Graeme Arnfield
UK, 92’, 2023

A nightmarish essay film on the history of the doorbell, tracing its invention and constant reinventions through 19th-century labour struggles, the nascent years of narrative cinema, and contemporary surveillance cultures. Along the way producing a terrifying portrait of the technological ideologies that have shaped our present and the nightmares of the people they emerged from.
Made in bed with a mixture of found materials from archival patent illustrations, domestic security footage to suspenseful horror movie clips, soundtracked by historical prepared-piano pieces and manipulated field recordings – the film asks what is to be done with machines that don’t work for us? With systems that hinder radical futures, that profit off convenience and use our fears against us. What happens when our homes and our dreams have been invaded?

Bio:

Graeme Arnfield is an artist filmmaker and composer living in London, raised in Cheshire. Producing sensory essay films from networked imagery, he uses methods of investigative storytelling to explore issues of circulation, spectatorship, and history. His work has been presented worldwide, including Berlinale, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Courtisane Festival, Open City Documentary Festival, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Sonic Acts Festival, European Media Arts Festival, Transmediale, LUX, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Whitechapel Gallery, and on e-flux & Vdrome.