Hyperion

Documentary art film

Waldeinsamkeit
That delights me,
So tomorrow as today
In eternal time,
O how it gladdens me
Waldeinsamkeit.

(Ludwig Tieck 1796)

Waldeinsamkeit, the silence of nature. Escapism, also called reality escape. An attitude of withdrawal as a refusal of societal expectations and objectives. Fleeing everyday life and encountering nature. Mitja Schröder dreams of this too. The student at FHWS is about to complete his Bachelor's degree and is dedicating this summer to a major project. Inspired by Romanticism, idealism and philosophies about the relationship between humans and nature, he has decided to spend three days in the forest himself. Equipped with a hammock, camera and the idea of making a documentary art film out of it. But how does the longing for solitude and the desire for technical isolation fit together with film documentation? A paradoxical interplay of staging and naturalism begins. A week before he ventured into the forest, the student told us about his plans. 

Sprachrohr: When did the idea for this documentary art film come about? 

Mitja: "The idea came up during my studies, roughly from the 4th/5th semester onwards."

Sprachrohr: What do you expect from this experimental escape from everyday life? 

Mitja: "It's a kind of self-discovery, you could call it asceticism. A spiritual experience. I want to see what happens and how it happens, whether anything happens at all. How I deal with silence. What happens when I have nothing planned, nothing to search for. When I allow boredom and silence. I think it will be very meditative." 

Sprachrohr: Has your degree in communication design led you to this subject matter?

Mitja: "Yes, it has. It also comes from the fact that you're always dealing with technologies everywhere and eventually develop a critical attitude towards them. You start to question whether this is the world you imagine for yourself. But outside my field of study too, I've often heard from people around me that there's a tendency to question things because many are fed up with it. For example, in the area of privacy and the fear of being bugged."

Sprachrohr: How have you engaged theoretically with the idea and critique?  

Mitja: "I looked at various philosophies; many ideas come from Romanticism, in which something is opposed to the rational worldview. With the question of whether everything is still acceptable as it is or whether things should be reconsidered. The term Waldeinsamkeit was also adopted in Romanticism." 

Sprachrohr: How should one imagine your interaction with the camera? 

Mitja: "Of course, I know that people are listening to me. But every now and then I'll forget about the camera, and then observation emerges. It's an alternation between observation and staging. I'll also interact actively with it. I think it's generally good for the matter that the viewer is picked up on a completely different level, especially towards the end. So that you think it's a documentary and then it transforms back into an absolute artistic staging." 

Sprachrohr: How do camera technology in your luggage and tech escape in your mind go together? 

Mitja: "The funny thing about the camera is that you can use it for something positive at the same time. It can record it and becomes an instrument of mediation, which you can use positively, for something good. Even though of course you can also use it for bad things."

Sprachrohr: How do you assess this paradox of technology and nature? Of good and bad? 

Mitja: "I think technology comes from humans, humans come from nature. There are connections there. It just depends on how we use it. Perhaps we should connect the two even more strongly. And reconsider our relationship with technology more often."

Sprachrohr: What do you hope to convey through the film? 

Mitja: "I'm trying to communicate how nature speaks to you today. Sounds very spiritual, but I think communication happens everywhere; you just have to look to get back into it. Find the way to reasonable communication with nature. So with yourself, your own nature and also direct nature. Nature is a difficult term; you could also say physis, the cosmos." 

Between natural philosophy, mediation aesthetics, amateur film sequences, theory and practice, he will find and capture something. The short film is to be 20 minutes long and will be uploaded to YouTube, amongst other places, in autumn. 

We wish Mitja a wonderful experience and remain curious!

Sarah Schmittinger