Precursing ©Nina Davis, 2023
AI in Film and the Media Arts
WF Online Series 2025 #1: May 16–23
Curated in collaboration with Sabine Himmelsbach, director of HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel, this short film program interrogates the evolving dialogue between artificial intelligence, cinematic language, and media arts. The selected works traverse the boundaries of creativity and technology, offering nuanced perspectives on how AI influences narrative structures, aesthetic paradigms, and the very essence of artistic production. This program invites viewers to reflect on AI's cultural, philosophical, and ethical dimensions as it reshapes our understanding of art and the human condition. For this program, we will also feature an audio interview with Sabine Himmelsbach, exploring her insights on the intersection of artificial intelligence, cinema, and media arts and her perspective on the evolving role of technology in the creative milieu.
Content Advisory: May contain scenes of violence and strong language.
Our upcoming film program and audio interview
The Future Ahead Will Be Weird AF
By Silvia Dal Dosso
Italie, 2023, 10 mins, English with English subtitles
Through the synthetic voice of Adam Curtis, the movie tells the story of how humans may survive in a world that is becoming weirder, harder, and faster: dead celebrities are brought back from heaven, Gen AI is rising, and we feel stuck in a mediated reality where emotional advertising, robots, and deepfakes constantly intercept love. But…
The Future of Life
By Jonas Lund
Netherlands, 2024, 28 mins, English with English subtitles
In The Future of Life, living forever appears dangerously close. An AI can make all the right decisions for you, so you’re free to enjoy eternity. Regenerate Global, a life sciences company led by Brian, are pushing to release immortality (it’s what the investors need) – but internal politics and human emotions threaten to disrupt the launch.
The Future of Life is the next part in Lund's ‘The Future of’ series on humanity’s relationship with AI, following ‘The Future of Nothing’ and ‘The Future of Something.’ Each film is made in close collaboration with various generative AIs. As the product of AI technology, each work shows rapid video and image processing advancements.
Precursing
By Nina Davies
UK, 2023, 11 mins 13, English with English subtitles
In Nina Davies' film Precursing, a fictional incident involving a self-driving car trained to predict pedestrian movements is discussed through two conversations between four characters. Issues of ghosts, rituals, and the future of the justice system are raised, as well as the expanding borders of the Uncanny Valley into the physical world.
You’re Very Special
By u2p050
2024, France, 13 mins 47, English with English subtitles
In today’s world, the line between truth and interpretation is increasingly complex. “You’re Very Special” doesn’t just ask to revisit a day in history; it invites viewers into our hyper-connected age. Through our screens, each of us had a different view, feeling, and interpretation of the exact moment. This documentary mirrors that multiplicity, offering a look back and a space to ponder our current moment and how we understand it.
As you engage with these synthetic memories, consider how technology shapes our understanding of truth and history. What does it mean to remember an event through the filters of algorithms and machine learning? What do machines remember of that day? What will be the future of archives?
Let Me Fix You
By Dasha Ilina
France, 2022, 12 mins, English with English subtitles
ASMR, as a rising form of online content, reduces the body to a gamable center of pleasure derived from sensory stimuli; it betrays a willingness to perceive the human form as merely a loosely bound collection of mechanical systems vulnerable to exploitation. The subsection of ASMR videos specialized in “robot-repair” perhaps even more so. Focusing thematically on concerns surrounding the rise of robotic carers, this work draws attention to the decreased humanism in care, ethical boundaries regarding who is cared for and how, and to whom the responsibility to repair and maintain falls. Traditionally regarded as a female field, care and maintenance (spaces with limited growth potential) have been disregarded in portrayals of possible futures, preferring to dream of leaving behind a crumbling status quo to explore imagined vistas with space for endless expansion. ‘Let me fix you’ asks us to reassess our relationship to that which requires care and maintenance and to attend to what is present as holistically valuable rather than divisible and exploitable.
Our Fourth Edition (2025)
MAY (16-23): AI in Film and the Media Arts
OCTOBER (17–24): Free Will
DECEMBER (12–19): Focus: Freihändler Film Produktion
On WF Online Series
The WF Online Series features three to four curated screening programs annually, each centred around a distinctive curatorial concept. The series highlights productions from Basel, Switzerland, and around the globe. Each program is available to stream for one week.
Our Funders
This project is made possible through the generous financial support of the Mary & Ewald E. Bertschmann-Stiftung and the Division of Cultural Affairs of Basel-Stadt.