Type: Special screening

Directed by: Pablo Berger
Country: Spain
Duration: 1h 42m
Subtitles: English

AI & Human. Who Owns the Truth? is a unique showcase taking up the Ars Electronica festival theme of 2023. It approaches topical disputes of our time, from data ownership and ethics of data harvesting, to authorship in the age of AI, love in time of crypto, deepfakes and image credibility. Using computer vision and machine learning, Soft Evidence is a series of filmic deepfakes created in classic cinema style. Decoding Bias imagines a therapy for AIs helping them to emancipate themselves from discriminatory algorithms. LoveCounter invites users to an “emotional autonomous region” where they can escape from the omnipresence of big data and manage their own digital footprints. The bizarre images from Planets and Robots are entirely generated by AI, yet animated by humans, showing what it amounts to when humans and AIs are equal partners in the creative process.

Program:

Soft Evidence, Operator (US/DE), 4’

Decoding Bias, Theresa Reiwer (DE), 31’

LoveCounter, Ruini Shi (CN), 5’

Planets and Robots, Antanas Skučas (LT) & Julius Zubavičius (LT), 6’

About the collab:

The 2023 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a diverse showcase that invites spectators to discover current artistic productions in the field of digital animation. The selection has been mostly compiled of the submissions at Prix Ars Electronica 2023, which shifted its focus this year from Computer Animation to the landscape of New Animation Art. Several exciting programs give witness to the diversity of this renewed category, not only in terms of storytelling techniques, conceptual explorations and technological innovation, but also in terms of their commitment to social change and new political imaginaries.

From the 1,120 submissions, around 30 projects were selected for Ars Electronica Animation Festival, featuring a broad spectrum of styles and techniques: AI-generated images, cinematic deepfakes, hybrids between games and animations, animated documentaries and experimental-abstract works. This diverse selection invites new ways of thinking about how we experience the digital-virtual-real world we live in.

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival ON TOUR, organized by Ars Electronica in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, comprises five of the festival programs: Electronic Theatre, featuring works honored by the Prix Ars Electronica jury, Austrian Panorama, highlighting current works of local artists, Young Animations featuring shorts from the Prix Ars Electronica’s u19-create your world category, and two thematic compilations titled AI & Human and Data, Bodies Space.

Austrian Panorama highlights recent animation works of local artists. Cave Painting, Not Really Now Not Anymore and The Great Tree Piece offer a meditative-poetic glimpse at more than human worlds, in which the organic and the digital are inseparably intertwined. Nature is neither pure, nor standing as a graspable whole in front of our gaze. It is rather fragmented and densely filled with infinitesimal details which reach beyond human perception. Animation becomes a tool for staging different perceptual calibrations, zooming between different proximities exceeding the human gaze, and redefining notions of physicality and abstraction, natural and synthetic. Internet Gaga and Shroomsday complement the selection with a humorous and ironic take on our contemporary times.

Program:

Cave Painting, Siegfried A. Fruhauf (AT), 14’ Internet Gaga, Reinhold Bidner (AT), 2’

The Great Tree Piece, Claudia Larcher (AT), 10’

Shroomsday, Rita Weiss, Alessa Wolfram, Daniel Denzer, Marius Oelsch (AT), 3’

Not Really Now Not Anymore, Herwig Scherabon (AT/DE), 8’

About the collab:

The 2023 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a diverse showcase that invites spectators to discover current artistic productions in the field of digital animation. The selection has been mostly compiled of the submissions at Prix Ars Electronica 2023, which shifted its focus this year from Computer Animation to the landscape of New Animation Art. Several exciting programs give witness to the diversity of this renewed category, not only in terms of storytelling techniques, conceptual explorations and technological innovation, but also in terms of their commitment to social change and new political imaginaries.

From the 1,120 submissions, around 30 projects were selected for Ars Electronica Animation Festival, featuring a broad spectrum of styles and techniques: AI-generated images, cinematic deepfakes, hybrids between games and animations, animated documentaries and experimental-abstract works. This diverse selection invites new ways of thinking about how we experience the digital-virtual-real world we live in.

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival ON TOUR, organized by Ars Electronica in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, comprises five of the festival programs: Electronic Theatre, featuring works honored by the Prix Ars Electronica jury, Austrian Panorama, highlighting current works of local artists, Young Animations featuring shorts from the Prix Ars Electronica’s u19-create your world category, and two thematic compilations titled AI & Human and Data, Bodies Space.

Viborg Animation Festival is proud to present the VAF Artist of 2024 – Austrian artist and filmmaking collective, Total Refusal.

By upcycling AAA video games like Red Dead Redemption, Battlefield and Grand Theft Auto, the self-proclaimed pseudo-Marxist media guerrilla group aims to reveal the political apparatus beyond the glossy and hyperreal textures of this media. Through in-game performances, exhibitions and Machinima short films Total Refusal challenges the game design put forward by game producers and industry.

The shortfilm selection is a thought-provoking experience that takes the viewer of a journey through well-know games and cityscapes but changes the perspective and narrative.

This year’s VAF Artist – Total Refusal – is a self proclaimed pseudo-marxist artist collective from Austria, taking a new spin on wellknown games such as Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto. Through machinima short films, performances and exhibitions Total refusal challenges the classical narrative and design in a world of media, games and movies.

Total Refusal has curated this special program for VAF 2024, an exciting mix of short films created in game engines, in-game or in online communities. The film program provides eye opening documentaries and intense tales from all over the world – Russia, Cambodia, Los Angeles, and more. And find out why cops won’t fight each other in Grand Theft Auto

Kom med til eksklusiv premiere på “Hullet i Hækken” – en ny sjove animationsserie, der snart kommer på DR’s FredagsTamTam. Her kan du møde skaberne og holdet bag serien, og være nogle af de allerførste i verden til at se “Hullet i Hækken”. Serien får premiere på FredagsTamTam og Ramasjang på DR til November 2024.

Gennem hullet i hækken venter der masser af sjov, når vennerne Flora og Lars løser utrolige problemer i De Endeløse Skove. Kom med til et magisk sted fuld af eventyr! Hullet i hækken er en eventyrlig og sjov serie for de 4-8 årige og deres familier. Visningen foregår på dansk. Efter premieren vil der være mulighed for at møde skaberne.

“Hullet i Hækken” er produceret af produktionsselskaberne Tall and Small, Snowcloud Films, Vi Glæder Os Preben og Nørlum Entertainment.

Eventet præsenteres i samarbejde med produktionsselskaberne, Den Vestdanske Filmpulje og Viborg Kommune.

Event in danish
No subtitles

Data, Bodies, Space shows an intriguing mix of different animation art practices, dealing with the “glitches” of our digitality-virtuality-reality condition. The selected shorts fast-forward to a future which is fascinating and frightening at the same time. In The Needlecast Rhapsody we witness a technology that can upload humans to distant locations in the galaxy. Moirai–Thread of Life also shows a journey to different cosmic dimensions and touches on quantum physics to explain notions of fate. Posthuman Hospital and My Mind As/Is Your Memory, My Body As/Is Your Substance take one to a nightmarish posthuman dystopia, whereas Rehousing Technosphere gives a more hopeful look into a new planetary ecology in a more-than-human future in which the digital is omnipresent yet endued with haptic and sensual properties. La Limite est une facade depicts a mesmerizing journey of fluidity and metamorphosis with a poetic approach, whereas CIRCVS MAXIMVS and Interchange feature a humorous take on virtual, computer-animated worlds and their relationship with the “real” world, highlighting the entanglements of power and control.

Program:

The Needlecast Rhapsody, Jonathan Armour (IE), 6’

Moirai – Thread of Life, Ina Conradi (US/SG) und Mark Chavez (US), 6’

The Posthuman Hospital, Junha Kim (KR), 7’

My Mind As/Is Your Memory, My Body As/Is Your Substance, Jieyuan Huang (CN/AT/DE), 3’

Rehousing Technosphere, Wang & Söderström (SWE), 6’

La Limite est une facade, Dorian Rigal Minuit (FR), 7’

CIRCVS MAXIMVS, Maxime Chudeau (FR), 3’

Interchange, Ryotaro Sato (JP), 8’

About the collab:

The 2023 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a diverse showcase that invites spectators to discover current artistic productions in the field of digital animation. The selection has been mostly compiled of the submissions at Prix Ars Electronica 2023, which shifted its focus this year from Computer Animation to the landscape of New Animation Art. Several exciting programs give witness to the diversity of this renewed category, not only in terms of storytelling techniques, conceptual explorations and technological innovation, but also in terms of their commitment to social change and new political imaginaries.

From the 1,120 submissions, around 30 projects were selected for Ars Electronica Animation Festival, featuring a broad spectrum of styles and techniques: AI-generated images, cinematic deepfakes, hybrids between games and animations, animated documentaries and experimental-abstract works. This diverse selection invites new ways of thinking about how we experience the digital-virtual-real world we live in.

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival ON TOUR, organized by Ars Electronica in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, comprises five of the festival programs: Electronic Theatre, featuring works honored by the Prix Ars Electronica jury, Austrian Panorama, highlighting current works of local artists, Young Animations featuring shorts from the Prix Ars Electronica’s u19-create your world category, and two thematic compilations titled AI & Human and Data, Bodies Space.

Electronic Theatre is the annual best-of program, a compilation of five outstanding animations chosen by the Prix jury from the submitted works in the “New Animation Art” category. It is a diverse showcase engaging new ways of thinking about how we experience the digital-virtualreal world we live in. Combining fantasy, erotica and body horror, IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS follows an ambiguous hero undergoing numerous metamorphoses beyond conventional masculinities of game avatars. In Delivery Dancer’s Sphere, another hero, a female platform delivery driver, rushes with the speed of light through a labyrinth of endless paths, sliding into a parallel time and space. GLITCHBODIES uses video game aesthetics to introduce us to a mesmerizing group of characters with diverse bodies and minds. Lebensraum addresses contemporary problems such as overpopulation, the destruction of our living space and the steady rise in sea levels with a humorous approach. Similarly, FuneralPlay speculates on a future in which users can choose between erasing their electronic footprint after death or uploading it to virtual heaven, published on blockchain.

About Ars Electronica

The 2023 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a diverse showcase that invites spectators to discover current artistic productions in the field of digital animation. The selection has been mostly compiled of the submissions at Prix Ars Electronica 2023, which shifted its focus this year from Computer Animation to the landscape of New Animation Art. Several exciting programs give witness to the diversity of this renewed category, not only in terms of storytelling techniques, conceptual explorations and technological innovation, but also in terms of their commitment to social change and new political imaginaries.
From the 1,120 submissions, around 30 projects were selected for Ars Electronica Animation Festival, featuring a broad spectrum of styles and techniques: AI-generated images, cinematic deepfakes, hybrids between games and animations, animated documentaries and experimental-abstract works. This diverse selection invites new ways of thinking about how we experience the digital-virtual-real world we live in.

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival ON TOUR, organized by Ars Electronica in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, comprises five of the festival programs: Electronic Theatre, featuring works honored by the Prix Ars Electronica jury, Austrian Panorama, highlighting current works of local artists, Young Animations featuring shorts from the Prix Ars Electronica’s u19-create your world category, and two thematic compilations titled AI & Human and Data, Bodies Space.

Kom med til denne ekslusive premiere på DR’s nye spændende serie for de aller mindste, Sandkassen

Vær nogle af de allerførste i verden til at se Sandkassen. Serien får premiere på Minisjang til November 2024. Efter filmvisningen er der mulighed for at komme til at tegne med seriens skaber, Carl Quist-Møller

Sandkassen er en animeret serie målrettet 1-3 årige børn om at være søskende og om leg og fantasi fortalt gennem søskendeparret Bror på 2 år og Marie på 4 år. Med små, musikalske og humoristiske fortællinger fra Sandkassen, erfarer Bror og Marie igen og igen, at det er godt at være sig selv, men dobbelt så godt at være to. Vi er alle forskellige, og netop derfor har vi brug for hinanden. Og fordi de to søskende er udstyret med en legende og nysgerrig tilgang til livet, ender de altid med at finde sammen og få mere end de havde, da de var alene. Enten i form af en bedre leg, en større glæde eller et bedre resultat.
Visningen foregår på dansk.

Katrin Quist-Møller producerer for Made by us. Selskabet har bl.a. lavet ’John Dillermand’, ’Motor Mille’ og ’Rainbow’. Carl Quist-Møller står for instruktion, manuskript, design og komposition. Han står bl.a. bag ’Jungledyret Hugo’ og ’Be Bob The Bee’.

Eventet præsenteres i samarbejde med Made by Us og Vestdanske Filmpulje

This event is in danish

Subtitles: none

Somewhere on the Internet, there is a space of 250 square kilometers in which individuals gather in community to simulate a survivalist fiction. Under the guise of avatars, a film crew enters this place and makes contact with players. Who are these inhabitants? Are they actually playing?

Directed by: Ekiem Barbier
Country: France
Duration: 1h 36m
Language: English/French
Subtitles: English

A special screening showcasing the 2024 VAF short film winners