The series Classix in Focus puts into perspective a series of aspects closely related *or not* to classical music in the contemporary context and in relation to a suite of paradigms in continuous evolution.

Together with the Austrian Cultural Forum, we have prepared a marathon of animations for you: a selection of award-winning works in the 2023 edition of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival.

Screenings schedule:

Electronic Theater 78′

Austrian Panorama 40′

There will be a 15-minute break after each screening.

Access to the screenings is free and large group bookings can be made on 0748 417 445.

Ars Electronica is a platform that works at the intersection of art, technology and society by organizing exhibitions, educational programs and research projects focused on the future of our societies. Founded in 1979 in Linz as a festival, it has since expanded to include a laboratory, award and museum dedicated to the study and promotion of media arts and digital culture.

Electronic Theater is the annual best-of program, a compilation of five outstanding animations chosen by the Award’s jury from among the entries in the “New Art of Animation” category. It is a diverse showcase that involves new ways of thinking about how we experience the digital-virtual-real world in which we live. Combining fantasy, erotica and body horror, IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS follows an ambiguous hero who undergoes numerous metamorphoses beyond the conventional masculinities of game avatars. In Delivery Dancer’s Sphere, another hero, a female platform delivery driver, rushes at the speed of light through a maze of endless paths, slipping through a parallel time and space. GLITCHBODIES uses video game aesthetics to introduce us to a fascinating group of characters with diverse bodies and minds. Lebensraum tackles contemporary issues such as overpopulation, the destruction of our living space and the constant rise of sea levels with a humorous approach. Similarly, FuneralPlay speculates a future where users can choose between deleting their electronic fingerprint after death or uploading it to virtual heaven, published on the blockchain.

Austrian Panorama highlights recent animation work by local artists. Cave Painting, Not Really Now Not Anymore and The Great Tree Piece offer a meditative-poetic glimpse into more-than-human worlds where the organic and the digital are inextricably intertwined. Nature is neither pure nor does it stand as an intelligible whole before our gaze. It is quite fragmented and densely packed with infinitesimal details beyond human perception. Animation becomes a tool for staging different perceptual calibrations, zooming between different proximities surpassing the human gaze and redefining the notions of physicality and abstraction, natural and synthetic. Internet Gaga and Shroomsday round out the selection with a humorous and tongue-in-cheek take on our contemporary times.

By participating in the screenings, participants give their consent to the use of photographic images and audio and video recordings for the purpose of promoting the festival’s activities.