Educational Media Reviews Online

You might expect a documentary about a man who is himself documenting every detail of his own existence to be a bit surreal, and you would be right. The subject of both documentaries is Erkki Kurenniemi, the Finnish avant-garde artist who, in the 1960s, pioneered the use of microcomputer technology in art, music, and film, and whose career then and now has ventured into the realms of physics, mathematics, robotics, and philosophy.

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be deftly intersperses clips of Kurenniemi’s early innovative films with more recent footage of the artist obsessively collecting video, audio, and found objects -- artifacts of a stream-of-consciousness digital diary. To this intriguing mix is added a sound track which includes Kurenniemi’s groundbreaking synthesized music. The resulting controlled chaos seems perfectly evocative of the life and work of this idiosyncratic artist who dwells in the constantly shifting nexus of man and machine.

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be may not make Erkki Kurenniemi a household name, but it will help dispel some of the obscurity surrounding a significant figure in the development of electronic art. The film was screened at the 50th Venice Biennale, as well as other international film venues in 2003 and 2004. It is recommended for libraries and programs with collections in 20th century and avant-garde art, music, film, and the history of art and technology.