THE NOWOTNY MACHINE
The Nowotny Machine is a collective filmmaking experience that embraces uncertainty as its primary method for producing content. Based on the writing of Helga Nowotny, the Austrian sociologist responsible for the book “The Cunning of Uncertainty,” the Machine is a set of interconnected constraints that asks actors to capture their environment while remaining detached from their ability to control the outcome. Nowotny’s uncertainty, not to be confused with disorder, is a naturally occurring phenomenon of the human experience as a direct result of our obsession with control.
- Benjamin Van Dyke (2025)
2025
The machine (constraints, rules, and process) and its Frankenstein (creator and editor) are inspired by Helga Nowotny’s writing on the virtues of uncertainty. Connecting the soft and hard sciences, the Nowotny Machine is held/screwed/glued together using established (conceptual) frameworks from John Cage’s chance operations or Yoko Ono’s instruction pieces. Mathematical patterns are equally as important. For example, Edward Lorenz’s research in weather patterns that led to our understanding of the butterfly effect shares the same systemic behavior of the Nowotny Machine — both systems are incredibly sensitive to the initial conditions of observation. Tiny changes or erratic/creative behavior have a drastic impact on the output. This is seen as the arrival of the weather system at the geographic location of the observer or the arrival of the machine’s film as it’s being viewed by the actors. The patterns are simultaneously formulaic and unpredictable.
THE NOWOTNY MACHINE
DesignInquiry / Future Salvage
Amsterdam, 2025
Concept & Framework Design
Benjamin Van Dyke
Editing
JJ Van Dyke
Sound Design
JJ Van Dyke
Javier Munárriz
Visuals Contributors
Mary Banas
Dina Benbrahim
Nick Benson
Tijs Bonekamp
Steve Bowden
Dora Bowden
Douglas Degges
Benjamin Gaydos
Peter Hall
Lucy Hitchcock
Lana Lê
Ann McDonald
Charles Melcher
Javier Munárriz
Katarzyna Nestorowicz
Marcin Nowiki
Isabel Overby
Markus Paloheimo
Leslie Parker
Krzysztof Pijarski
Chris Sancomb
Louise Sandhaus
Christopher Swift
Alice Twemlow
Joshua Unikel
Mark Zurolo