Griffiths, D.A., 2012.

Babel Fiche

Steven Bode, Film and Video Umbrella: "Babel Fiche began as an online call for user-donated video content in which people's singular and disparate perspectives on Life, the Universe and Everything might offer a patchwork cross-section of contemporary experience. If YouTube is the accepted star-chart of this strange new online cosmos, Babel Fiche is a self-consciously small-scale satellite. [...] Distilled and compressed onto microfilm, these cryptic thumbnail images went on to inspire their own mini-narrative. Featuring contributions from writers Gaia Holmes and Stefan Skrimshire, a resulting 18-minute video imagines this time capsule of found footage from the vantage point of the near future, where archivists pore over, and labour to piece together, these once-familiar everyday scenes. Embellished by an atmospheric soundtrack by musician Graham Massey (808 State), Griffiths' project reminds us how images of the past are so often lost in translation yet continue to speak to us all the same." Commissioned and funded by Film and Video Umbrella (London) and Castlefield Gallery (Manchester), with support from Manchester School of Art.

Babel Fiche, 2012, print

Babel Fiche, 2012, film still

Babel Fiche, 2012, film still

Babel Fiche, 2012, film still

Babel Fiche, 2012, film still