CONNECTED – PATCHLAB FESTIVAL

 

PREMIERE ON WEDNESDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER

 

Connecting with artists who have found themselves put in a difficult situation by the pandemic, we allocate this space to show a selection of short animations and experimental video forms submitted by creators during the pandemic.

Seven works in which the authors take up topics such as space and other dimensions (Land Of The Flats, TE-R), watching on the web and being watched online (Yours, The World’s, Adam Hsieh), a pandemic that clearly exposes the dysfunction of human-nature relations (Pulse, Suman Kabiraj) or longing for social contact, while we are doomed to a closer relationship with the screen (Companion, Jack Williams).

 

Land Of The Flats by Andother Stage | TE-R |18 min

Film form created by the collective TE-R from Vienna. It is inspired by Edwin A. Abbott’s novel Flatlandia or Land of the Clippers, about a two-dimensional land, which is an introduction to considerations on spatial dimensions, treated by some as a mathematical essay on the fourth dimension. In the same universe, playfully augmented into multiple dimensions, lies the â€șLand of the Flatsâ€č, by the ensemble Andother Stage. Dance and music become inseparable parts of a whole, musical instruments are extensions of the body. Geometric shapes, virtual figures from 3D games and human bodies come together in a dialectic form of choreography and composition
Video: TE-R
Audio: Jorge SĂĄnchez-Chiong
Cast: Brigitte Wilfing, Clara FrĂŒhstĂŒck, David Christopher Panzl, Jorge SĂĄnchez-Chiong, Louise Linsenbolz, Samuel Toro PĂ©rez, Sophia Hörman, Thomas Wagensommerer

 

Granit | Maciek Stępniewski | PL | 3 min

Half-videoclip, half-visualization for the EP promoting the album “EGO” – the music project “Krew”. Like electronic music, animation is a purely aesthetic expression of forms that only later acquire subjective meanings through their atmosphere and visual associations.

 

Companion | Jack Williams | PL | 9 min

A video poem that explores the very contemporary issue of the simulacrum (the representation of reality) that we create today, especially in a pandemic, through screens and their impact on our perceptions and emotions. The author focuses on total immersion and considers whether computer-based intimacy is possible, exploring issues such as the desire to touch, para-social interactions and the influence of audiovisual media on human emotions.

 

1980 – a silenced revolution | Karla Kracht | DE | 7 min

A short animated film about the bloodily suppressed demonstrations against the rule of General Chun Doo-hwan’s military dictatorship in Gwangju, South Korea, 1979. Protests are silenced by the national media, demonstrators brutally beaten and shot by the military.
The filming technique is a combination of stop motion animation and real-time camera recording technique that Karla Kracht has developed over the last decade.
The film was commissioned by Choin Theatre Company in Seoul.
Animation, video, puppets, set design, camera, sound design, video editing: Karla Kracht

 

Yours, The World’s | Adam Hsieh |AU | 2 min

Analog video collage, using a technique combining images recorded on 35 mm film with digital footage recorded with webcam. The film juxtaposes an analogue colour video of an inflatable sex doll symbolizing sexual objectification, with black and white footage of viewers taken from webcam and the sound of production machines in the background.
The film investigates the subtle interaction between the private and public spheres, watching and being watched, further exploring the topic of gender and gender roles in the commercialized erotic industry.
Adam Hsieh (director/performer)
Pablo Molina Petrovich (performer)
Channing Bickford (performer)
Jim Nagae (performer)
Mao Qingqing (performer)


Pulse | Suman Kabiraj | IN | 1 min

Abstract video constructed of moving images reflecting the author’s contemplation on the dysfunction of the human-nature relationship. As the author says: “Research shows that deforestation and the killing of wildlife have an impact on the development of infectious diseases. Many people wonder when life will return to normal after the Covid-19 crisis. Shouldn’t we ask rather: can we take this opportunity to learn from our mistakes and build something better? ”

 

Kepler-186F – Recuerdos de una IA | Toñin Lizana | ES | 2 min

Short film, animation of images created by artificial intelligence, based on landscapes from the Spanish region of Bajo AragĂłn and video game covers from the 80s and 90s.
The film shows the evolution of the inhabitants of the eponymous planet “Kepler-186F” and is part of a larger whole published in digital form, entitled “Memories of an AI”.

 

Mirror | Ari Dykier | PL| 30 sec

A surreal journey combining parallel realities which, appearing to be similar to each other, like an image in the mirror, differ from each other, are different and autonomous, with their own order of events taking place in their own right and in their own microcosm. These two sides of the mirror are like two perspectives of human perception – on the one hand, the image of the real world, on the other, the dreamlike world of imagination, thoughts and dreams.

 

Falla Snara – Home Depot 2.0 | Alek Sarna | PL | 3 min

Animation based on the reinterpretation of the context and form of the contemporary work of the Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg entitled “House Depot”. The author focused her attention on issues related to the remote form of work commonly practiced during the pandemic, on the sense of home comfort, economy of attention and new techniques of employee exploitation, feeling that the furniture used is not designed properly in relation to today’s expectations.
As she says: “So I redesigned Dom Depot, which can become a monument to the future for those who agree to non-standard remote working hours, those who have the so-called “text neck”, those who reluctantly end Fortnite, those who watch series on tape or those who did not return to the office after the pandemic.”

 

Relay – Algorithms Sports | Krzysztof Syruć | PL | 1 min

Animation based on an original graphic algorithm. As in the relay race, the last image of processing from one algorithm is passed on to the next. Anyone can generate a finite number of generations. Algorithms differ in the effects of their actions, but each of them in the loop draws only from what he has created. The synergistic connection of all in one sequential run changes everything and makes it possible to reach much further abstract spaces.

 

Specimens of Ephemeral Worlds | Rew  |US | 3 min

This 360° audiovisual animation is an immersion in fleeting worlds of dynamic sound and mystifying abstract forms. Dreamlike surroundings become a jarring spectacle, and an invitation to get lost in exploration.

 

Amateur Hour  | Rew | US | 5 min

An animated 360° music video created by new media artist Rew (graphic) and Vertigo Gambler (music).
Non living objects dance in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Skeletal skyscrapers shimmer with the moiré effect until they crumble.

 

Intangible Windows | CG Ryan | US | 9 min

Cinematic Virtual Reality video collage. Playfully surreal, the trio of three-minute works use digital layering and 360-degree video to weave scenes and elements from both the natural world and constructed sets to visualize an interplay of reality with imagination. The artist calls these works “VR Poems” to invite viewers to be open and free to find their own meanings, enjoying dreamlike settings and metaphorical juxtapositions, to briefly transcend their everyday realities to see the world through three different points of view.