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People enjoy my company

Frank Sweeney

2021 00:17:35 IrelandEnglishColorStereo4:3Video

Description

People enjoy my company connects the privatisation of telecommunications with techno-optimism, euphoria and online communication in the lead-up to the millennium.

The film explores the privatisation of the Irish state-owned telecommunications company Telecom Éireann from the viewpoint of shareholders communicating on early online forums. The event is contextualised within ideologies of technological emancipation in the pre-millennium period.

Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland with exhibition funding from Brightening Air. The development was funded by a Rapid Residency Award from Science Gallery Dublin.

About Frank Sweeney

Frank Sweeney is a research-based artist living in Dublin. He uses found material to approach questions of collective memory, experience and identity. Sweeney explores the historical relationship between media technologies and collective imaginaries, engaging with modes of community memory alongside footage from state archives. 

Sweeney's recent work includes Few Can See (winner of the Tiger Shorts Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Special Mention at Filmadrid Awards, commissioned by EVA

International - Ireland’s Biennial), People enjoy my company (IMMA 2021-22, Transmediale Berlin, BFI Southbank LSFF 2022) and Made Ground (in collaboration with Eva Richardson McCrea, Temple Bar Gallery 2021, purchased for the Arts Council Collection in 2021). Sweeney's recent awards include Best Documentary at LUFF Switzerland, the Arts Council's Next Generation Award, aemi+Sirius Film Commission 2022 & a 3 Year Studio at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.