#079 SOFT MACHINES
Curator: Arjon Dunnewind. This IMPAKT Channel programme is based on the screening programme of the IMPAKT Festival 2014 that was curated by A.E. Benenson (Head Curator) and Ken Farmer, Noah Hutton, Dr. Leah Kelly (Assistant Curators).
The films in the Soft Machines filmprogramme explore the intersection of affect and machines, taking the concept of empathy as both its content and form. Here, technology adopts the ethical and emotional burdens of humans and our own emotional world is reshaped by the demands of technology.
Machines turned soft, and soft flesh codified into machines. Though much of the work of artificial empathy still lies in the future, we already know that there is no single kind of affective bridge being built between humans and technology and that their emerging forms are both stranger and more pervasive than we expected.
Films in this programme
Walking up and down to a woman I once had a crush on
Feiko Beckers
(NL, 2009, 07:00 mins)
(NL, 2009, 07:00 mins)
A self-explanatory short that investigates the formalization of love and nostalgia through the technical tropes of cinema.
Still Life (Betamale)
Jon Rafman
(US 2013, US, 4:56 mins)
(US 2013, US, 4:56 mins)
A non-linear portrait of a new kind of digital underground man, whose affective environment consists of violent video – games,...
Last Episode (HOTEL)
Benjamin Nuel
(FR 2013, 7:00 mins)
(FR 2013, 7:00 mins)
In this conclusion to Nuel’s series, two videogame characters based on opposing “terrorist” and “counter-terrorist” teams find...
The Ethical Governor
John Butler
(UK, 2010 8:00 mins)
(UK, 2010 8:00 mins)
Produced in the mock-serious tone of an intra-governmental presentation Butler’s Ethical Governor uses black humor to skewer the...
Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe)
Wojciech Bąkowski
(PL 2012, 12:09 mins)
(PL 2012, 12:09 mins)
Bakowski develops an architectural metaphor for the way a film can construct emotional states by piecing together certain images and...
Interference (Music Video for Holly Herndon)
Metahaven
(US/NL 2015, 05:18 mins)
(US/NL 2015, 05:18 mins)
The Dutch design and art collective Metahaven have premiered their new music video “Interference”, by the much acclaimed...
You Are Here (excerpt The Chinese Room)
Daniel Cockburn
(CA 2011, 10:00 mins excerpt, original length 79:00 mins)
(CA 2011, 10:00 mins excerpt, original length 79:00 mins)
You Are Here is a Jorge Borges-like fantasy composed of multiple worlds, circling and weaving around each other in always-unexpected...