Industrious Dreams of a Forgotten Past explores a derelict potato starch factory in Xinshi, southern Taiwan. The factory closed down due to the industrial development within the manufacturing sector making more traditional methods of production obsolete. Though the factory has been closed for 20 years and its rustic structure in constant decline, the owners of this property are waiting for a more profitable future and hoping for further urban development of condos and commercial buildings in this town.  In this video, the structure becomes poetically activated by the superimposition of antique drawings from machinery manuals used in traditional starch manufacturing.

The video looks at the decline of the manufacturing factory, once part of the industrial revolution and narratives of technological progress.  It also points to the moments of failure within a capitalist system and the decline of economic systems.  Today, the factory stands as a monument of a forgotten past.