After watching Sirenomelia, I thought the short film was powerful in showing how nature, with or without humans, continues onward. The film places us in the perspective of a mermaid, exploring a decommissioned NATO base in Norway and seeing how much of it has been claimed by nature since there are no humans around to maintain it.

The scene at 2:15 especially interested me because it shows how desolate the underground parts of the base really are when there are no humans looking after it. The scene is in black and white with what sounds like the screeching of a tram, and the only “light” we have exploring this part of the base is pointed towards the ground. Meanwhile, there is another scene overlayed on top of it; it’s hard to make out, but there is a light and a part of a wall which quickly gets distorted by a disturbance on the water’s surface. Although there are muffled voices, there is no discernible dialogue throughout the film; what once was a foundation used to study the Arctic Ocean is now an echo of the past.

By using a decommissioned NATO base, it shows us that humans are responsible for maintaining the transgressions against nature that we call machinery/industrialization, which we use to explore and learn about the ocean. Maintaining them means actively protecting it from the forces of nature, such as erosion and invasive species, and that also means we have to exploit the resources given to us to maintain them. Without someone to look after these machines, nature will ultimately come back to reclaim them, reincorporating them as another part of nature. That is why you often see plants growing inside abandoned buildings and theme parks; man-made creations are temporary, nature is inevitable.