A Journey into the Future: Innovative Projections in a Sci‐Fi Masterpiece [2011]
Transcript of A Journey into the Future: Innovative Projections in a Sci‐Fi Masterpiece [2011]
A Journey into the Future: Innovative Projections in a Sci‐Fi Masterpiece Tulu Toros, AIA April 26, 2011
ARCH 715 Architectural & Film
Miriam Neet, Assistant Professor
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Introduction “The mediator between brain and muscle must be the heart.” Thea von Harbou
The science fiction movie, Metropolis, is arguably one of the most iconic science fiction movies ever produced by human genius and creativity when contrasted to its synchronic contemporaries. Director, Fritz Lang, presents concepts and imagery that seem to have clearly expanded the outer limits of the imaginative universe of his time. This silent movie features a multitude of intriguing environmental, social as well as technological concepts, projected into the future of humankind as made possible by increasing use of machines and by widening proliferation of science into everyday life.
Through his movie, Lang takes us on a journey into his epic vision for the future that becomes conceivable as a result of rapid advancements in science, technology, industrialization and mechanization going into the 1920s. The movie presents a rich mixture of revolutionary ideas held together by such eternal dramas as between rich and poor, master and servant, creative and follower, nature and man, material and spirit, power and submission, and so on.
The journey also interlopes into such noble themes as human misery, social strife, suffering, struggle, injustice, unrest, revolution, destruction, retribution and reconciliation. The spectator is filled with awe at the forward looking creativity as well as dramatic aspirations in the director’s work despite the fact that literature of critiques about the movie appears to have depicted a rather mixed picture over the years.
Lang records in an interview that Metropolis was born from his first sight of the skyscrapers of New York in October 1924. “While visiting New York, I thought that it was the crossroads of multiple and confused human forces, blinded and knocking into one another, in an irresistible desire for exploitation, and living in perpetual anxiety” (Grant, 2003).
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The core message of the movie is socio‐economical: “the mediator between brain [human intellect] and muscle [human industry] must be the heart [human conscience]”, weaving the entire story to a dramatic representation at the very end. The underlying meaning for the core message can also interpreted as that the ruling class of a social structure in any civilization has to maintain a conscionable connection with the working class under in order maintain a peaceful, harmonious and socially just order.
Jenkins (1981) points out that it is a critical commonplace to read the film’s ending as a reactionary, humanist resolution of the problems raised by the film. “Fredersen, the capitalist ruler of the futuristic city, shakes hands with the workers’ foreman; the two are linked by Freder, the ruler’s son. What this signifies in terms of ‘labor relations’ is articulated by Maria, the fourth figure in this ‘family group’: ‘There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain, unless the heart acts as mediator’” (Jenkins, 1981).
Gunning (2000) notes that the class‐based nature of the societal hierarchy of is “established as the purgatorial imagery of the depths” as contrasted with “the paradisial images of the pleasure gardens and playing areas of the rulers of Metropolis…”
One of the other significant messages conveyed in the film is the real possibility of machines taking control of critical aspects of human lives even to the point of enslaving humans. The director is clearly concerned about the possibility that human fascination with use of powerful and captivating machines might ultimately reach levels where these conscienceless gadgets may start to dominate human activities and disrupt order, peace and harmony in the man‐made environment, which can only be remedied by an earnest struggle to exercise his conscience to mediate between creativity and industry.
“You remember the clocks and the man who worked in harmony with them? He should become, so to speak, part of the machine. Well, that seemed to be too symbolic, too simplistic in the evocation of what we call the evils of mechanization. …A few years ago, I had to revise my judgment at the spectacle of astronauts walking around the earth. It was the experts, they were prisoners of their space capsule, nothing else – or almost, a part of the machine that carried them…” (Grant, 2003).
From this viewpoint and perspective the following will present a brief analysis of Lang’s representation of the socio‐cultural composition of an industrialized society in the future, which will transition the discussions into a survey of a where the workers react to the increasing pressures of machines the Metropolis of such a society.
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Socio-Cultural Composition One can never successfully or completely divorce the physical, architectural and environmental design of
any society from its social drivers and cultural constructs, which ultimately shape the environs where the cultural values are expressed and social experiences are materialized. In the socio‐cultural landscape of Metropolis, the most prominent theme is the dramatic divide between the two classes i.e. the elite class of the wealthy employer Masters and the toiling laborer Workers. The audience is quickly introduced to the dynamics between the following societal players:
Masters • The Employer – John Herr Fredersen:
Landlord of the material world of Metropolis, controlling, deciding and ruling over every matter in absolute authority. Metaphorically and literally this is a grim reality of modern life in most urban areas where the makers behind critical decisions and policies often are groups of few influential individuals.
John decides for Rotwang to make the robot in likeness of Maria. He sends the robot replica among workers to sow discord and destroy confidence in Maria. As per his plan robot incites workers causing a revolt in the central power house.
• Expert & Assistants – Joseph: The loyal servant who is no more favored that workers – gets expelled upon not appropriately informing the master on the plans of workers to revolt.
• Inventor, Designer & Engineer – Rotwang: The wizard genius represents and functions as a source of creativity and innovation at the service of the dominion of the Master. As the inventor and creator of powerful technologies Rotwang symbolizes the unnaturally schizoid and blindly unconscientious human drive for innovation.
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Rotwang lives in an old house at the city center, connected to underground – “house of science”. He conceives and fashions “a machine in the image of man, that never tires or makes a mistake”. He takes side with the Master stating “now we have no more use for the workers”. Rotwang sees his invention as “the workers of the future – the machine men”
Servants • The Employees
Master Fredersen seems to have a group of specialized employees in addition to the workers for clerical, consultant and accountant functions.
• The Workers Headed by a foreman who acts as a spokesman, large crowds of laborers attend to their work under the Metropolis. They seem to merely submit to follow orders and only survive life through an utter misery. The working man and women seem to have children, families and homes underground. They are rendered in the film as living without freedom, happiness or basic human dignities.
Maria offers the Story of the Tower of Babel, which parallels the story of workers in Metropolis: Those who conceive the ambitious concept of the Tower are not able build it themselves, so
they hire thousands of laborers The toilers know nothing of the dreams who planned the tower Those who had conceived the tower didn’t concern themselves with the workers who built it
Consequently, the hymns of praise of the few became the curses of many Between the brain that plans and the hands that build there must be a mediator It is the heart that must bring about an understanding between the two
Mediators • Son of The Master – Freder:
The son of the master in Metropolis lives in the paradisial surface world high above the misery and toil of the many. He enjoys his time playing in the gardens with other charming characters. Later in the movie he takes on the role of the mediator between the Master and the Servants.
Freder notes: “It was their hands that built this city of ours…” At one point in the film, he asks a powerful question to his father: “But where do the hands belong in your scheme?”
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At the same time with Maria and workers down to the catacombs under the Worker’s City for a spiritual session. The Master, Inventor and Mediator also attend this service where Freder realizes his role between the social extremes and Master devices an evil plot.
• The Role Model – Maria: The beautiful teacher and preacher of patience, good faith and devotion for the workers underground is Maria who serves primarily to inspire everyone around her for goodness and faithful stewardship. She is also instrumental in delivering the core messages and sub‐stories in the film which evolve in support of the main flow of events.
Maria’s pivotal role in the movie is strengthened by her suffering at the hands of the merciless inventor as well as by the replication of her physical attributes as the robot.
In a sense, she takes a uniquely special place in the plot as representing two poles of extreme character simultaneously: humane good will and unconscientious ill‐will.
• Foreman – Heinrich George: The workers are headed by a foreman who acts as their spokesman. He is rough but benign character who is faithful his master and diligently dedicated to his duties.
He seems to be the only worker who can speak to the Master directly. • Robot :
The ultimate machine in the physical replica image of Maria is also a central character among those who serve as a catalyst for change.
At the Master’s command the robot initiates widespread turmoil and destruction.
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Projections into the Future The science fiction film Metropolis is not only filled with a lot of creative and inspirational messages
relating to the future but also enriched by great many extrapolations on how the man‐made environment may look and operate in times to come. Lang’s conceptual predictions are ornamented with the artful expressions of such eternal struggles as between good and evil, rich and poor, and so forth. Eisner (1977) records that Lang’s original intentions included “much more powerful visions of the evil forces loosed by the creation of the robot, but he feared his audience would not have followed him.”
Certainly a good portion of practical science and technology pictured in the movie was either non‐extant or just beginning to appear in the middle of 1920s. Yet, this film of brilliantly fictional prophecy appears to skillfully assert a variety of theoretical as well as practical innovations, which will be critically examined in the following discussions.
Ultimate Machine: Curse of Mankind
The ultimate extrapolation that Lang so boldly makes is replication of a human being as a machine, which is finally made possible by the human zeal for scientific and technological advancement. In the film the beautiful female character, Maria, gets kidnapped by the inventor and cloned under the orders of the Master primarily for evil purposes. This process successfully translates Maria’s physical features to the robot replica, whose character is rendered allusive, mischievous and evil.
Even though this particular aspiration by Lang is not yet fully materialized today, it obviously continues to make slow but steady progress, inspiring the work of a myriad of scientists. Countless concurrent advances in mechanical, electronic, biological, computer sciences and technologies that happened in the last few decades brought mankind ever closer to this ultimate goal: replicating and/or creating a human. Realization of this goal will serve the manifest triumph for science over religion, concretizing that all things in nature can be objectively observed, examined, explained and even replicated, and there is no such metaphysical author behind existence.
The religious traditions instill belief and reverence for God as the Creator and Sustainer of all creation. Skeptics and non‐believers for the most part subscribe to alternate beliefs including scientific approach as a way to critique, nullify and reject these beliefs. One of their ultimate goals is to “create” or at least replicate a human being and prove that there is no such creator but knowledge and science alone, which of course is a sinful rebellion against the ancient prophecies.
In their plot, man might even assume the place of creator for life claiming authority in immortality and destiny through science and technology. Such futuristic vision, in Lang’s Metropolis, brings nothing but crises resulting in immense destruction and catastrophe, just as prescribed in the holy books.
Beyond these ambitions, one can identify an abundance of other futuristic projections, conceptual themes as well as design elements in Lang’s vision. Focusing exclusively on the environmental design features found throughout the film the Metropolis may be further analyzed in two prominent parts: a Surface World as well as a Subsurface World.
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Surface World: Blissful Harmony
In Metropolis, the masters, the elite and the wealthy in the society both symbolically and figuratively live on those who are subservient to their supremacy and power. At the very beginning of the film the audience is promptly introduced to the surface world as being “far away from them [the workers], and as being located “High in the Heavens [in Eternal Gardens]”. This side of Metropolis definitely appears very well organized, developed and maintained, enjoying full range of natural blessings such as light, fresh air and scenery with flourishing surroundings.
Urban Design Features • Extremely compact and densely populated city fabric
This vision has certainly become a reality in most of the metropolises even earlier than Lang predicted (end of the 20th century) e.g. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.
• Gigantically scaled buildings devoid of any humane relationship to size of their users Facilitated in large part by electricity, gas and air conditioning, this projection has also become a norm for most of the metropolitan centers e.g. Philadelphia, Denver, Indianapolis, etc.
• Enormous expanses of paved public places and roads Especially with the invention of asphalt and concrete the paved surfaces in urban places quickly became a modern reality.
• Long narrow surface streets with no room for natural, green or open spaces For the most part densely populated urban areas in the existing metropolises today have indeed become examples of Lang’s vision.
• Multilevel connections, bridges and roads in the sky Even though sky bridges and connections between modern buildings are not too common there are nonetheless plenty of them in big cities such as Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, etc.
Downtown areas of modern metropolises like Denver and Minneapolis feature countless examples of pedestrian connectors and walk‐ways over public streets. Some of these can be found at number of stories above ground level.
• Busy air traffic of aircrafts and carriers Even though such busy air traffic is not permitted at such low altitudes within the cities commercialized carriers and private flight industries are now integral to the functioning of urban life very much as depicted.
• Underprivileged neighborhoods of destitute in midst of an extremely prosperous civilization Lang’s observations and reflections on the widening gaps within the socio‐economic structure of the industrialized society still prove to be true today.
Architectural Design Features • A tumultuous central building, surrounded by giant high‐rise structures
The film envisions a New Tower of Babel dominating all surroundings. Today, majority of metropolises certainly have downtown buildings where the compactness, density and intensity of environmental development are concentrated. Typically either governmental and/or commercial buildings downtown create a powerful presence,
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• Frame and glass construction designed in modern style with classical influences The centers of almost all metropolises of recent history feature modern style, frame and glass, high‐rise structures that seem “to be vertical sail[s], scintillating and very light, luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize.” (Grant, 2003)
“Lang’s vision of skyscrapers, an exaggerated dream of New York skyline, multiplied a thousandfold and divested of all reality, is splendid. It has become truly the town of the future, reaching up into the sky in luminous immensity…” (Eisner, 1977)
Interior Design Features • Spatial design
Interior spaces of the surface world generally portray spacious floor areas, generous ceiling heights, expansive windows, prestigious door sizes in simple but elegant design styles. These projections also trace closely the wealthy lifestyles of today.
• Integration of electronics The creative vision behind Metropolis predicts that the humankind will adopt the use of many electronic and mechanical devices that will make things more convenient in the future, which has unfolded as predicted.
• Monitors and displays Especially the office suite of the Master features a series of surveying and controlling devices including monitors, screens and various gadgets facilitating an impressive level of surveillance on all indoor and outdoors spaces.
• A news telegram machine Another equipment in Master’s office is what appears to resemble a telegram‐like machine, which seems to receive and print out data reported from remote sensors or sources. The Master is, hence, informed of remote happenings without leaving his office.
• Video‐telecom device Integrated into the same wall unit is what appears to be a video‐telecom device that Mr. Fredersen seems to tune by turning knobs and pulling levers. He then selects a camera for the view and activates the video as well as audio receiver‐transmitter handset to make a live video call to the foreman in central power house (HM‐2). This ingenious conception is recorded on a silent movie produced prior to invention of television or video technologies. Nevertheless, the widespread use of video call technology is still yet to materialize.
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Subsurface World: Source of Evil Potency
In Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the audience is promptly introduced to “the workers’ city” as being “far below the surface of the earth”. While the real metropolises of the modern world did not evolve to have such a significant inhabitance of underground structures or environments one can easily recognize the realization of other metaphorical allusions made in the movie such as:
People continuously working underground – as in modern coal mines, laboratories and other governmental and private institutions for scientific or industrial reasons,
Surface world of Metropolis being dependent on the energy generation taking place primarily underground – boiler and mechanical rooms today are typically located in basements where majority of utilities travel underground,
Most industrial activity or production for sustaining the surface (visible) world takes place underground (hidden from view) – the production industries that feed the needs of modern life of most developed cities are indeed drastically far away from where their products are actually consumed.
Past these primal motives Lang convincingly and dramatically articulates a series of other projections in the Metropolis of future. His brilliant vision as well as his exceptional cinematographic narration not only accurately covers many aspects of modern cities but also allude to further possibilities, which may or may not be too conscionable or desirable to contemplate for the future.
Monsters of the Underworld
At the time of accident in the power generation room Freder perceives the machinery of the subsurface world as a giant monster devouring man in large numbers. When all industry related mishaps, accidents and catastrophes of the modern era are remembered one can appreciate the truth in this analogy, which still is widely in practice today. That monster is not only lurking underground anymore but also multiplying into the atmosphere, seas, oceans and even the orbital space around the globe.
Reliance on Potent Energies • Large scale power generation
One of the most accurate extrapolations of the movie appears to be in regards to the increasing dependency of civilization on production and generation of energy. Lang’s Metropolis seems to be run primarily on electricity from steam or combustion, which very closely reflects the technologies sustaining the modern metropolises.
• Distribution of power to operate everything on the Surface In addition, the movie suggests that the entire city is fed from a central point of generation which implies a sophisticated network for transmission and distribution of power. The energy generated underground (or distant location) powers the entire city, which became and integral part of cities.
• Fragility of power network The movie clearly contemplates the fundamental weakness of such a network at the time of accidents or failure. This is indeed a critical management problem in today’s metropolises.
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• Demonic potency of energy Lang artfully articulates the precarious and probably nihilistic potentials of energy and power. The invention and applications of nuclear power would have been best examples. While there is a great promise for good inherent in these powers there is always equally great potential for evil.
Foundation of Industrious Production: Man • Unhappy and broken workers in destitute
Eisner (1977) identifies that, in the machine center, the workers “turn into hands on enormous dials, jerkily executing their mysterious work to keep the gigantic wheel moving. They are more machines than human beings – more machine than even the robot that struts toward the camera.”
• Manual labor at the heart of mechanical production As an integral piece of the machine a worker “...no longer counts as a human being” (Eisner, 1977). Grant (2003) observes Lang’s complicated psychology to fabricated by “such social upheavals as War I, the Russian revolution, post‐war Germany nihilism, and the rise and fall of Nazism, and by such personal upheavals as emigration to the U.S. in 1933”
• Social and physical deprivation of working class Symbolically depicting man as a part of the machine in Metropolis, Lang wonders “whether that was simply an unconscious manifestation of something real” (Grant, 2003).
Apocalyptic Visions
Gunning (2000) insightfully points out that the motiveless destruction of Metropolis may reflect Lang’s own vision, “an attitude found in the accounts of Lang’s own titanic efforts during the film’s production, as well as the Tower of Babel: and unparalleled energy of creation matched by and equally powerful nihilism, a desire to smash creation into shards”.
Indeed, Lang is extremely resourceful at creating dramatic dimensions and cinematographic expressions of immensely powerful scenes where physical, social or spiritual upheaval effectively turns into terror and destruction. In the latter part of the movie the spectator can identify a series of such visualizations that are unleashed after the production of replica robot, forming the impetus behind the subsequent events.
Workers’ Revolt & Confrontation against Elite
Led by the unscrupulous robot replica of Maria the workers revolt against the rules of Metropolis and cause widespread disruption and destruction in the city. This event takes the elite by total surprise and terror. The Master and his forces seem utterly ineffective in the face of the scale and speed of the incident.
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Power Outages, Fires & Floods
The riot, looting and abandonment of the potently powerful equipment lead to widespread chaos in Metropolis followed by power outages, floods, fires and destruction. These kinds of chaotic and apocalyptic scenarios are increasingly on the news nowadays in the real world.
Destruction of Rebellious Robot
After “…the workers burn the robot… the flames… consume the body…” (Jenkins, 1981). Identification, condemnation and execution of the trouble‐maker robot restores the harmony and peace in Metropolis. Retribution redeems the life of the Inventor and rescues the real Maria from further suffering.
Eternal Battle between Conscience & Innovation
In the movie, the Gothic cathedral serves as the symbolically appropriate location for the climax of the story, where, as Jenkins (1981) points out at the end of “the ensuing struggle between Freder and Rotwang, the latter is killed…” This scene may be viewed as a depiction of the struggle between the dual ends of human drive for new innovations versus the affinity to preserve and conserve the secure establishments. Lang’s film seems to convey an implied message that the conscientiously blind human drive for unbound innovation will ultimately loose the battle against human conscience in the house of the established belief and faith.
The cathedral not only serves to strengthen the religious tones of the storyline but also symbolically couches the narration of the climax in a location appropriate for the ending.
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Conclusions The movie Metropolis was a gargantuan endeavor and one of the major cinematic undertakings of all time.
The effort spanned over several years and several million dollars leaving a sizable economic dent on the entire German filming industry. There has been a long history of edits and cuts of what remains today. As Ott (1979) notes Metropolis survives “in truncated version, reduced considerably from its original length. Chaning Pollock, who supervised the editing of Metropolis for its American release, excised seven reels from the original seventeen”. Nonetheless, the movie still speaks volumes on the utterly important and increasingly relevant issues of industrialization, mechanization and modernity, even in today’s rapidly changing world.
Through Lang’s cinematic vision, this journey into the Metropolis of the future offers a brilliant narration and reflection of complex social, cultural and inspirational dynamics behind environmental change and innovation. At the core of the mix are the owners and designers with their plans and designs, which embody extraordinary responsibilities for influencing everything that happens in those environments. During this expedition continuous attempts were made in order to explicate the similarities and contradictions in the ways the contemporary metropolises compare to Lang’s visions of 1920s, specifically pointing out those features that have already materialized in the recent past validating the accuracy of these projections.
Lang explains his mixed feelings towards the film by stating, “I’ve often said that I didn’t like Metropolis because I can’t accept the leitmotif of the message in the film. It is absurd to say that the heart is the intermediary between the hands and the brain, that is to say, the employer and the employee. The problem is social and not moral” (Grant, 2003). Even though later on he identifies the same issue as “a question of economics” the film still has a myriad of other extraordinary qualities in its syntheses of moral, social, cultural, economic as well as environmental issues.
Stylistically, Metropolis offers “abundance of stylized‐symbolic ornamentation” as well as “excess of emotion”, which Eisner (1977) asserts “have to be judged by the standards of the age that produced them, along with the exaggerated styles of post‐Secession design”. However, the bottom‐line is that these gestures do add favorably to the communication of expressions and emotions in the absence of sounds or any other narration even today. Minden (2000) also recognizes Lang’s ability to effectively employ this “exaggerated, non‐naturalistic gestural vocabulary”. The silent nature of this journey immensely reinforces the dramatic effect of the film on the audience in a deeply touching way.
This film would probably have not been possible without Lang’s extraordinary vision and creativity in design of urban, architectural and interior environments. As discussed in the preceding sections, Lang’s genuine enthusiasm towards design is truly exhilarating and contagious. Equally genuine are his concerns that the aspirations behind current or future science, technology, mechanization and innovations have to be closely scrutinized at all times against foundational tenets of human consciousness, culture and civilization.
Evil purpose will feed evil actions. In doing so, it might use any possible medium and means including science, technology or religion. Likewise, good will multiply goodness.
Is it possible that science and technology could in fact deliver such indiscriminately widespread and large‐scale crisis, destruction and catastrophe to all members of human species as well as the natural environment on Earth?
Could the self‐centered quest and exploitation driven motives of the few, fueled by the blind fervor of innovative scientists seeking more control and power, really agonize great masses and annihilate unsuspecting lives in the 21st century?
And, finally, when could we expect, if ever, to see the science and technology acknowledge their own roles in the realization of the ancient prophecies that are always so easily overlooked, dismissed or rejected?
How will the human heart ultimately justify all the evil that otherwise would not have materialized?
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References Armour, R. (1977). Fritz Lang. Boston, MA: Twayne Publications.
Eisner, L. H. (1977). Fritz Lang. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Grant, B. K. (2003). Fritz Lang: Interviews. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Gunning, T. (2000). The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity. London: British Film Institute Publications.
Humphries, R. (2003). Fritz Lang: Genre and Representation in His American Films. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Jenkins, S. (1981). Fritz Lang: The Image and The Look. London: British Film Institute Publications.
Jensen, P. M. (1969). The Cinema of Fritz Lang. New York, NY: A. S. Barnes.
McGilligan, P. (1998). Fritz Lang: The Nature of The Beast. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Minden, M. (2000). Fritz Lang’s Metropolis: Cinematic Visions of Technology and Fear. Rochester, NY: Camden House.
Ott, F. (1979). The Films of Fritz Lang. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press.
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