Nonhuman Cinema and the Logistical Sublime

Abstract

Abstract Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson's Logistics (2012) is the longest film ever made, at over thirty-five days in duration. The film endeavors to make the world-spanning network of global logistics perceptible through an experience of the slow journey of the Dutch container-ship Elly Maersk from Gothenburg, Sweden, to Shenzhen, China. Following this document of an oceanic passage that coincided with—and was at one point halted by—the events of the Arab Spring, this article explores how extreme durational cinema raises questions about the position of the spectator and the limits of representation in an era of digitally networked media. It suggests that there exists, beyond the immediate relationship between spectator and image, a correspondence between the magnitude of filmic address and the logistical conditions of art's creation.