This programme offers a unique perspective on animation, as it explores innovative and experimental techniques that go beyond traditional storytelling methods. With a focus on creating a deeper and more sensory experience, the programme aligns with the principles of expanded cinema, which aim to expand the boundaries of cinema to incorporate other art forms. The works featured in the programme utilise new methodologies and practices, such as real-time engines, motion-capture, machine learning, algorithmic animation, glitch and hyperrealistic materials. It encourages audiences to experience the physical presence of animation, and to accept it as something that transcends reality.
Curated by: Bartosh Polonski
2 min / 2022 / Germany
What happens when AI becomes the creator? How can human creativity and machine-made output feed each other? Curious about co-creating with AI, we initiated the ‘AI sculpting process’.
Creative Direction: Cedric Kiefer Production: Tobias Ziegler Company: Onformative
3 min / 2022 / USA
A simulated city crowd lives in total ignorance of their condition, until their creator suddenly manifests itself… This short animation mirrors our socio-technological condition on to a simulated crowd that acts in a way that's strangely similar to us. But the real focus of this film is about who controls the cursor and rigs the simulation. As viewers, we are first in this unsettling position as a spectator/demiurge until a character from the simulation reacts and shifts the power dynamics of the virtual world... or do they ? Are you the cursor, or the dummy ?"
Created by Maxime Chudeau
3 min / 2022 / USA
In its final moments, a computer bears witness to a surreal spectacle. Within its hallucinations, there are real installations enacting the computer's functionalities.
'The Epilogue of a Computer' is a speculative film exploring the memories of a moribund computer through a series of nested scenarios, each one part of a whole world whose computational concepts are conveyed through phygital installations. In addition to 2D motion graphics, 3D kinetic movements and bespoke camera animations, there is a layer of neural poetry generated by AI, constituting the monologue of this computer.
Created by Nix Liu Xin, Aria Xiying Bao, Clara Mu He
4 min / 2022 / Japan
All living things are born and die. Water flows and never returns. The money you have may one day be gone. However, you might become friends with someone who was your enemy. Everything changes and will never be the same. Even these ideas might be changed, just in a moment.
Created by Hideki Inaba
FLOW series NFT superrare.com/artwork-v2/flow-30097
6 min / 2022 / Spain, France
'Fragile Memories' is a video art series that explores the ephemeral nature of dance as a powerful metaphor for the way in which our memories are formed, distorted and erased.
Human memories are not fixed and unchanging. Every time we recall a memory, our brain reconstructs and reinterprets it, a process called 'memory reconsolidation'. This process not only influences how we remember, but also has a significant impact on the authenticity of our recollections. The very act of remembering something can alter, modify or even erase parts of that memory. These art pieces embrace the fragility, uncertainty and flexibility inherent to our perceptions of the past, to highlight the delicate balance between preserving and transforming our personal experiences.
Created by Irina Angles and Dr Formalyst
2 min / 2022 / France
Welcome to the world of PLSTC, an undersea dystopia that submerges you in the disturbing reality of plastic pollution. Through a series of graphically AI-generated and hand-composited images, this animated film confronts you with the devastating consequences of our habits on marine life, and leaves you gasping for breath.
Created by Laen Sanches
6 min / 2022 / Denmark
This speculative animated film takes place on Earth in the distant future. Playing with the tone and structure of a nature documentary, it offers glimpses into how life forms adapt to a new planetary ecology.
Created by Wang & Söderström Sound & VO: Samad Boughalam, CDXQ Studio Typeface: 'Diagonal Grotesk', Kanon Foundry
2 min / 2022 / Spain
Flow is a journey inspired by the beauty of nature, with a focus on the interplay between water and vegetation. Flowers fall like waterfalls, and vegetation flows like a spring. Even the waves sprout in the form of flowers. Both elements have always been interconnected since time immemorial, and are vital to each other’s survival. They mimic each other's movements in mesmerising ways.
Created by Six&Five
2 min / 2022 / UK
Using a newer mix of techniques – trying to get some feeling in.
Created by Theo Tagholm
2 min / 2022 / USA
'Welcome to Synth' is an introduction to the creative possibilities of synthesisers.
EP/Creative Director: Seth Eckert Producer: Janet Tousseau, Casey Emmerling, Andrew Anderson, Samantha Rinebold, David Roux Company: The Furrow
3 min / 2022 / France
'The Rise of C' is a dreamlike experimental video that rocks us smoothly through circular motions.
Created by Thomas Blanchard Produced by Thomas Blanchard, Paul Mignot and Léa Morel
2023 / 5 min / France, USA
Following a father and son as they journey through an intricate labyrinth of memories, this film explores the relationship between memory, time and identity. It uses an advanced generative open-source AI model called Stable Diffusion to achieve its animated styling. Unlike the warped images often attained through early AI technology, Tierney and Pierre Zandrowicz captured and processed all the footage used with an iPhone, enabling the manipulated visuals to feel intimate and decidedly ‘human’.
Directors: Pierre Zandrowicz, Matthew Tierney Companies: Atlas V, Pressman Film