Ars Electronica

Animation Festival 2020 On Tour

Since the Prix Ars Electronica began in 1987, computer animations have been among the essential elements of our annual worldwide media art competition. The awarded works selected by a jury of experts from among thousands of submissions. With the “Ars Electronica Animation Festival on Tour”, we’re presenting an impressive constellation of themes that raise questions about the far-reaching effects of human behavior on the environment as well as about technological developments like social media, deepfakes, and AI. Particularly striking were sensitive, humorous works on these topics that show alternatives to dystopian universes.

Electronic Theatre

Since 1987, Electronic Theatre has compiled a large number of submissions from all over the world, providing an up-to-the-minute survey of animation art in the context of technology and society. A glance at the works selected this year shows a broad range, from millennial animation in the context of performance and installations to real-time animation and multifaceted, subject-based discussions.

The program offers humorous and ingenious commentaries on social media, online dating, data mining, and surveillance capitalism, as well as infographics and data visualizations. Cairotronica 2021 the Short Version of Electronic Theater featuring films from the USA, Switzerland, Morocco, France, Germany, Taiwan, Turkey and Hong Kong.

Infinitely Yours

Creation, animation, and performance: Miwa Matreyek (US) All Music: Morgan Sorne (US)

Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Golden Nica

09:03

I tell stories about the world of humanity and nature through performed metaphorical experiences. I want my work to be a catalyst for conversation to see the world differently and emotionally through symbolic images.

Infinitely Yours is the fourth in my series of solo work that mixes animation and live performance, involving a screen, layered projected animation, and a live performer (myself) as a shadow silhouette from behind the screen.

Average Happiness,

Maja Gehrig (CH)

Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Award of Distinction

07:03

During a PowerPoint presentation, statistical diagrams are breaking free from the strait-jacket of their coordinates. A trip into the sensual world of statistics begins. Pie charts are melting, arrow diagram border, and challenged dress Human shows cityscape Qualitiestwisting, scatter plots, bar graphs, and stock market curves join in a collective climax.

Bab Sebta,

Randa Maroufi (MA/FR)

Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Award of Distinction

19:00

Bab Sebta consists of a series of reconstructed situations based on observations made on the Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Moroccan soil that provides the scene for intense trafficking of manufactured goods sold at discounted prices. Every day, thousands of people work there.

Bab Sebta can be considered as an artistic experiment that questions the limits of the representation.

The protagonists were people who actually worked at the border of Ceuta and whom I asked to play themselves. They were equipped with their bags and working clothes.

Recursive Truth,

Rachel Rossin (US)

Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Honorary Mention

02:55

Recursive Truth is a video work based on generative AI and programming imaging research using video game mods, OpenCV (facial recognition and motion tracking libraries), and deep fakes to explore loss, memory, and truth as a medium. Bugs created inside the work expose the fragility of memory and ultimately either destroy the video game or function only as visual gags.

Serial Parallels,

Max Hattler (DE/HK)

Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Honorary Mention

09:00

Hong Kong is defined in no small part by its dense and architecturally extreme high-rise housing estates. This has been much-documented through still-image photography—an ideal medium to convey a sense of the scale of the repetitive patterns of buildings.

To create a novel engagement with Hong Kong’s, this experimental animation approaches the built environment of Hong Kong from the conceptual perspective of celluloid film by applying the technique of film animation to the photographic image.

Bodyless (excerpt of VR screen capture),

Hsin-Chien Huang (TW)

Sponsored by Taiwan Creative Content Agency Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Honorary Mention

05:00

Bodyless is a surreal VR experience based on the director’s childhood memories during the martial law period in Taiwan in the 1970s and current events were simplified and quantified in that era, with only a few characteristics recognized and measured by the ruling class.

In Bodyless, the retrospective martial law and the ultramodern digital technologies are fused in dark oppression that conflicts with retrospective life and beliefs.

#21xoxo,

Sine Özbilge (TR), Imge Özbilge (TR)

Prix Ars Electronica 2020 / Honorary Mention

09:50

#21xoxo is an experimental animated short film that reflects on the impact of 21st-century technologies on intimacy, love, and relationships. It revolves around the nihilistic, narcissistic and adventures of a girl in a parallel digital universe interlaced with cyber-love, speed dating, hipster culture, meme and vaporwave aesthetics, as well as post-net attitudes.