DECODING The Intros of ZiB (THE WHOLE TRUTH)

The experimental documentary DECODING The Intro of the ZiB (THE WHOLE TRUTH) by Karin Ferrari analyses and (mis)interprets the opening signatures of the national Austrian News Broadcast ‚Zeit im Bild‘ since its first broadcast in 1955. The title ‚Zeit im Bild‘ means literally translated time in the picture. The film is part of Ferrari's video series DECODING THE WHOLE TRUTH, which - inspired by a YouTube counterculture - reveals hidden messages in music videos and TV clips. It turns out that everyday television pictures such as news opening signatures can be interpreted in manifold and ambivalent ways.

Starting point of the film DECODING The intros of the ZiB (THE WHOLE TRUTH) is the assumption that the opening sequence, which mostly consists of an image of the world and some abstract representation of time, is the symbolic visualisation of the respective worldview and present-day understandings. As in the case of iconological interpretation, visual motives of the intros are assigned concepts and topics. In Ferrari's interdisciplinary image analysis, special attention is given to speculative contents on the threshold of reality and fiction, which are vastly spreading as a result of online distribution mechanisms (fake news phenomena). Current topics of academic cultural theory are correlated with pop culture, political paranoia and fringe theories. Over and over again DECODING The intros of the ZiB (THE WHOLE TRUTH) undermines the allegedly clearly marked difference between neutral reporting and the reality-inducing power of suggestion, truth, reality and fiction.