Visual artists and electronic music producers light up dismal Russian train yards and industrial sites in mini documentary Suburban Signals, a collaboration between media artist, electronics engineer, and director 2nz, and the “techno project Toki Fuko. In both its extended and shortened versions, the film tracks a team of artists as they explore their urban environments using a combination of street art and digital technology, resulting in a series of light installations and projections that use spray paint, LED strips, and MIDI controllers. Shots of these light sculptures in action are accompanied by timelapse shots of the bustling city and industrial parks.
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In the field, the light fixtures are synced up with production software and an arsenal of hardware controllers. Heavy duty synthesizers ring out big room chords and deep house basses that trigger the flashing lights. As the film’s website explains, “Manufacturing is a centre of monotonous city life. Freight trains and automobiles transport productive forces in the slowdown techno loop," it's almost as though the artists are trying to equate the repetitiveness and predictable nature of city life with a loop.
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