Program of the 2006 Ars Electronica Animation Festival:

Generative Animation:
A program of current artistic examples of processual, program-controlled image design curated by artists Lia (A) and Miguel Carvahais (ES).

Prix Selection: Small World Machines:
The world as a fantastic machine whose mechanism does not always obey laws we are capable of grasping. The inhabitants of it are sometimes grains of sand and sometimes tiny gears. A mix of poetic, absurd and occasionally furious miniatures.

Prix Selection: Exquisite Monsters:
The world of computer animation is inhabited by many different species of monsters—friendly ones and menacing ones too, those that are mechanical, animalistic and human. The computer becomes a genetics lab in which the engineers’ inventiveness knows no limits.

Prix Selection: Narration:
Storytelling has always been one of filmmakers’ main motivations. Recollections emerge from out of a photo album; roommates discuss some problems that have arisen and encounter the unexpected; an auto race charged with tension and excitement; and even discarded alarm clocks, which also have their stories to tell—these narratives relate common and uncommon situations from everyday life!

Prix Selection: Time in Motion:
Movement, rhythm, speed and standstill are the ingredients of this program. The spectrum ranges from a chase cartoon to suggestive visual music in which image, color, movement and sound blend together.

Prix Selection: Visual Effects and Commercials:
There’s hardly a feature film or ad spot made today that doesn’t utilize special effects. The most common ones are high-speed or highly unusual tracking shots, utopian scenery and death-defying stunts. In some films’ credits, the FX crew takes up more footage than all the other technicians combined. This program is a “greatest hits” compilation from recent films and commercials.

Prix Selection: Music Videos:
With the revival of analog trick techniques, the retro look has become totally hot in the music video production field. Rarely in the past has this genre included as much animation as it has in the last two years.

Prix Selection: Monochromatic/b/w:
Color reduction and a language of graphic forms are the characteristics of this program. The content is a highly diverse mix of short stories.

Prix Selection: Late Night:
A program for night people with a dark sense of humor: offbeat situations, stirring flashes of inspiration and trashy aesthetics assure a thoroughly tolerable chill-out.

Freestyle Animation u19:
Participants in the Prix Ars Electronica’s annual competition for young people show how it’s done. The choice of tools and media is open—ya know, freestyle computing, just like it sez. And the stuff these talented young animators and up-and-coming directors have come up with is really cool. This 2006 “best of” lineup was curated by Sirikit Aman.

Japanese Animation:
Visual imaginativeness and unconventional narrative forms characterize animation made in Japan. This program curated by the Japan Media Arts Festival showcases a cross-section of artistic productions from recent years.

Friday, 01. 09. 2006

10:30 - 11:30: Generative Animation
12:00 - 13:00: Prix Selection: Music Videos
13:30 - 14:30: Prix Selection: Small World Machines
16:00 - 17:30: u19 - freestyle animation
18:30 - 20:00: Prix Selection: Exquisite Monsters
21:00 - 22:30: Japanese Animation
23:00 - 24:00: Prix Selection: Late Night

Saturday, 02. 09. 2006

10:30 - 11:30: Prix Selection: Time in Motion
12:00 - 13:00: Prix Selection: Visual Effects and Commercials
13:30 - 14:30: Prix Selection: Music Videos
15:00 - 16:30: Prix Selection: Narration

Sunday, 03. 09. 2006

10:30 - 12:00: u19 - freestyle animation
12:30 - 13:30: Prix Selection: Time in Motion
14:00 - 15:00: Prix Selection: Visual Effects and Commercials
15:30 - 16:30: Prix Selection: Small World Machines
17:00 - 18:30: Prix Selection: Exquisite Monsters
19:00 - 20:00: Generative Animation
20:30 - 22:00: Prix Selection: Monochromatic/b/w
22:30 - 23:30: Prix Selection: Late Night

Monday, 04. 09. 2006

10:30 - 12:00: Japanese Animation
12:30 - 13:30: Generative Animation
14:00 - 15:00: Prix Selection: Music Videos
15:30 - 16:30: Prix Selection: Time in Motion
19:00 - 20:30: Prix Selection: Exquisite Monsters
21:00 - 22:00: Siggraph Selection
22:30 - 23:30: Prix Selection: Visual Effects and Commercials

Tuesday, 05. 09. 2006

10:30 - 11:30: Prix Selection: Small World Machines
12:00 - 13:30: u19 - freestyle animation
15:00 - 16:30: Prix Selection: Monochromatic/b/w
18:30 - 20:00: Prix Selection: Narration

curated by: Christine Schöpf, Dietmar Offenhuber (AT)