Quake

We are watching a projection of a lively Asian city when suddenly everything comes to a standstill: motorcycles fall over, cars stop in the middle of the road, people crawl along the ground, dogs run away in panic.

The video installation Quake shows the effects of the massive 2015 Kathmandu earthquake through the optics of urban surveillance cameras. Through the construction of the installation, images of the earthquake are stabilized by a shaking projector, which is set in motion by an accurately timed acoustic signal and the oscillating membrane of a loudspeaker.

Quake thus comments on the current practice of digital image production, which makes great efforts to smooth visual unevenness and eliminate imperfections. At the same time, it creates a sense of the fragility and uncontrollability of our analog foundations at a time when ever larger parts of our reality are taking place in purely digital worlds.

Quake won the Expanded Media award at Stuttgarter Filmwinter 2019.