Ars Electronica ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2022

in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus

After two very challenging years, the Ars Electronica Animation Festival returns to its physical space. In 2020, everything moved to virtual space: online screenings, virtual hubs, and YouTube streaming. A year later, this experiment was followed by a hybrid edition, showing a limited program at the festival’s main hub and at Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space 8K. The Expanded Animation Symposium, part of the Animation Festival since 2015, was broadcasted from the “live recording studio” at Hagenberg, without an audience present. Most of the speakers presented online and only a few guests were invited to the studio. In 2022, the festival has a clear target: to take place on site. The screening programs and presentations will be shown at the JKU Campus and the Ars Electronica Center Deep Space 8K. The Expanded Animation Symposium and the Synaesthetic Syntax conference, organized with the UCA since 2020, will take place at the Ars Electronica Center.

For many years, the screening program of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival has shown the best of current productions, compiled from the submissions to the Prix Ars Electronica’s category Computer Animation. This year, 657 submissions were sent to this category and as first step, Victoria Absmann, Juergen Hagler, and Manuela Hillmann reviewed all submitted projects and created a preselection. The outcome was a short list of 250 projects to be evaluated by the jurors Isabelle Arvers (FR), Peter Burr (US), Daito Manabe (JP), Rebecca Merlic (HR/AT), and Helen Starr (TT). The jury then chose 170 submissions and convened in April for three days of deliberations in Linz. This selection was the basis for the on-site jury session and the programs of this year’s Ars Electronica Animation Festival.

Many of the works being shown can be categorized as expanded animation, such as various VR experiences, hybrids between games and animations, site-specific installations, or experiments with new technology such as artificial intelligence or machine learning. The spectrum of formats ranges from animated shorts to animated documentaries, from experimental-abstract works to interactive animated audio-visual environments. As every year, the Electronic Theatre features a selection of the works honored by the jury in the Prix Ars Electronica category Computer Animation, including the two artworks awarded with Distinction: Absence by Marc Hericher (FR), Anxious Body by Yoriko Mizushiri (JP). Three programs dedicated to expanded animation are being screened at Deep Space 8K: Being by Rashaad Newsome (US), Golden Nica winner in the category Computer Animation, three shorts by Martina Scarpelli (IT), and a selection of experimental animations. For the third time, the program Austrian Panorama highlights current works of local artists. For the first time, one screening program will take up the festival theme and show works on this year’s motto Welcome to Planet B. The program is by a Young Animation lineup featuring films from the Prix Ars Electronica’s u19—CREATE YOUR WORLD category for young people under 19 years of age in Austria. The 2022 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a highly diversified showcase that invites spectators to take an exciting journey through current artistic productions in the expanded field of digital animation.

Timetable

Program

Ars Electronica Animation Festival: Being

Rashaad Newsome (US)

Being (2022) is a nonbinary, non-race AI created by combining animation game engines, scripted responses, generative grammars and unique machine-learning models.

Ars Electronica Animation Festival: Experimental Animation

Experimental and innovative forays into various forms of animation are on display here.

Expanded Animation Symposium

Hagenberg Campus of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (AT)

Hosted by the Hagenberg Campus of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, the Expanded Animation Symposium will be examining the vast and constantly evolving field of animation and its myriad connections to other disciplines.

Ars Electronica Animation Festival – Electronic Theatre

The Electronic Theatre is the annual best-of program, a compilation of outstanding animated films, chosen by the jury from the submitted works in the category Computer Animation. The selection showcases current productions in terms of artistic content, as well as cultural and technological innovation.

Ars Electronica Animation Festival – Welcome to Planet B

Change is an inevitable condition of reality for both living and non-living things. Movement, development, evolution, and dissolution is part of the scheme. But is change anthropocentric? What exactly could we expect from it in the future? Change can mean resolution, embrace, or reconnection; it can be ironic, dreamy, climate-related, abstract, or destructive.

Ars Electronica Animation Festival – Austrian Panorama

What does it mean to commit suicide in a digital world? Can we exist as fragmented digital identities? What happens when we do not play by the rules of in-game environments? Why do unicorns like water games? Does the earth revolve around me? This program features a selection of Austrian film directors.

Ars Electronica Animation Festival: Egg, kai – a little too much, Cosmoetico

Martina Scarpelli (IT)

Italian filmmaker based in Denmark with studies in Milan, Turin, and a variety of residence experiences and distinctions.

Ars Electronica Animation Festival – Young Animations

Every year young, gifted filmmakers from Austria submit their weird, subtle, witty, utopian, critical and dystopian works for the Prix Ars Electronica’s category of u19—create your world. They show us their strong imagination, their deep understanding of certain topics, all expressed through their abilities within one medium. This program is a selection of Animations coming from young creatives and young professionals from different age groups (17-19) and skill sets.

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival 2022

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival 2022 once again features a wide selection of works ranging from animated shorts to interactive animated audio-visual environments.