Everything was singing

Giuliana is the protagonist of “Red Desert” (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964), her existential anxieties predicated on the industrial landscape she inhabits. For his first colour film, Antonioni literally painted scenes to correspond with Giuliana's psychology. Even those shots taken from a supposedly objective camera position are suffused with her phenomenological apprehension of her environment.

“Everything was singing” repurposes this footage to demonstrate how “Red Desert” represents a breakthrough in ecological thinking. Giuliana resists every attempt at erasure by making herself an integral part of the places she inhabits. She refracts landscapes both interior and exterior, transcending the extractive relationship to nature that dominates the film's imagery.

This piece can be presented in two ways. First, as a fixed video work as shown here. Second, on two contiguous screens for gallery presentation. This configuration creates a spatial dimension for the viewer that recodes the footage, heightening appreciation of its topological and choreographic nature.

The video is 16:9 aspect and 1080 HD resolution. The file uses the H.264 codec in an MP4 container. Duration is 13:18. The music has been repurposed from the original score by Vittorio Gelmetti.

Keywords: Michelangelo Antonioni, Red Desert, screendance, found footage, Monica Vitti