It is fair to say that within us all lies a desire to collect, curate, and organise. This may be a habit we develop young through collecting trading cards of famous footballers (or fantasy monsters, take your pick) and organising them into neat binders, each page dedicated to housing a specific category of card. These binders themselves act as a source of satisfaction when you look upon your mighty collection ordered in a way so you, and you alone, know the exact placement of each treasure. Of course, this drive to collect and curate is not lost as you grow out of collecting cards but instead utilised to fit around interests rather than be the source of one. Instead of trading cards it's a collection of records, DVDs, or books. The act of collecting and organising becomes subservient to the interest itself so, naturally, the end goal becomes the consumption and usage of the interest in question. To give and example, take any good DVD collection. You would usually find them alphabetised on a shelf. Maybe the more eccentric collector would group them by genre, director, or even by specific movement, but usually they would remain in alphabetical order. All this organisation serves the end motive of watching the films. The art of organisation for its own sake is demoted.
For artist Tom Sachs, the art of organisation is the MO. Everything that he creates is done to his specific code of organisation. This specific art of organisation is seen no better than in his array of industrial films often co-written and directed by Van Neistat. To give a bit of background on the pair, Sachs is a modern artist specialising in large scale conceptual performances (often re-enacting space missions) and the creation of sculptures which parody and pay homage to popular culture. What sets him apart from others in the field is his focus on a hand-crafted aesthetic, with Sachs arguably being the handyman of the modern art scene. Because of this, his industrial videos seem to walk a thin tightrope between woodwork class instructional video and experimental art documentary, with this paradoxical cohesion summing up Sachs' aesthetic pretty well. Van Neistat composes the second half of this duo, taking the role of all-round filmmaking practitioner. He is often charged with writing, directing, narrating, lighting, performing, and the creation of props. Their combined vision and ability result what can only be described as the essence of organisation captured perfectly on film.
A good place to start would be the 2012 trilogy titled the Energies and Skills trilogy. It contains Love Letter to Plywood, How to Sweep, and Space Camp. Whilst these films differ in length, subject, and message, they all contain a shared focus on hyper-specific organisational techniques. For example, Love Letter to Plywood features the narrated line "Studio code states that we paint plywood BEFORE sanding and cutting ... this prevents drip marks from contaminating our sophisticated artefacts." The level of tangible respect and reverence for the material seen from only the narration perfectly captures the degree of detail to organisation that Sachs has within his studio. This omnipotent "studio code" acts as a higher power for organisation and neatness, detaching the want and desire of these aspects away from the individual, instead attributing them to a religion-like mandate. By referring to the material as an "artefact", the film detaches the prior expectation and prejudice away from what would be commonly seen as simply a building material. It is replaced with a curiosity surrounding the piece: where did this come from? Why is it so special? What will it be used for? Our eyes are temporarily replaced with those of a woodworker as we adopt the mindset of seeing materials as the end object waiting to be made.
The specific, ideal vision of organisation can be seen to a greater degree in How to Sweep. We open on a motor bike soaring through the dusty desert planes. A lone broom stands tall mounted to its backseat like John Wayne's repeater in Stagecoach. This is the instrument our hero will use to bring justice to the land and honour to himself. Interior, dusty mansion. A tracking shot our hero at foot height (conveniently showing the latest collaboration between Sachs and Nike) before he stops. Enters the broom. The hero promptly looks around before being greeted with both a title card and comprehensive narration on the titular action all the while a score reminiscent of Philip Glass' Koyaanisqatsi plays overhead. This is how you sweep. So, with canny action filmmaking and imagery, Neistat has made possibly the most mundane task seem epic and grand. The attention to detail; the unique reverence for the action; the sense of purpose and importance. The sweeper must sweep because the sweeping must be done. It must be done whether he wants to do it or whether he does not. This imperative imbues the sweeper with purpose. The sweeping must be done.
Lots can be learned from How to Sweep. Everyday, we are in a position where we must complete mundane tasks. Whether it be house work, maintenance, or even a job, the tasks never disappear. So what do you do? Do you grovel in the mundanity of the task; become frustrated at its absolute existence? Would you ask yourself the question: "This is awful, why am I even doing this? I'm better than this, I can do it another day." Or, do you sweep? Do you get on with the task because, at that moment, there is nothing else outside the task? That is the mentality of the sweeper and, to a greater extent, the mentality of Sachs' industrial films. You are here to fulfil a purpose and that purpose is exclusively to get organised. When the organisation becomes the purpose rather than a means to an end, the activity becomes more active. File the new DVDs away alphabetically. Fold and put away the pile of clothes that have been sat on your chair for the past week. Get up early and collect the shopping for the day. Because once the organisation is done you are free to do what really needs to get done.
Below are links to the films mentioned on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt-VlZpz-8E (How to Sweep)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVxldyIa0Bg&t=0s (Love Letter to Plywood)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-jSSTGqU5c&t=0s (Space Camp)
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