Reflective Encounters

“Salkeld’s use of sound and image harmonises with simple but perfectly-timed line drawings, reminiscent of the cross-sectional designs of industrial machines. The film makes use of the transformative nature of music to give weight and character to the movements, whilst also producing a sense of suspense and urgency. Nothing is revealed – instead a sense of synergy is developed between the composition of sound and moving image. With no distraction or decorative elements, we are asked to converse with the simplicity and strength of the lines, to displace our notions of form, narrative and meaning.

It could be suggested that the film aims to levy animation’s inherent artistic or entertainment value to further abstract the often-sterile modes of brutalist architecture and the functionalism of the engine's blueprint. But perhaps the film is using these visual forms to pursue abstraction itself in its purest form, by refusing to leave any image on screen long enough for us to assign meaning or apply our own perceptions or ideas of objectification: a concept that is mirrored in both the title and the concise synopsis of the film offered by the director. He has, in essence, removed all meaning from the medium.”

— Laura-Beth Cowley