Author: gibaster

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program 2022

The Stream XII

Hiroya Sakurai
Born in Yokohama, Japan in 1958.
Professor, Seian University of Art and Design.
Sakurai’s work can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and J.Paul Getty Trust.
Sakurai was awarded at “35th Asolo Art Film Festival (2016)”, Italy, “39th Tokyo Video Festival”, “18th FILE 2017 “, São Paulo (2017) and “56th Ann Arbor Film Festival” (2018).
Exhibitions include “4th Sydney Biennale (1982),”62nd Melbourne International Film Festival”(2013),”58th San Francisco International Film Festival” (2015) and “24th Rhode Island International Film Festival”(2020)
SYNOPSIS
In the artificial environment of the paddy field, water—an element of nature—follows the rules of the artificial. As a result, nature is made abstract, giving rise to a new form of beauty distinct from the natural state. I have expressed “stream” as a symbiotic cooperation between humans and nature.
For the twelfth film in the series “The Stream”, I did not limit the stream to liquids, but extended it to include the air.

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program 2022

Blue Curtain

Philipp Ramspeck
Born 1977 in Zell am See, grown up in Zurich
1990-1996 Highschool in Zurich
1999 studies in Film directing at the Filmakademie Vienna
1999-2001 stays in Berlin and Vienna as an upcoming filmmaker
2002-2013 independent filmmaker in Zurich and sidejob as a night porter in the Hotel Leoneck in Zurich
2009-2014 participation in diverse commissionary films as cinematographer and editor
since 2014 exclusively independent filmmaker
Filmography (Selection):
1992 “Herr Wächter” shortfilm, (5 min.)
1995 “Au Du Gody” shortfilm, (33 min.)
1996 “I And The Dinosaur”, shortfilm (22 min.)
1998 “Ein kurzer Film mit Lilly”, shortfilm (10 min.)
2004 “Blut aus Hollywood”, experimental film (4 min.)
2008 “Kleiner Sonntag”, feature film (69 min.), Filmstock International Film Festival 2008; honoured with the Max-Ophüls-Award: Award of the studentjury 2009
2014 “243-Ein stiller Mann”, experimental film (20 min.), Hamburg International Short Film Festival 2015; Film Festival Münster 2015
2015 “Metal Laser City (A Cinepoem)”, animation film (13 min.), Videoex International Experimental Film & Video Festival 2016; Hamburg International Short Film Festival 2016; Euro Film Festival 2016 (Preis: Best Experimental Animation Film); Moscow International Experimental Film Festival 2016; Jornadas de Reapropriación 2016, Mexico City; CineAutopsia/Bogotá Experimental Film Festival 2017 (Lobende Erwähnung der Jury); Haverhill Experimental Film Festival 2017; Sacalacalaca International Filmfestival of Horror & Sci-Fi (Winner 1st Place Experimental Category)
2018: “Frankenstein”, feature film (85 min.) mit Noemi Amadori
2019 “Loosin’ It”, short film (33 min.) (In Postproduktion)
2020: “Yello – Spinning my mind” Videoclip for the Swiss group Yello. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z30RcdZq_sE
SYNOPSIS
A brief nightmarish visit to an invisible factory of the inner mind.
(Stop-Motion and Light Painting)

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program 2022

Snowshine

Barbara Peikert
Baraba-pe, born and raised in Switzerland, is a self-producer, filmmaker, photographer and sound artist. She currently works in her film studio Atelier a./f. as director and as founder of the art theory of “astrazione fiction”. The fields of interest of experimental and animated film focus on the chromatic flow, abstract fiction, holography, photography, light and sound effects enrich the aesthetic perception. She holds a Master in Visual Arts and Aesthetics from the Universities Paris 1+8 and Lighting Design from the Università di Sapienza di Roma and ENSAD Paris.
Snowshine, 2020 (2021 World Premiere), MI DI WORM no.10, 2018, Periplaneta and AF_SO_MONT_NB, 2019, have so far participated in various international film festivals and have been shown in China, Switzerland, US, Argentina, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Canada, Greece, Italy, Iran, Belgium, Germany, England, France, Slovakia, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Bosnia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Serbia, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, Netherlands, Panama, Bolivia, Ukraine, Indonesia and Georgia. Snowshine follows more than 10 short films with a strong background in abstract fictional genres, digital sound and fictive light installations.
Filmography
Staging with RGB lighting effects – geometric shapes flow:
2020 Snowshine, in progress AF_EINSTRAHLER (Radiator) 10’, AF_WRACK 13’; HEXA SEXTA 16’; Bille Balle (BALL BALLOON) 190“; EINäuger 10′
Cartoons with 2D Animation+3D illusions templates, color, Stereo:
2019 Periplaneta, 6’07; 2018 MI DI WORM no. 10, 1′; MI DI WORM no. 1-19 ; AF_VOLVERSTOI no.1-65 Space and time axis model the sequence of the images and stage the discolored color flow
2019 AF_SOMONT_NB, 135’’; AF_SO_WAL, 4’; AF_SO-RO, 4’37’’
Staging with RGB flow lighting effects and geometric shapes (year of shooting France 2005): AF_ST-TIC_TAC; AF_SAGOMA, 25’’
Early Experimental films of astrazione-fiction
2012 A-SOL_TIC, 2010 WRACK_CUBE, 10’; 2008 Blue-TUONO, 15’; CA-lunatic, 4’ ; Compilation Eclat/Ecran 2004
SYNOPSIS
The protagonist Pluto-n flits across the snowy landscapes as a shadow actor. A red dot lets the aliens know that Pluto-n is on a unique mission in search of wishes. He is torn between pursuing his mission and simultaneously standing up for his natural surroundings, which he sees as his point of light. Identifying himself as a red dot hacker, Pluto-n goes to a ghost turn under the snow, under a cabin, and he discovers the shocking truth – the life he knows is the elaboration of a magical cyber intelligence. The film speeds up even more when a team of ghost shadow Pluto-n researchers travel through red holes in space to ensure the survival of scripts and patterns that hold a lot of mystery.

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program 2022

Shivering wall

Tseng Yu Chin
Tseng Yu Chin
Born in 1978
Video Artist, Director, Photographer, Curator
Now based in Berlin/Amsterdam/Paris
Outstanding youth artist of the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan
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2007 Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
2008 CCAA Best Young Artist of Chinese Contemporary Art Awards
2021 Best Experimental Film,Roma Short Film Festival,Rome,Italy
2021 The first prize,15th ZUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival-ON THE EDGE-
experiment and video- art competition,Bialystok,Poland
2021 15th edition of Arte Laguna Prize, final list
2020 14th edition of Arte Laguna Prize, Special prize
2020 Lumen Prize finalist , London, United Kingdom
2020 Golden Cow winner at the GSTAADfilm Festival,Switzerland
2020 Selected by Loops.Expanded 2020 International,Best Sixteen ArtWork of the Year
2020 34th Image Forum Festival “East Asian Experimental Competition” finalist,Tokyo, Japan
2020 Best Experimental Short,Amsterdam Independent Film Festival.Amsterdam,Netherlands
2020 Art or Experimental Short,Dreamers of Dreams Film Festival,London,United Kingdom
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Wild Out Season international Video Festival Curator (Taiwan Ministry of Culture Grant)
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Education
Graduate Institute of Arts and Technology,M.F.A.Program,
Taipei National University of the Arts
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Honorable Mention
2th Split Videoart Festival Special Mention,Split,Croatia,2021
New Wave Short Film Festival Honorable Mention Of Experimental Film,Munich,Germany,2021
New York Tri-State International Film Festival, United States,2021
Los Angeles experimental forum film festival, United States,2020
LA Underground Film Forum (LAUFF), United States,2020
Hollywood New Directors Film Festival , Los Angeles, United States,2020
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Residency
2022 PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program,Leipzig,Germany
2021 scholarship association Otte1- Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus awards,Eckernförde,Germany
2021 YUI-PORT Artist in Residence “Autonomous Activity Program Winter”,Japan Niigata-shi
2010 La Cite internationale des Arts International Artist Residency Program,Paris,France
2008 Location One International Artist Residency Program ,New York,USA
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Awards
2021 Best Experimental Film,Semi-Finalists,Lonely Wolf: London International Film Festival,United Kingdom
2021 Best Zero/Low-Budget Film,Semi-Finalists,Lonely Wolf: London International Film Festival,United Kingdom
2021 HONORARY MENTIONS,RIFF: R.E.D. INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, NORWAY
2021 The first prize,15th ZUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival-ON THE EDGE-experiment and video-art competition,Bialystok,Poland
2021 2th Split Videoart Festival Special Mention,Split,Croatia
2021 New York Tri-State International Film Festival Honorable Mention Of Experimental Film
2021 New Wave Short Film Festival Honorable Mention Of Experimental Film,Munich, Germany
2021 Semifinalist for the Madrid edition of the 4th FilmArte Festival,Madrid,Spain
2021 Best Experimental Film,Roma Short Film Festival,Rome,Italy
2021 New York World Film Festival.Nominee finalist,New York,United States
2021 Best Experimental Short,Tokyo International Short Film Festival ,Tokyo, Japan
2021 15th edition of Arte Laguna Prize, Finalist
2021 International Video Art Festival Now & After competition, Finalist, Moscow, Russia
2020 Golden Cow Award winner at the GSTAADfilm Festival, Switzerland
2020 Best Experimental Short,Amsterdam Independent Film Festival 2020, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2020 Best Art or Experimental Short,Dreamers of Dreams Film Festival, London, United Kingdom
2020 Lumen Prize finalist, London, United Kingdom
2020 Selected by Loops.Expanded 2020 International, Best Sixteen ArtWork of the Year
2020 14th edition of Arte Laguna Prize, SPECIAL PRIZE
2020 34th Image Forum Festival “East Asian Experimental Competition”, Finalist, Tokyo, Japan
2020 32 Girona Film Festival (GFF) ,final list, Girona, Spain
2020 Hollywood New Directors Honorable Mention, Los Angeles, USA
2020 LA Underground Film Forum (LAUFF) Honorable Mention, Los Angeles, USA
2020 Los Angeles Experimental forum festival Honorable Mention, Los ANgeles, USA
2019 South Film and Arts Academy Festival (SFAAF) – Best Art Video, Chile
2012 Heineken (Dream Space) Art Award Prize Winning, Taipei, Taiwan
2010 <Crescendo Prelude > Tseng Yu ching solo exhibition Taishin art award, Taiwan
2008 CCAA Best Young Artist of Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Shanghai, Beijing, China
2007 12th Documenta Kassel, Germany
2007 “Acid Tongue Tseng Yu ching solo exhibition” Taishin art award, Taiwan
2007 Yageo Tech-Art Award Prize Winning, Taiwan
2006 “Un_let out the part” Taipei Digital Art Festival Prize Winning, Taiwan
2006 “oxy_ Tseng Yu ching solo exhibition ” Taishin art award Final nominate, Taiwan
2005 “I despise presumptions” S-AND Cultural Foundation Prize Winning, Taiwan
2005 “I’m Leaving”10th Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards Asian New Force Finalist
2004 “Who’s listening ?” Taipei Art Award Prize Winning
2004 “Projection and Re_ection During That Time” Spring Film Festival, Taiwan
2002 “Projection and Reflection During That Time” Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan
SYNOPSIS
it could be 1 single-channel or 4 single-channel，depand on for screening.
It’s a self-examined process for assess your present time. In the regular bass sound surround space, you could find there’s a few teenagers are having a madness house party, and there’s a girl awake but exhausted for being there. There’s a slightly smog or light gently but regularly move in the space. The smog represented a spiritual inside a space. It could be the spiritual from you or others. It’s like you are just in a conference or a party and suddenly there’s something pull your spirit away from your body. It makes you look at yourself in a different angle, but you’re still in the group. What would you do and what’s the connection between you and others?
If the smog was another you – a same existence from another world to look at your body in this group full of chaos and desired. However, there’s nothing you can changed as a member in this group. All you can do silently look down at your body, and move away quietly.
If the smog wasn’t you, it was an outsider of this whole group of people. You are paralysed to make any specific change in the group although your body still in there. What you should do and what would you do? You are just upon there and silently away from all these scenes made by human being.
There’s certainly no right or wrong answer for this topic. This just point out the way how you look at yourself. It’s a discussion about the existence of yourself. What makes you becomes the present existence and what’s track you would leave in your life.

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program 2022

Put Your Mask Back On

Johann Calderón
Johann Calderón is a german painter / media designer / video artist.
He studied Visual Communication at the HS Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf Germany with the main focus on Fine Arts, Video, Photography & Graphic Design. He lives and works in Córdoba, Argentina.
Filmography:
Nightsick (Experimental Short; B/W), German05 or the Dog and the small Prices (Experimental Short; B/W), Miseria (Experimental Short; B/W), Ovulation (Experimental Short Animation; B/W), Cleansing Process (Experimental Short; B/W), Carnations (Experimental Short Animation; Color), Between Borders (Short Documentary; Color), Three Drops of Water and a Dragonfly (Short Documentary, VideoArt, Color), Silver (Experimental Short Animation; Color), Simplon (Video Art; Color), A Day In The Life Of Frusnuggels Penk (Experimental / Video Art, Color), Put Your Mask Back On (Video Art; B/W & Color), Burn (Video Art, B/W & Color)
Exhibitions / Past Film Festivals:
Intervals Festival (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), Barcelona Indie Filmmaker Festival (Barcelona, Spain), MicroActs – Artist Film Screening (London, United Kingdom), Non-Syntax Experimental Image Festival (Tokyo / Kyoto / Hakata-ku, Japan), Insomnia International Animation Film Festival (Moscow, Russia), Festival de Fenacir (Rio Verde, México), MUTA Festival Internacional de Apropiación Audiovisual (Lima, Peru), MalatestaShort Film Festival „All you can see“ (Cesena, Italy), Experimental Film Festival (Barcelona, Spain), Videotitlán Festival de Video (Callao, Peru), KinoDrome: International Motion Picture & Screenplay Festival (Cleveland / Ohio, United States), Experimental Superstars (Novi Sad, Serbia), Garofano Rosso Film Festival (Avezzano, Italy), Façade Video Festival (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), Pune Short Film Festival (Pune, India), Make Art Not Fear (Porto, Portugal), ULTRAcinema Cine Experimental y de Found Footage (Tepoztlán, Mexico), Athens Digital Arts Festival | Tactus (Athens, Greece), Crossings Poetic International Film Festival (Milwaukee, United States), VASTLab Experimental (Los Angeles, United Sates), Intervalli Festival Cinema (Padova, Italy), International Moving Film Festival (Chorramschahr, Iran), MikroFAF – International Festival of DIY and Independent Short Film (Belgrade, Serbia), Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid (Madrid, Spain), Film Fest Kodama Environmental Short Film Festival (Glasgow, United Kingdom / Buenos Aires, Argentina), UNDER_the_RADAR (Vienna, Austria), XPRMNTL Anti-Film Festival (London, United Kingdom), Festival Transterritorial de Cine Underground (Buenos Aires / Tigre / Quilmes, Argentina, Medellin, Colombia), Interface Video Art Festival (Zagreb, Croatia), Le Prince International Film Festival (Caracas, Venezuela), Dante Sunset Film Fest (Cartagena, Colombia), Moinho Cine Fest (Porto, Portugal), ROFIFE Rotary International Short Film Festival (Bolu, Turkey), Fisura – International Festival of Experimental Film & Video (Mexico City, Mexico), Bizarrya Short Film Festival (Porto, Portugal), Esto Es Para Esto EIC – International Film Exhibition (Monterrey, Mexico), Sydney Underground Film Festival (Sydney, Australia), Black & White Festival Audiovisual (Porto, Portugal), Amsterdam Film eXperience (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Busho Short Film Festival (Budapest, Hungary), Independents‘ Film Festival (Tampa / Florida, United States), Peats Ridge Music and Arts Festival (Glenworth Valley, Australia), Bridge Fest Film Festival (Vancouver, Canada), ArtsFest Film Festival (Harrisburg / Pennsylvania, United States), Sound Experimental Film Festival (Laredo / Texas, United States), MUMIA World Underground Animation Festival (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), ABSTRACTA International Abstract Cinema Exhibition (Rome, Italy), Berlin Independent Film Festival (Berlin, Germany), Addis International Human Rights Film Festival (Addis Ababa / Ethiopia, Africa), Boom Festival Biennale (Idanha a Nova, Portugal), Moscow International Experimental Film Festival / Online (Moscow, Russia), Montreal Independent Film Festival / Online (Montreal, Canada), Light From Space “The Sun” Festival / Online (Chicago, United States), Hallucinea Film Festival / Online (Paris, France), Baveria3 Radio Music & Video Contest / Online (Munich, Germany), LoudSoulMusic Festival / Online (Belgrade, Serbia), Citric Signals Video Network „Micro“ / Online (Orlando / Florida, United States)
Awards:
Audience Award for OVULATION (Bridge Fest Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada), Best Short Documentary for BETWEEN BORDERS (Berlin Independent Film Festival, Berlin, Germany), Second Place for SILVER (Category “Experimental – Sound or Image Driven“, KinoDrome – International Motion Picture & Screenplay Festival, Cleveland / Ohio, United States), BEST SOUND for SILVER (Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid, Madrid, Spain)
SYNOPSIS
“Put your Mask back on” is a 2:40 min minimalistic video art piece about child / human abuse.
The action lies hidden in the background. The mother often admonishes her daughter to put the mask back on. The viewer does not hear this; only the title is representative.
In contrast to this, only the ceiling fan of the house can be seen, which is turned upside down and thus performs a funny dance. The middle part is accompanied by distorted hula music and consequently proceeds with the absurdity of this situation.
During the video, the girl can be heard several times, saying: “There are everywhere dead frogs”.
The mother doesn’t respond to her words, she seems to reject seeing the frogs.
This is an allusion to the second plague in the story of Exodus:
“This is what the great LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials. — Exodus 8:1–4”

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program 2022

The breath

Franco Cerana, Hernán Biasotti, Alejandro Magneres
Franco Cerana is a teacher, researcher and filmmaker. In 2008 he formed Tangram Cine and since that year he works as director and cinematographer. He directed the series Sin Conexión (2016) and the short film Hesperdina Express (2016). Among his cinematography works are the web series La obra de mi vida (2018), the feature films Raiders of the Lost Doll (2016) and History of the Occult (2020). He is an adjunct professor of Lighting and Camera I (FDA-UNLP) and a doctoral fellow at UNLP, where he investigates the design of the Argentine cinematographic image.
Alejandro Magneres (JANDRI) is a Multipotential, born in Bahía Blanca in 1985 and a Professor in Audiovisual Communication at the Faculty of Arts (UNLP). He works as a teacher, filmmaker, editor, photographer and inventor in the audiovisual and multimedia fields. Among his works as editor are the feature film Las Olas (2017, Natalia Dagatti) and the short films Zoe (2019, Aretha Resenido) and Quedarse en casa (2019, Luisina Anderson).
Hernan Biasotti was born in 1988 in La Plata, Argentina. He works mainly as sound designer and among his latest works are the series The Kirlian Frequency (Netflix, 2018) and the films History of the Occult (2020), Esquí (2020) and Qué será del verano (2021), the last two participating in the 2021 edition of Berlinale Forum.
SYNOPSIS
Sunset. A man dies in a sunflower field. At nightfall, his spectre returns to find the cause of his death and free himself. But the noise gets in the way.

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program 2022 specialmention2022

Useless Eaters

Ian Haig
SYNOPSIS
Mutated hackable bodies, bodies that didn’t quite work out and bodies that can no longer be classified as bodies. Drawing on the transhumanist musings of Yuval Noah Harari….humans are now hackable animals.

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program 2022

Dust

Filip Markovinović
When I was a little, my father told me that dust is formed by meteors burning when they enter our atmosphere, disintegrate, and turn into dust. For a long period of time I have been convinced that all the dust around me comes from space. I loved hitting the furniture with my hand and watching the beads move in the beam of light. Now I know that dust is made of pieces of leather, fabric, paper, soot and dirt. Dust is actually a world that is falling apart.
“Dust” is a collage-type video work created by combining personal film archives, family films shot between 1976 and 1982 and found archival material consisting mainly of raw and unedited footage, amateur cinema recordings of parts of Sombor and Novi Sad.
Using fragments of film recordings from personal archives and placing them in another context, the video represents a walk-through oneiric spaces that have been melted by the ravages of time. It is a literal decomposition, as the material I used is in very poor condition – the emulsion disintegrated or the film completely changed its appearance due to chemical processes and inadequate storage.
In that way, a time-space bridge is created that connects the past with the present time, problematizing the possibility of remembering and perceiving an objective picture of the past time.
In addition to the picture of the world in which I grew up, that world also fell apart. It can be said that it also fell apart due to carelessness and inadequate storage.
SYNOPSIS
A short experimental film created by combining personal archives and found footage. The film takes us through dreamy spaces of memory and forgotten moments from childhood.

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program 2022

I used to be a table

Nicole Hewitt, Vida Guzmić, Ivan Slipčević
Vida Guzmić is a visual artist working in video, sound and text. She completed her MA in New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2012 and completed Women’s Studies at the Center for Women’s Studies as well as the Curatorial Platform programe in 2013. Her work has been exhibited in Croatia and Europe and she has held residencies at V2_Summersessions Test Lab, V2_Institute for unstable media in Rotterdam, KulturKontakt Austria in Vienna and fellowships at WHW academy in Zagreb and Ashkal Alwan, HWP, Beirut. Her work explores the relations between objects and subjects, gendered geography and representation through screen technologies. She works both as a solo artist and in numerous collaborations and engaged practices. From 2012-2018 she has been a member of the multidisciplinary art collective Space is Tactics. She organizes numerous audio/video workshops for young women, Roma and non-Roma school children through Studio Pangolin and is part of the collective Soundspiels with Nicole Hewitt and Ivan Slipčević.
Nicole Hewitt is a visual artist working in film, video, installation, performance and text. Hewitt completed her MA in Fine Art Media at the Slade School and gained her PhD in Fine Art also at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2013. Her work has recently been concerned with memory, history and narrative as mediated through technologies of representation and preservation. She has recently completed a long tem episodic series of performance/texts ‘This woman is called Jasna’ and is now continuing her research into history and forms of archaeology in a film project Women Minor Speculations. Hewitt teaches at the New Media Department of The Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb.Lives and works in Zagreb and London.
Ivan Slipčević is a visual and sound artist working in film, photography, video and sound. Slipčević completed his MA in Cinematography at the Academy of Dramatic Art of the University of Zagreb, Croatia. He has been an active member of the Multimedia Institute MAMA in Zagreb since 2000 and started the studio for sound and image zvukbroda with Tomislav Domes. He has been involved in numerous multimedia perfromances, produced electronic video scenography at numerous festivals (Videolux, Ljubljana; media.mediteranea, Pula; Urbani Festival, Platforma 981, Sloboda stvaralaštvu, Illectric funk, Zagreb; Festival Vizualnih komunikacija, Maribor; Contact Europe, Austrija; clubtransmediale, Berlin, etc.) He has been director of photography on a number of independent productions (Deturs, Galeb Vekić, Plac, A. Hušman; Booksa this is the way step inside; K. Rubinstain, Ručak, A. Hušman; In time, Nicole Hewitt, Zagrebačke priče, I.Ramljak. M.Škobalj, Sve je povezano, Lala Raščić, Oslobođenje u 26 slika, I.Ramljak. M.Škobalj …). Slipčević teaches photography and new media technology at the Department of New Media and Animation at the Academy of Fine Art University of Zagreb. Slipčević is a member of the sound collective Soundspiels.
SYNOPSIS
The English word secretary originally was a piece of furniture for writing and hiding sensitive documents, using the idea of the secret as a trigger we imagine what Siri, Alexa, Cortana … all models of assistance dream of, speak of when unasked for support.
Inspired by the theories of Kate Crawford about the entangled past of digital and physical secretaries we are developing our research into machine learning, using algorithms and data sets to produce text and voice and our working on a Croatian voice model using Nicole Hewitt’s voice to train the machine. The texts and sounds are generated using multiple processing methods, online translations, wordnet data bases, google translate and text to speech programmes, the texts are then processed as synthesised material and further processes to produce sound. All the voices in the performance are sythesised, the images are a combination of found footage and machine learning image processing, screened on motorised and rotating screens, as well as text displays.
The project works with analogue and digital processes including dreams and the unconscious, and trying to imagine what artificial intelligence might dream of. Taking as its starting point the idea of the listening woman, the secretary both human and digital, the assistant, the digital assistant we try to give voices to the women who gave their voices to text to speech technologies. We encounter them and address them by their names, Goga, we also create our own voice models through training sets for text to speech. We produce narratives around their possible interactions.
The performance is based on blind composition, so we never know exactly what files are playing, what sounds are being created and what texts are being voiced. The sinsets we use are based on the most simple of differentiation and often result in ambiguous, frequently racist and sexist values. We work with a sentient lexicon that attaches simple positives and negatives to nouns. Newer algorithms are trying to not only produce polarised sentiments i.e. ‘panic – minus’, ‘ achieve- plus’ but are working to develop a prediction of sentiment intensity.
In deep learning Wave net examples we can hear voice models producing sounds without making language, sounding as if in a trance of their own. Depending on how a model has been trained, the model will predict the correct enunciation, tone and pitch which allows us to train a model in the future on non-linguistic voicings for example crying, moaning, laughing, mumbling. In our visuals we therefore also work with GANs, and machine learning image processing techniques as well as found footage to present ecstatic women, women unconscious, or delirious, or those who hear and see and predict, for example Joan of Arc.
What does ecstasy sound like in artificial intelligence, what does a machine hallucinate?

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program 2022

AMO

Emmanuel Gras
Emmanuel Gras turned to cinema after studying history. He joined ENS Louis-Lumière and worked as a cinematographer while making his own films. His first documentary feature, Bovines, was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the César for best documentary. Shot in the DRC, his film Makala won the Critics Week Grand Prize. His latest feature film, A People, tells the story of the Yellow Vests movement, which shook up France for an entire year.
SYNOPSIS
In a universe that looks like nothingness, two beings seem to exist only to come into contact.