Our last example uses words,
sound and animated images, as well as using both German and
English. Fevci Konuk's 
"Digital
Troja" (Digital
Troy) aims to discuss war in both the past and present time.
In the beginning we hear Bill Clinton say: "Yesterday is
yesterday, if we tried to recapture it we would only lose
tomorrow". Germans who have a different relation to history
may be reminded of the statement of former chancellor Willy
Brandt who said that if we do not learn from the past we
will not be able to handle the future.
This hidden dialogue about
history is continued later when we encounter the image
above. The figure in this image is Paris, who obviously
wants to run away from Troy but is instead caught in an
endless loop. According to the caption, we should take this
to mean that there is no escape, no learning from the past,
things happen over and over again. I will abstain from
discussing the disanalogies between Clinton and Paris and
Monica and Helene. There are obvious shortcomings throughout
the work and in the work as a whole. However, here I want to
show how an animated image conveys meaning because of its
time setting.
The time of power
and sex (poor Bill, poor Paris).
If we look at this animation
we notice two breaks within the loop. In the language of
animation, breaks are supposed to stress something. What
could it be? I want to draw your attention to the famous
sequence in Hitchcock's movie "North by Northwest" where
Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant, realizes the danger
of an approaching airplane as he stands in a wheat field.
You probably remember how slowly he turns to start running.
And you may be reminded of this scene while watching this
piece of animation. It is the same posture. Paris looks back
at the eclipsed sun as Cary Grant does at the approaching
plane. I will discuss the meaning behind this allusion in a
minute. Let us first look at the other break. To what could
Paris' posture allude?
My suggestion is Discobulus,
the ancient discus-thrower. Yes, there is a difference in
the position of the arms and the arching of the back. But
still, Discobulus is the first thing that comes into mind
when thinking about this break. And, he makes perfect sense.
While Discobulus associates with the olympic idea, Cary
Grant's Thornhill brings the cold war onto the stage. We
might remember 1984, when the Olympic idea failed to bridge
the gap between West and East and when there were separate
games. Thornhill also brings another issue in the story.
Whereas Paris stands for deliberate decisions, Thornhill is
a pawn in a power game and, for a long time, does not know
what to do. This difference points to the contrast in power
structures in past and present time. The atomic bomb fire
that is shown in "Digital Troja" again and again stresses
the theme that power and danger are not a matter between two
persons anymore. Things are more complicated today, and we
may conclude that they are not as easily calculable as they
have been in earlier times.
However this conclusion is
supported by the whole work, the example shows how meaning
can be transferred just by animation. In allusion to the
language of words or pictures we might call this the
language of time.
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