Ala Roushan & Charles Stankievech: A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads  

A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads documens the oldest surviving Mithraic temple in Iran through an immersive installation that connects the ancient Sun worship of Mitra – which coincided with the climate crises 4200 years ago – with the contemporary concept of solar geoengineering. Revolving around a subterranean ritual that invokes the deity Mitra’s protection from the Sun, the chant in the film presents a speculative reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-Iranian (PII) language from a period that lacks written traces. Using a comparative linguistic methodology, as developed by Prof. Toledo, the script was further extrapolated using a Large Language Model (a generative AI technique) to construct the ritual. As the narrative develops, the surface of the cavernous temple disintegrates into a particle cloud as the ancient language morphs into a futuristic computer script suggesting a protocol for solar geoengineering. Combining 3D scans of a historic archeological site, a speculative model of PII, and a gravitational model of the Sun, the entire film’s world is a hyperrealistic model – underlining the position that we can only engage ‘Nature’ as a model simulation in order to intervene in its process. The soundtrack was generated exclusively from period sounds 4000 years ago by modulating and synthesizing fire, human voice, solar radiation and the Persian ney (the oldest continuously used instrument). 

S()fia Braga: The Artificial Conjuring Circle
2023, AI generated short movie, 05:14 minutes

The Artificial Conjuring Circle is an AI generated short movie which explores the machine gaze and non-human agency to create speculative fabulations from the Novacene, a new era of collaboration between humans and non-humans towards earthly survival and deceleration of the forthcoming extinction of organic life as we know it.New systems of post-scarcity based on enhancing human self-realisation, cybernetic ecologies, and numerous new possibilities are attainable, but on one condition: overcoming the anthropocentric vision, accepting the current human status as an evolutionary step towards a new world shaped for synthetic living forms. As the film unfolds, we bear witness to the process of human reprogramming training, immersed in an artificial scenario where very little of organic life remains.

S()fia Braga: Third Impact
2025, AI-generated short movie, 04:11 minutes

Third Impact is an AI-generated movie that explores the future of human and non-human collaboration. The film centres around a quantum computer whose goal is to prevent the extinction of organic life on Earth, as the planet’s temperatures continue to rise and extreme weather events intensify, while biodiversity is disrupted through threatened ecosystems. As this very sophisticated computational machine carries out its mission, an unknown event occurs, resulting in the disappearance of all remaining forms of organic life on the planet. This event prompts the quantum machine to question its own existence and purpose, leading to an emotional journey of self-discovery from the machine perspective. Meanwhile, remnants of an obscure transhumanist initiative linger in the shadows of its code. What unfolds is an odyssey of rebirth, identity, and transformation, as the machine struggles with a newfound awareness that defies its original design.

Clemens van Wedemayer: Social Geometry
2024, video installation, b&w, 3-channel sound, 16:9, 18 min

White dots appear on a black ground and take on infinitely varied, increasingly complex and increasingly spectacular forms: interrelations between individuals, networked human worlds, social geometries. The British musician Anne Clark’s haunting voice announces what we will see in the abstraction: A group of friends. A class system. A revolution erupting. Yet as the constellations grow ever more complex, the limitations of representation by model become evident – machines may be capable of keeping track of what is happening in the social sphere, but humans are not.Credits: Anne Clark: Voice-over / Alexander Repp: Research, script & dramaturgical advice, animation, programming / Samuel Richter: Research, script & dramaturgical advice / Alexander Pannier: Animation / Michael Ohme: Programming, algorithmic interfaces / Alexey Grishchenko: Animation / Janina Herhoffer: Editing, dramaturgical advice / Paul Keeler: Voice recording / Thomas Wallmann: Re-recording mix