Artistic Research
at Film University Babelsberg
Thursday, 3rd June 2021
17:30-19:00 CET
In this section some artistic research projects at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF and PhDs in our scientific-artistic research program will present their work and discuss their questions and methods. Presentation groups have either developed based on a common theme, or have come together by method and genre. After a short introduction, the sessions 1 to 7 will be accessible as break out rooms from the Main Conference Room (Zoom).
For detailed information about the presented and other artistic research projects at Film University, you can visit the website of the IKF. To do so, you can also follow the names of the artistic and scientific-artistic researchers.
Session 1
Presence and Absence:
Dynamics of Turning People into Documentary Protagonists
Group: Rand Beiruty, Maya Klar, Katharina Pethke
Format: Presentation + Discussion
Description: What happens when a filmmaker attempts to (re)present others? Whether the portrayed persons are sympathetic or antagonistic, present or absent, dead or alive – they are transformed from subjects into objects. While classifying the different approaches on a theoretical level (Katharina Pethke) we wish to explore these dynamics through case studies from both sides of the scale: on the one hand, involving the portrayed persons in the process of creation in a participatory approach (Rand Beiruty); and on the other hand, excluding them to the point of reinventing them as characters (Maya Klar).
Session 2
Creation as Research in Independent Animation
Group: Aline Helmcke, Julia Dufek, Alisi Telengut
Format: Presentation + Discussion
Description: The creation of sequential imagery for animation is complex and multifaceted. It ranges from analogue hands-on approaches to methods that are based entirely on digital image-creation processes. Thus, the process itself becomes a key element for understanding artistic research in this field.
We are inviting attendants to three doctoral project presentations followed by an informal group discussion on various topics in the framework of independent animation, such as the definition of animation, the context of our artistic research and its relation to our methods of moving-image-making. We would like to conclude the discourse by opening up the dialogue with participants on the question of how to theorize creation processes.
Session 3
Co-Creation for Ecological
and Social Challenges
Group: Prof. Angelica Böhm (Scenography), Prof. Susanne Schüle (Cinematography), Christian Zipfel (Director /Graduate Film University)
Format: Presentations and 360 Degree-Experiments
Description: How to create a multidisciplinary space to find solutions for complex problems? Webexhibition
How to find new narratives to focus positive futures? Interactive Future Prototyping Workshop
How to make artistic research in a Romanian Prison? Film-Presentation of an Experimental Documentary Workshop
How to capture authentic documentary scenes and the prison’s claustrophobic atmosphere within a spherical medium?
Session 4
Artistic Research in the Field
of Virtuality and Reality with Kinetic-Light-Model Installations
Group: Michael Birn, Gusztáv Hámos, Justin Robinson, Bertolt Pohl, Fee Altmann, Katja Pratschke
Format: Presentation + Live Tour + Discussion
Description: Our artistic research focuses on cinematic experiences in space and the definition of experimental model constructions with projected indexical light movement.
We immerse ourselves in a cinematographic model setup or we enter the site-specific light installation with filmic qualities. We invite participants to a discussion on the topic of simultaneous movements in a physically experienceable or even walk-in cinematic space.
Session 5
Re-thinking Filmmaking as
Artistic Practice
A panel discussion on the in-between space(s) amid academic practice and the craft of filmmaking. Our panelists are Sharon Ryba-Kahn, Astra Zoldnere, Julia Dittmann and Benjamin Coelle. The panel will be moderated by Christine Reeh-Peters.
Format: Panel Discussion
Description: In her PhD Sharon investigates how to visualize trauma in live action documentary films, while Astra invites older people to re-perform stereotypical scenes from popular German-speaking fiction films. Julia is researching the link between autoethnographical filmmaking, its digital representations through an interactive website and the efficacy of social media networks. And in his scientific/artistic research on Audience Design Benjamin explores, how story and audience in feature film development are negotiated.
Our research projects are a starting point to engage in a discussion with everybody that is present.
Session 6
Collisions – Media Collisions as Drivers of Innovation for New Approaches of Cultural Heritage
Group: Tatjana Brandrup, Bela Usabaev, Lucas Frye
Format: Presentations
The project Collisions is addressing the question of how a unique cultural monument, the 2018 closed flat of the Russian director Sergei Eisenstein, can be made virtually accessible using new digital forms of representation – in virtual reality, by means of information visualization and 3D sound.
To convey Sergei Eisenstein’s ideas for film scoring, we are developing the virtual Theremin as an instrument for creating a musical sketch using gesture recognition. We present the virtual musical instrument and its interaction principle and discuss the compositional characteristics of the web application. The presentation is aimed at people interested in web technologies and sound in the context of film.
Session 7
The Emotion Machine
Group: Manuel Flurin Hendry
Format: Presentation
This session is a presentation of my ongoing artistic-scientific dissertation project „To Feel or To Fake“. Here, I investigate the ability of contemporary computer systems to understand and express human emotions in the context of movie acting. I will give an overview of my theoretical framework and present the current state of my artistic project „The Emotion Machine”, an installation prototype for a virtual actor – as starting point to engage in a discussion.