I see how the film How Not to be Seen gets at some of the same concepts from the Violence at the Threshold of Detectability reading, with a lighter, satirical focus. It’s interesting to think about what can be hidden in a space the size of a pixel – 1’x1’ – in an aerial shot. The reading was exploring pixels in photos as it related to crimes of war, and while this film takes a broader approach, the calibration targets used throughout Hito Steyerl’s film do evoke the military, and the historic targets’ cracked, disintegrating surfaces create a current of uneasiness. 

I couldn’t quite figure out Hito Steyerl’s stance on being unseen. In the beginning, this didn’t seem to be an undesirable condition in the film, especially as voiceover was instructing the audience on how to attain this state. However, there were allusions to negative states of being unseen, such as being a woman over fifty – haha 🙁 and being an enemy of the state. It was helpful to watch the interview to realize that the artist views being unseen as an act of rebelling against all the surveillance in the world today, However, there seems to be a difference between choosing to be unseen, and being made unseen. One might purposefully escape through being invisible, but when you are made invisible, you are basically dead. 

Also, I didn’t get the Monty Python reference while initially watching this short film, but I see now how it has a similar absurd approach. I wouldn’t say that this video is funny, though. Humorous? I certainly didn’t laugh. I went back and watched the Monty Python short, and it feels much darker, after watching Steyerl’s film. It’s pretty violent! 

 In the interview, Hito Steyerl talks about how she began as a filmmaker with a strong technical background, and you can see that in this film. She has a mixture of digital special effects, and cinematic special effects.  I didn’t fully understand what a lot of the imagery was trying to say, and I didn’t know why the .MOV was significant in the title. I was also curious about her martial arts outfit in the beginning of the film. Is that another nod to the military?

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