Tulevaisuus ei ole entisensä / The Future Is Not What It Used To Be

Mika Taanila: Tulevaisuus ei ole entisensä / The Future Is Not What It Used To Be (FI 2002)

Framtiden är inte vad den brukade vara. FI 2002. D: Mika Taanila.
Excerpts from Erkki Kurenniemi's short films:
– Winterreise (1964)
– Electronics In The World of Tomorrow (1964)
– Computer Music (1966)
– Firenze (1970)
– Sex Show (1968)
– Flora & Fauna (1965)
– Carnaby Street (1968)
and the video work of Kurenniemi:
– Videokirje tulevaisuuteen [A Video Letter to the Future] (1990)
Also excerpts from tv programs (YLE):
– Kahdeksan tahtia tietokoneelle [Eight Beats for the Computer] (1967)
– Tv-aktuellt (1968)
– Ihmisen uudet mahdollisuudet [Man's New Opportunities] (1969)
– Ungdom för helvete [Youth for Hell] (1969)
– Dimi-baletti [Dimi Ballet] (1971)
– Mihin menet Suomi? [Where Do You Go To, Finland?] (1979)
– A-studio (1980)
– A-raportti: Mikrojen maihinnousu [The Invasion of the Micro Computer] (1982)
– Numero 110384-1984, rekisteröity, tilastoitu ja kauko-ohjattu kansalainen [Number 110384: the Registered, Statistically Computed and Remote-Controlled Citizen] (1984)
– Lauantailokki (1987)
– TV-uutiset (1999)
And commissioned films by Filminor:
– Pakasteet [Frozen Foods] (1969, D: Jarva, M: EK)
– Tietokoneet palvelevat [The Computer At Your Service] (1968, D: Jarva, M: EK)
– Cosmic Love (Ruotsi, D: Jonas Sima) [Thank you, Mika Taanila, 10 Feb 2009, for the excerpt credits.]
54 min. A 35 mm SES print with English subtitles by Jaana Wiik. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 31 Jan 2009. – Presented by Mika Taanila. – A good print.

Official synopsis: "A documentary film about Erkki Kurenniemi (b. 1941), whose career represents a surprisingly natural blend of music, film, computers, robotics, science and art. His project of collecting everything around him will perhaps be the most significant of all his works. Kurenniemi records his thoughts, observations, objects and images constantly, with manic precision, with the ultimate goal of merging man and machine – reconstructing the human soul."

"Kurenniemi's story is a fascinating and forceful depiction of a forgotten visionary; it is significant because of the cultural history of the unique, never-before-seen archive material alone. The documentary includes footage of the unique DIMI instruments developed by Kurenniemi, and segments from unfinished experimental short films from the 1960s."

"The Future is not what it used to be is a film about the 1960s avant-garde in music and film, the early history of microcomputers and the open questions of 21st century science."

"The film is a logical and thematic follow-up for Mika Taanila's earlier works exploring technology and the world around us; namely Thank You For the Music, Futuro and RoboCup99. The film looks into the past, but very clearly far ahead into the future through it."

Revisited the fascinating documentary by Mika Taanila, which is also a great experimental film, about a great experimental man.