. Conversations at the Edge (CATE)

Daniel Eisenberg’s THE UNSTABLE OBJECT at the Gene Siskel Film Center

Posted by | Jessica Bardsley | Posted on | April 25, 2012

May 1, 6:00 p.m. |Daniel Eisenberg in person!

The Unstable Object (Daniel Eisenberg, 2010). Image courtesy the artist.

Daniel Eisenberg’s The Unstable Object, which premiered at Conversations at the Edge, will be screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center on May 1st.

What do a luxury automobile, a wall clock, and a cymbal have in common? Daniel Eisenberg’s latest film, The Unstable Object is an elegant and visually sensual essay on contemporary models of production. Interested in the ways “things” affect both producer and consumer, Eisenberg travels to a state-of-the-art Volkswagen factory in Dresden, Germany, where shoppers look on as their individualized cars are hand-built by high-tech specialists; to Chicago Lighthouse Industries, where blind workers produce wall clocks for federal government offices; and to a deafening cymbal factory in Istanbul, Turkey, where today’s most sought-after cymbals are cast and hammered by hand, exactly as they were 400 years ago. Through a series of sequences sympathetic to each site and subject, The Unstable Object probes the relationships our global economy creates between individuals around the world. 2010, Daniel Eisenberg, Germany/Turkey/USA, 83 min., HD Video. (Kelly Shindler)