Monolog Digital

“If A greater than B go to …”, this is how one of the programmers in this portrait of the zero hour of speech recognition describes his dialogues with computers. It is a new language built on the simplest logic and yes-no principles.

In the late 1980s, Sabine Fröhlich dedicates seven chapters to the sometimes humorous, sometimes philosophical, sometimes dry attempts to speak with and through machines. Amidst errors, code, and dada-esque babble, she discovers — through close-ups of people staring at screens — that intimacy within the digital space which has become so familiar today.

Along the way, the film explores the search for visual metaphors of the virtual: in footage of clouds, swimming pools, or pixelated surfaces. Frankenstein is still in its infancy here — a portrait of the programmer as a young man before his world domination. (Patrick Holzapfel)

Introduction by Alexander Scholz.