PRESS KIT / RESOURCES
PRESS PDF including directors’ statement, interview, crew biographies [download here].
FILM STILLS
download [1] Die vom 17er Haus (Austria 1932), dir: Artur Berger [2] Aelita (Soviet Union 1924), dir: Yakov Protazanov [3] Achtung! Achtung! Ein Film vom Deutschen Rundfunk (Germany 1929) [4] Das Auge der Welt (Germany 1935); dir: C. Hartmann
PHOTOS of DIRECTORS
[Tode, Luksch, Reinhart] (c) Valerie Bachschwöll [Manu Luksch] (c) Mukul Patel [Martin Reinhart] (c) Marije van Woerden [Thomas Tode] (c) Julia Reschucha [Manu, Martin] (c) Marije van Woerden
INDEX of FILMS and ARCHIVE FOOTAGE used in Dreams Rewired [download here]
DREAMS REWIRED VIMEO PREVIEW [link] (request password)
DREAMS REWIRED VIMEO TRAILER [link]
QUOTES
“A lively, visually enthralling attempt to gaze into the future by remembering the past.”
– Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Brain-tickling. In brilliant archival footage, DREAMS REWIRED shows us becoming ourselves.”
– Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice
“Fascinating. Narrated by our resident alien queen from the future, Tilda Swinton, in her crisp, otherworldly voice. Dense, playful, philosophical and poetic. Beautifully structured. An entertaining visual feast.” – Dustin Chang, Twitch
“Original animations are seamlessly integrated with the wealth of delightful stock footage. A repository of striking images from the proverbial dream factory.” – Christopher Gray, Slant
“The ethereal essay provides a bounty of poetry, in the form of a measured narration by international treasure Tilda Swinton. Thrilling. The meticulously chosen clips are often hypnotic, but the instinctual narration is what grips the viewer. The charismatic Swinton… is game for delicacy or comedy.”
– Nick Allen, Rogerebert.com
“A marvelous essay film. (The filmmakers) rewind a century of footage, revealing our mania for technology is nothing new. Bombards the senses with a thorough and clever montage of found footage from the 1890s to the pre-war era. The film’s disorienting trip down the rabbit hole is steered in droll fashion, by narration read by Tilda Swinton… (The filmmakers) create a heady haze with their choice of clips… Dziga Vertov, William Cameron Menzies, Alice Guy-Blaché, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton all make an appearance.” –Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian
“Playful and provocative. A time-warped essay film recontextualizing dusty old technologies as the Miracle of Now. The script prefers evocation over prosaic storytelling.” – John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
‘Best Documentary at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015’. – De Recensie, Amsterdam
‘A rich, media-archaeological account of the intertwined histories of visionary technologies, communication cultures, and cinema.’
– Association of Moving Image Archivists, University of Amsterdam
‘This film essay features an intricately, crafted voice-over by Tilda Swinton, melding together historic fact and contemporary theories.’
– Screen International
‘A remarkably timely, compelling and revelatory exploration of the obscured origins of the full spectrum media environment we all inhabit; a work that learns from the past, with insight of an artist-innovator-theoretician’s trio, to inform and illuminate current and ever more pressing concerns.’
– Gareth Evans, Film Curator (Whitechapel Gallery, London)
PUBLICATIONS
Luksch, M.; Patel, M. (2021) ‘To Be Connected: Perspectives on Autonomy and Risk from the Electric Age’. Chapman, A.,Hume, N., Newland, C., eds. Coding and Representation from the Nineteenth Century to the Present: Scrambled Messages. Routledge – read on Academia.edu
DOI 10.4324/9781003169154
Taking as a point of departure the montage film Dreams Rewired (Luksch, Reinhart, Tode, 2015) and its archival source material, which ranges from newsreels and scientific recordings to the first dramatic works, this illustrated chapter offers a historical perspective on urgent issues in current network and information politics. Such dominant modes of the contemporary as the striving for simultaneity and ubiquity, the enclosure of the media commons, the pursuit of efficiency in personal, domestic, corporate and public spheres, and the whitewashing of the material, energy and labour costs of technological advance, were all prefigured in the Electric Age, in the decades around 1900. Early cinema mediated and amplified the radical transformations and utopian promise of the times. This text employs visions from the Electric Age to illuminate specific present-day concerns, including the battle over ‘net neutrality’, the extension of state and corporate control to synthetic space via ‘smart’ homes and cities and the ‘Internet of Things’, aerial dominance through autonomous weapon systems, and the establishment of a regime of surveillance capitalism based on behavioural nudging.
Luksch, M. (2017). ‘From the cellar to the cloud: the network-archive as locus of power’ in Dekker, A., ed. Lost and Living (in) Archives. Amsterdam: Valiz. Read on Academia.edu
Advancing a new thesis and drawing on historical film footage from the 1890s to the 1930s that was collected for the film Dreams Rewired, Manu Luksch overturns the established precedence of cinema over television, and instead describes how in the public perception, recorded media (the archive) and transmission media (the networks) became conflated. In this essay Luksch describes the forces and constraints that determined access to source material during the making of Dreams Rewired, and suggests that one might draw useful analogies between, on the one hand, her struggles to obtain this source material, and on the other, struggles over ownership and control of data in an user-generated archive.
Stavning Thomsen, Bodil Marie (2016). Dreams Rewired: Disembodying Data and Rematerialising Technology’ Dreams Rewired DVD: insert booklet; ed. Patel, Mukul. published by Icarus Films [pdf]
Fresko, David (2016). ‘Modern Times: Dreams Rewired’ Dreams Rewired DVD: insert booklet; ed. Patel, Mukul. published by Icarus Films [pdf]
REVIEWS
Kino überwindet wieder Distanzen und mobilisiert Träume. Magdalena Miedl, Nov 2020
Aus der Schatzkammer – 25 Jahre Amour Fou Ray Filmmagazin 2020
Dreams Rewired. Patrick Wiltz. American Journalism / Academia.edu 2019
Mobilisierung der Träume – DVD Tipp. Kultur Online. Walter Gasperl. 01/03/2018
Seeing across the Distance: the Dreams and Fears of Televisual Utopia. CRASSH. 02/03/2018
Sind wir Science Fiction?. Zukunftssuche in der Vergangenheit. Julia Grindl im Gespräch mit Manu Luksch Radiokolleg. Ö1, ORF 23/01/2018
Das digitalisierte Kind’: Die Zukunft vor 100 Jahren. matrix – computer & neue medien. Ö1, ORF 22/12/2017
Dreams Rewired – Mobilisierung der Träume. Filmdienst. Jens Hinrichsen. 22/10/2017
Dreams Rewired: A Conversation with Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel. Found Footage Magazine issue 3. Martin Zeilinger. 03/2017
Dreams Rewired, looking back to look forward. Neural 56 Intelligently Weak, winter 2016
Der Score zur Mobilisierung der Träume. FilmTonArt, ARD 07/06/2016
To be or not to be connected. Die Referentin. Tanja Brandmayr 01/06/2016
Neue Medien im Spiegel der alten sehen und staunen. Ray Magazin. Roman Scheiber 02/2016
Dreams Rewired. trailersfromhell. Glenn Erickson. 26/03/2016
Kritik: Mobilisierung der Träume. evolver.at. Hans Langsteiner
“Dreams Rewired”: In die Zukunft von gestern hören. Salzburger Nachrichten. Magdalena Miedl 10/03/2016
Auch wenn die Träume sich nicht erfüllen. Der Standard. Michael Pelker 10/03/2016
Essayfilm “Mobilisierung der Träume”. Ö1/ORF. 08/03/2016
„Mobilisierung der Träume“: Ein Filmessay über den Film und uns. Tiroler Tageszeitung. 04/03/2016
Modern Times Dreams Rewired The Brooklyn Rail. David Fresko 03/02/2016
Dreams Rewired: 3.5/4-star review. RogerEbert.com Nick Allen 16/12/2015
What’s Old is New Again SF Reporter. Alex De Vore 16/12/2015
In Theatres: DREAMS REWIRED. What (not) to doc. Basil Tsoikos. 16/12/2015
An Antidote for Loneliness: DREAMS REWIRED. Film International. Jude Warne 16/12/2015
25 Ways to End the Year. Manhattan User’s Guide. 16/12/2015
Review: ‘Dreams Rewired,’ a Futuristic Look at the Past. New York Times. Stephen Holden. 15/12/2015
Tilda Swinton Traverses Time, Space, and Technology in ‘Dreams Rewired’ Flavorwire, Jason Bailey 15/12/2015
In Brilliant Archival Footage, ‘Dreams Rewired’ Shows Us Becoming Ourselves. Village Voice; LA Weekly. Alan Scherstuhl 15/12/2015
Dreams Rewired. Director Talk: Martin Reinhart. Judy Myer 15/12/2015
DREAMS REWIRED Reimagines Better Living Through Technology. Twitch. Dustin Chang. 14/12/2015
Dreams Rewired: Luksch, Reinhart & Tode’s poetic & amusing look at communication and technology down the decades. TrustMovies.com James van Maanen 13/12/2015
11 Things to Do in New York’s Art World Before December 18: Screening and Talk: “Dreams Rewired” at Film Forum. New York OBSERVER. Paul Laster. 14/12/2015
Dreams Rewired: film review- Tilda Swinton narrates a voyage through communication-tech history. Hollywood Reporter John DeFore 13/12/2015
Dreams Rewired review – marvellous tech film full of where-did-they-get-that? imagery. The Guardian. Jordan Hoffman. 11/12/2015
Going Back to Move Forward. Review by Amos Lassen. 16/08/2015
Behovet efter at være online er ikke unikt for vores tid – Interview with Manu Luksch. Dagbladet Information. Emil Eggert 06/11/2015
Dreams Rewired – Interview with Manu Luksch and Martin Reinhart. Tea After Twelfe, issue 02. Johannes Zeller 07/2015
Jerusalem Film Festival Review: Dreams Rewired. Birth.Movies.Death. Devin Faraci 09/08/2015
Dreams Rewired – Mobilisierung der Träume. Critic.de. Josef Lommer 15/04/2015