Toy Factory – Chain Reaction

Fotoanimierte Audio-/Videoinstallation, 3-teilig, 4K, 16:9 Format, 9:50 min, Hubert Blanz, 2025

Chain Reaction

Katharina Ehrl

The title of the series Toy Factory is a code name – once used for the largest tank factory of the Second World War – but in this case refers to the arms industry itself, which has become more prominent in politics and the media in the wake of recent wars. Our present is marked by geopolitical uncertainties and public debate: is rearmament necessary to secure peace?

The basis for the three-part photo-animated audio/video installation entitled Toy Factory – Chain Reaction are injection-moulded frames from model making. Even though these toys are usually associated with joy, light-heartedness and childlike imagination, the model aeroplanes were predominantly military aircraft such as the Eurofighter or models from the First and Second World Wars, which then decorated children's bedrooms.

The animation, designed as a three-part installation, focuses in particular on the industrial production of these models in the context of current world events. The film sequences presented on the monitors illustrate three assembly lines. The continuous, monotonous movement of the casting branches from left to right illustrates the industrial production process as a transfer line. The connecting pipes between the monitors also embody this aspect, thereby spatially extending the production line. The green colour is intended to refer to the display on night vision devices. Their invention can also be traced back to military surveillance in air defence.

The accompanying soundtrack is also characterised by the night, the chirping of crickets and the sounds of the forest. Behind this idyll, however, lies a composition with sounds from factories, recordings of scanning and X-raying, and even the firearms and explosive weapons in the injection moulding frame are used acoustically in this soundscape.

Translated with DeepL.com