Progress vs. Regress (2016)
The film Progress vs. Regress explores the influence of modern inventions on social relationships. As its point of departure, it works with the perspectives of a generation who has lived through extreme industrial, technological, and digital revolutions. The film’s protagonists speak about their experience of alienation and isolation from the whole of technophilic society, which only grow with age. In contrast to Digital Natives who are integrated into the global economy and its social life, seniors often find themselves outside of these. Using the protagonists’ intimate and honest accounts, Bonajo creates a simultaneously touching and humorous image of a generation, which draws attention to the impact of technological inventions on the individual and provokes one to think differently about the needs and expectations of older people in a society that compulsively strives for efficiency and progress. Bonajo combines these narratives with images and symbols culled from the modern media landscape, playfully inserting Emojis, advertisements, and screenshots of Google searches. The artist chooses a digital collage technique modelled on the style of amateur image editing thus ironically commenting on current customs of seeing and communicating.
