Rachel Pimm, 09 November 2013

EXT. WATER’S EDGE. DAWN.

We see the edge of the water. We see the shore, and we dive into the water. Suddenly there are glitches in the water’s surface. We are now on the other side of the surface, underneath, but it looks just like the top, as if we had come back out the way we came. We see that the underside of the surface is another surface.*

We descend into a void to see its mechanisms to a machine that drives the island, and a structure like a dingy underground carpark with a few temporary shelters for the migrant WORKERS who construct and maintain the island. The water itself is a reflection: Underneath Bleisure Island’s watery edge: The Subaquatic WORKERS are waking up to change shifts.

INT. POORLY CONSTRUCTED WAREHOUSE. STILL DAWN.

Vents draw hot air through a series of pipes into loud air conditioning units.  RACHEL has an inaudible conversation with DAN and he is nodding. We see DAN taking photographs of the WORKERS

RACHEL

(on the phone to DAN)

How’s it going down there, Dan? What’s the temperature like?

DAN

(A freelance photographer who is visiting to prepare the marketing campaign)

Hot! The temperature without air conditioning is the high 80s-100s, so 30-37 for you in celsius. I can send you some pictures… hang on the connection’s really slow here.** 

DAN emails RACHEL some images of the WORKERS and their accommodation. A vast central computer server hums, and the heat radiated and blows chemical steam into the air.

INT: FACTORY. FLUORESCENT LIGHT

Rows of migrant WORKERS fill cases of pre-processed coffee mix with popped sorghum, here used as a cheap and readily available packaging material: Popped sorghum is a biodegradable alternative to cardboard or packaging materials. Voices in Wu and Mandarin.

DAN

You know, everyone working here has to pay a entrance fee of 180 Yuan- sorry, £18 to the beach…

DAN emails RACHEL more images of the migrant WORKERS whose temporary building stations made of fabrics hung from trees are not too dissimilar to the kind of favela chic cocktail canopies around the fruit bar behind her.***

DAN

And it’s actually not that convenient for anyone down here to use the Bleisure Island mall. They have their own small one down here and it’s a lot cheaper. There are a few internet cafes but nobody could ever afford to use the workspace up on the Island.

Work Montage: We hear the sounds and grunts of the Subaquatic Bleisure Island, but we don’t hear the voices of any of The WORKERS down there, they are merely extras. Their mouths are covered by cheap paper face masks. We see vats of sorghum for both eating and packaging. The WORKERS can’t touch the Chia. They handle packs of it delicately whilst wearing gloves.

We cut back to group conversation above ground…

RACHEL

(giving a tour of the custom workspace in the most office-like environment yet with Coldstone drink plates and tropical plants on desks, task chairs, soft seating and a fruit and water bar)

Here is a really good example of The Subaquatic Central AirFresh Cloud- which is an air purification and ventilation system working well to maintain the individuated temperature system you’ll be used to by now. 

HAMMOND

(chewing Chia seeds)

Nothing is wasted and nothing is spoilt. 

RACHEL

As with all areas of the Island, the indoor spaces are stocked by The Subaquatic Kitchen with freshly cut fruit, The Subaquatic IT Division, Jelly’s subcontracted Engineers maintain the infrastructure of the wireless network and The Subaquatic Horticulture Division maintain the tropical plants from a complex irrigation system.

HAMMOND

All trim and neat and pretty.

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See CGI scenes of computer game programming in Farocki’s Parallel, showing the shape of the water as an algorithm or a vector work 3d diagram- a flat film with the same surface top and bottom.

**
Paraphrased from phone interview with Dan Sandoval.
***
Loose description of the interior of Recent Work By Artists at Auto Italia, August 2013.