high finance and the decaying industrial economy, while the structure and soundtrack of the film conspire to question the role of history in the temporal scale of exchange.
Watch the full documentary here:
Automated Futures (2014)
Read more about the history of financial infrastructure here:
Automated Futures Book
- Director Ulysses Pascal
- Cinematographer Brian Echon
- Sound Designer Matthew Joseph Xavier Doyle
- Release Date Spring 2014
- Runtime 47 min
SCREENINGS
- 04/25/14 Reed College Portland, OR
- 04/30/14 Mass Art Film Society Boston, MA
- 05/22/14 CAGE gallery New York, NY
- 06/08/14 Human Resources Los Angeles, CA
- 11/27/14 SKOGEN Gothenburg, Sweden
- 01/28/15 Weld Stockholm, Sweden
- 07/30/15 AUSTERE Santa Monica, CA
DVD & Book
Short run DVD (100 copies), 47 min. Includes map insert. Handmade book, 60 pages. Includes essay on the materiality of markets by Ulysses Pascal and photographs by Brian Echon. The DVD and Book are $10 each or $17 combined. If you would like to place an order, or if you have any other questions, please contact us at info@automatedfutures.net