(k)now (t)here

The best thing about (k)now (t)here is not the four-fold variability of its title, nor what appears to be scenes filmed (on purpose, one assumes) with the lens cap on - no, the best thing about (k)now (t)here is that it uses as its soundtrack two pieces by Aphex Twin, to wit Home Made Polysynth and Dennis DeSantis' remix of Prep Gwarlek 3B.

Knowing that, those of you so equipped should probably proceed to their nearest supplier of digital music. Those watching the film can at least divert themselves by listening to the scrobbling and noodling of the selected ambient works. Even a failed experiment tells us something, and here what we are told is that it's not as entertaining as one would hope to watch people one doesn't know filming their travels in a vague and context free way.

There are shots of corridors, corridors in buildings, corridors in trains; trains feature heavily, the wobble on the tracks as the hand-held camera goes down those corridors, again those corridors, what might be a sleeper car - in amongst the electronica there is an announcement, a historic announcement, a bored and possibly already recorded announcement, a public address announcement about the historic city of Cisco, supplier of much stone and labour and other material for the railroads of America. It is due to appear after the train has passed through two tunnels - we do not see it.

There's strobe-like flashing, someone playing with one of those mirrors that are on a scissored arm, the kind with two sides one of which magnifies. Idly wondering if there is a specific name for such an entity without access to an Ikea catalogue fills some time if you are so inclined, but not enough.

Rain falls, shutters swing, the film itself is stuttered, moments of light and dark like misalignment. The sound is there at least, contributing to the brief sensations of spaces - as it is documentary in its presentation there's no doubt that there are 'theres' there, but the there-ness of the 'there' is rarely a question. Artificial environments in a way, shuffling along rolling-stock, a house but not outside of it, but not constructed, created - made rather than falsified. There's perhaps something in being at once so solidly located and also dislocated, homogenised, globalised, but that would speak to a (made-up) film like "100 Hilton Bedrooms" or "The View From The Front Door Of Each McDonalds Within A Given Band Of Latitudes".

There is a sense of immediacy, of course, we are watching the act of someone being there, then - this is, however, something one can approximate in day to day life. As Buckaroo Banzai's dictum has it, "wherever you go, there you are". While (k)now (t)here is clearly trying, perhaps one had better go elsewhere.