DocLab Live: Koyaanisqatsi Special

“Koyaanisqatsi” refers to a concept in the language of the Hopi Native American people, and means something like “life out of balance” or “insane life.” In deep bass voices, the word reverberates mysteriously over the images of Godrey Reggio’s famous visual essay from 1982.

The film begins with a series of spectacular landscapes that express the power and splendour of nature. Gradually, humans make their appearance, culminating in crowded highways, hectic railway stations and frenetic assembly lines, moving to the rhythm of Philip Glass’s music. The strings and wind instruments sound increasingly agitated, the cars and people go ever faster, and their world becomes ever busier, ever more complex—and this was before the age of the internet.

In his Qatsi trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi was the first part), Reggio set out to show the place that humans and their technological developments occupy in nature. By accelerating, repeating or slowing down images, he emphasizes the transience of it all. What exactly is a skyscraper when compared to a jagged rock formation that was millions of years in the making?