The machine is a transgression against nature in that humans have actively taken from nature to fulfill their self-interests. They have built houses, cities, sculptures, and modes of transportation that make use of what is available, but by doing so they have razed down trees and moved rocks around to make way for their creations. They chip away at rocks and minerals to replace the parts that are worn down. However, these transgressions are also what helps them study the environment (e.g. sea levels arising from climate change): Scientists use machines to study and predict events in the natural world; oceanographers use machines to study the ocean and its inhabitants; civilians use machines as a medium of communication; and yet all of the machines we use are worn down by nature over time, and maintenance requires taking from nature again to increase our machines’ lifespans.
But in a post-human world, without humans to maintain their creations, they will fall into disrepair, and nature will eventually reclaim these transgressions for herself. In her 6-minute short film Sirenomelia, Emilija Škarnulytė uses the post-human environment in and around a decommissioned NATO base to explore this paradox of maintenance. Humans are ultimately responsible for maintaining their creations—these transgressions against nature—that they use to study nature.
The Radio Dish
At the beginning of the film (0:15-1:00), the viewer is presented with a view of a snowy landscape through the perspective of a rotating radio dish with no humans in sight, accompanied with sounds of machinery. Despite the lack of humans, this machine remains functional, and it continues to rotate and gather data from its surroundings even when there is no one around to maintain it. Compared to the other manmade creations around the NATO base, this is the most intact piece of science equipment in the film, and it demonstrates the machines longevity in the absence of humans. And yet, it is designed to only perform the one task it was designed to perform: to gather data which is to be analyzed by the now-absent humans.
Although the radio dish is relatively maintained (it is still operational in case scientists wish to analyze the data it gathered), it is still subject to the forces of nature, and it probably will not be around for the next hundreds of years.
The Interior
At 2:15, Škarnulytė offers a glimpse into the interior of the long-abandoned base. The scene is in black and white, set underground in what looks like an unlit submarine pathway; a tunnel dug into the underside of a mountain, perhaps. As the main shot explores the deeper part of the tunnel, there is another scene overlayed on the top-left corner. This other shot is set in what is presumably an indoor pool, with a ceiling light shining through the watery surface and some stone walls to the left and right. Before the scene switches (2:47), a mermaid–the posthuman being–splashes into the water, distorting the room above beyond recognition.
The distortion of the room caused by the mermaid splashing can be seen as nature reclaiming abandoned creations by force, deteriorating their structural integrity to the point of unrecognizability. Voices can be heard, but they are not discernible; what once was a foundation used to house submarines and torpedo ships is now an echo of the past.
The Exterior
At 3:28-3:48, Škarnulytė presents a view of the base’s exterior. Set outside, it is much brighter than the view of the interior, but it is viewed from under the water’s surface, distorting it much like the overlayed shot inside the tunnel.
In this underwater shot, Škarnulytė juxtaposes the manmade with the natural. The manmade (the tunnel) takes up more of the screen than the natural (the mountain and trees), symbolizing how industrialization has taken precedence over the environment, building more while destroying more. The wall on the right is discolored, likely due to erosion from rainfall, and it is a display of nature chipping away at the exterior before moving onto the interior. To keep their creations standing, humans will have to maintain not just the interior, but the exteriors as well.
In the end, Sirenomelia is a film about maintenance, and how humans are responsible for maintaining the creations that were made from the resources they took from nature. Without the people to look after their creations, nature will be allowed to reclaim these transgressions for herself.