Mandatory Training

A short socially-critical mosaic shot on 16mm film explores how much the way of thinking has changed in Western society in the past few decades, wondering whether equality and diversity are a matter of course, or whether they are still just meaningless words. Patrick Tarrant’s films juxtapose excerpts from white magazines from the past century and machine voice-over segments of an online learning module on equality, inclusion and diversity for present-day employees. "Mandatory Training is a slightly ornery reaction to being forced to complete computer-based training and tests on matters that range from the banal to the ideological. For better or worse, if you answer wrongly on a question relating to race or gender, for example, you can, as the module explains, keep repeating the test until you pass."