A tombstone to analogue

The Tate Modern turbine hall has become a giant protest sign over the decline of analogue film. Why all the fuss?

Propping up one end of the Turbine Hall, the twelfth commission in The Unilever Series is by British artist and filmmaker Tacita Dean.

FILM is an 11-minute silent 35mm film projected onto a gigantic white screen, 13 metres tall, at the end of the darkened hall. According to the description, it “celebrates the masterful techniques of analogue film-making as opposed to digital.”

 

A campaign for analogue
It has been accompanied by a nearly-campaign in the press, as Tacita Dean has given a number of interviews emphasising the death of analogue film. The Guardian’s review of the piece begins, “Tacita Dean called to tell me her film lab in Soho had just informed her they would no longer be printing 16mm film, her chosen medium and that of dozens of other artists, with immediate effect”. Kodak, pioneers of analogue film, are reportedly about to go bankrupt.
 

The catalogue to the piece quotes celebrity artists who support the cause. "I will remain loyal to this analogue art form until the last lab closes," writes Director Steven Spielberg, whose film Tintin 3D opened this weekend in digital cinemas across London.

"We're analogue people, not digital," says the musician Prince, whose last album was sold as a free CD on the front of a newspaper - 2.5 million copies.

So the move to digital has disrupted some artistic endeavours - but clearly not enough to stop them using digital technology and distribution. What’s the big deal about analogue?

 

A different feel
Mainly, analogue just has a different feel. Photos taken on digital cameras reportedly wash out their subjects, making them look worse than traditional film. CDs undoubtedly sound different on vinyl.

But to put the fuss in context, digital film has allowed it to become cheaper, more democratic, of higher quality, accessible to outsiders, able to be displayed in more interesting and varied locations, and easily replicable. Many would say that this is a good thing, although these arguments get complicated quickly.  

One thing we do know, is that digital has some major advantages. So perhaps the huge, film in the Turbine Hall is less a protest sign for analogue, and more it’s gravestone.