Ars Electronica Expanded Animation!

Electronic Theatre is the annual best-of program, a compilation of five outstanding animations chosen by the Prix Ars Electronica 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-virtual-real 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.

• Delivery Dancer’s Sphere (Golden Nica), Ayoung Kim (KR), 24’
• FuneralPlay (Honorary Mention), Ruini Shi (CN), 3’
• Living Space (Honorary Mention), Sven Windzus (DE), 2’
• GLITCHBODIES, (Honorary Mention), Rebecca Merlic (HR/AT), 13’
• IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS, (Award of Distinction), Bassam Issa (IE), 29’

Data Bodies Space Program

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.

• 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’