The Sprawl (Propaganda About Propaganda)

 

 

Programmed alongside Metahaven’s exhibition VERSION HISTORY, this screening presents the artists’ first feature length film The Sprawl (Propaganda About Propaganda) (2015).

 

The Sprawl begins with nocturnal images of a forest, and the audio recording of two men discussing the moving of a vehicle from Ukraine to Russia, days after the downing of the passenger plane MH17 in 2014. This event, and the cascade of information and disinformation that circulated online in its aftermath, forms the starting point for an expansive and hybrid exploration of the contemporary interweaving of geopolitics and digital platforms.

 

The film takes on innovative form, mixing commentary from theorists such as Benjamin H. Bratton and Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, with poetry, viral videos and graphics. With the addition of a score by electronic musician Kuedo, the work mirrors the mediations of reality and generation of affect-based truth contingent within digital interfaces: propaganda about propaganda.