"Robinson in Space" - A Film by Patrick Keiller

Patrick Keiller uses a series of seven journeys between a wanderer/surveyor named Robinson and a Narrator to explore the current state of England and the histories that lead it to that status. After the film begins with a train ride and the proclamation for a revolution of everyday life, the two characters start on a project to decipher "the problem of England." This project unfolds as seven journeys modeled after Daniel Defoe's "A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain." Each journey differs geographically and highlights similarities with the other journeys. Together the journeys point out multitudes of shipping ports, networks of transportation, processing mills and distribution centers that create the economy and life of England.

Keiller's observations of the English economy point to a very specific process. This process begins with the import of raw materials like coal, petroleum products and iron ore via immense shipping operations. From the multitude of ports the materials move to large industrial complexes that employ very few people and create a very narrow range of specific products like latex for S&M clothing, rubber toys for children, fighter jets and hand cuffs. A large majority of these products then get sent back to the ports and exported to different countries around the world. The results of this process are felt in each Journey. The domestic extraction of natural materials has almost stopped and the sites previously occupied by quarries and coal mines have become Tesco distribution centers and Social Security offices.

The film explores these spaces of infrastructure and flows in great depth. It also mentions historically important writers, artists and politicians. However it fails to say anything about the common person except that amid dreams of international cities and future megacities, most people still live in the mundane. This means that Keiller really does not believe that the spaces where people live and work are important. The important spaces are those of flows. According to Keiller these spaces let the economy thrive and are curated by the government via direct grants to companies, construction of major ports and roadways and the sabotage of labor unions when necessary. That view of infrastructure ends the movie when four bridges spanning only themselves fade out to the credits.

Stream of thoughts after the jump


Starts at a train terminal. "Revolution of everyday life"

Need a bridge between imagination and reality.

     Redding
     Follows Rambo?
     Only shallow people do not judge by appearances.
     "The space which contains the realized preconditions of another life, Is the same one that prohibits what those preconditions make possible" - Lefebvre
     The project is "The problem of England"
     Military house turned to government house with a monument built to save money from taxes.
     USRobotics & commercial space tied to US republican wants and to the conservative side of british politics
     Satellite dishes - near cabershim park
     Laissez-faire - government pre-1945
     Henley - Described as a constituancy
     Back to Redding
     Project based on 7 journeys following Daniel Defoe's path form

Journey 1 - Along the Thames
     University
     Institute of Marketing
     Government is no longer an occupation for Etonians(SP) to be concerned with
     First factory - Bendy Toys
     Heathrow - Busiest Airport in the world
     Around London - Ports and old industry with ruined/old homes
     Ports were owned by workers and are now owned by multinational corps

Journey 2 - Pack Horse Road Over hills towards Oxford - Continuing up the Thames
     University
     Power plants go from Coal to Natural Gas
     Oxford - preferred Capitol for Hitler
     Autoworks out of business and replaced by commercial space
     University
     "Whatever is terrible is a source of the sublime"
     "Existence is based on thought"
     Large Shopping Center
     Garbage Dump, Brickworks, Airship Hangar
     College
     College again
     A14 - new road that cut down trip time to the port
     Another Port owned by mobile phone company
     Freight through Dover has increased 10 fold since 1965
     Brighton - Why bad thoughts?
     Large ship represents the creation of capitalism and finance and commercial domination for London since 18th century
     Another Port
     One ship=Crew of 20 and 4200 containers meaning 4200 trucks.
     Westland builds American Helicopters for the British Airforce
     Bristol Channel - Another port, with great PR and the largest car importer in UK

Journey 3 - Starts at Automated plasterboard factory where materials are loaded directly from ships
     Britain is 5th Largest economy based on shipping
     Shopping Center at Mary Hill, a previous Steel Mill. Its effects are felt in towns 200 miles away. Largest European Mall.
     "Amid dreams of international cities and future megacities, most people still live in the mundane"

Journey 4 - "Much of life for many people, even in the heart of the first world, consists of waiting in a bus shelter with your shopping for a bus that never comes."
     Hiatt - Oldest company (1780) who started in the slave trade and make hand-cuffs and LEG-IRONS that still appear in Saudi prisons
     Jaguar Plant - WW2 built planes, then British cars, now Ford owned(And now Indian company owned)
     Toyota Toyota Toyota then talk of Rolls Royce and increased income and firing workers
     Derbyshire has the only plant which makes latex suitable for S&M wear.
     Tesco is still expanding in the North
     Liverpool - Port fluctuates in traffic widely. currently imports coal from US/Columbia and Exports scrap to Spain/Far East
     Warrington - Attracts Many large distribution centers.
     Coal site closed due to protests. Now coal comes from ports. And instead there are shopping distribution centers
     They stayed in a brand new motel and had lunch in a brand new shopping center

Journey 5 -
     Manchester - Alan Turing - Poisoned himself after being persecuted for being gay
     "Open as usual" - Sign on busy street
     Stayed in another brand new Motel
     Halifax - From reservoir distributing water to wind mills
     Leeds - Quarry is Social Security site; Junction 27 is a leasure park and wakefield 41 is a distribution estate.
     "If reality could immediately reach our senses and our consciousness, if we could come into direct contact with things and with each other, public art would be useless, or we should all be artists."
     Doncaster Prison(1 of 3 in the area), with the least cost/ prisoner
     Coal mining is 1% of what it was in 1946
     Emingham - Second largest port in UK

Journey 6 - Starts with coal train
     Redcar - British Steel plant produces 70,000 tons/week, 70% exported and employs almost no people.
     The Tees - Single Largest UK port. Imports Coal and Iron Ore and exports Oil/Petroleum products.
     Middlesbrough - 17% unemployment and least regulated labor market and highest prison population in Europe
     Samsung moving in with help from government.
  
Journey 7 - Attempts at getting past security at airports
     Another aircraft contractor
     Blackpool holds the key to his utopia......
     "In each man's life comes the moment in which his heart must either burst or turn to stone."
     Irish Sea is the most radioactive. near which is a deteriorating dump for radioactive waste and the proposed site for a plutonium storage facility.
  
Ends with four bridges superimposed above each other.