THE CAROUSEL

A film about an office, a playground, or a never-ending machine.

Film access: https://vimeo. com/799380331

ARCH 4509 | Fall 2022

Instructor: Christopher Battaglia

The Carousel is an independent film about mundane activities in an office. Like a never-ending machine, the office operates like a gigantic elevator, where a series of plates runs up and down, as all utilities are summarized in a single vertical bundle based on the stream of the movement. The project is inspired by Bernard Halfner’s Linear City, in which a network of traffic and communication infrastructure is located in a linear urban structure to maximize efficiency. In my project, the human becomes the infrastructure where one’s individuality is merged into the architectural machine. The mechanism of the office also operates with dynamic movements as of those carnival rides, through spinning, lifting, and diving, portraying the office as an amusement park, or a playground. The uncanny juxtaposition of playground and office sets the satire of production operation and human labor.

The film has two sound channels. The Carousel music rhymes with the carnivalesque movement of the lifting and revolving office mechanism, romanticizing the office space into a playground. Ikeda’s electronic micro sound sampling resembles the robotic keyboard sound relating to the act of labor. The eerie juxtaposition of office and play achieves a strong, accumulation effect, connoting a sense of sullness and tediousness, a characteristic element of the modern industrial world.