CM 2023

AVEK / Mediarata

AVEK / Milla Moilanen

Ancestors

IFFR Pro Immersive 2023 - Ancestors

Goals at CineMart We are looking for commissioners, museums and curators interested in premiering the work nationally and internationally. In terms of co-production, we are open to sound design and animation production possibilities.&nbsp;Synopsis Ancestors is an interactive installation, which captures your face and creates an avatar for you. Together with the other captured avatars you become an ancestor of your virtually simulated descendants. Participants follow together the evolution and the story of their virtual family genealogy. The narrative proposes to rethink how families are socially created, and what is our responsibility for future generations as good ancestors. Combining AI and narrative possibilities of real time 3D face capturing, Ancestors enables people to see their own faces mix and generate virtual families. Each Ancestors family tree will be a unique, one-time combination of the people participating. Ancestors is a continuation of&nbsp;Captured (2021), developing further narrative potential of digital doubles. Our face capturing platform provides a &ldquo;portal&rdquo; between the physical and the virtual world. Via this portal the audience becomes an avatar and is virtually present in Ancestors. Every audience member has his/her face captured and learned by AI. The latent faces are used as parents to synthesise facial features for virtual descendants. How do fictitious and intimate family relationships play out in virtual and physical exhibition space? Ancestors is at the same time familiar and strange, a trip into the mysterious universe of human kinship.&nbsp;Director&rsquo;s Biography Hanna Haaslahti (1969) is a director and media artist working with image and interaction, based in Helsinki (Finland). Her primary interest is computer vision and its social implication on human relations. Most recently her work has been shown at BFI London 2021, CPH:DOX Interactive 2022, the Eye Filmmuseum and BIFAN 2022.

Fantomatico

Ancestors explores virtual reproduction with image generating technologies. Faces captured from audience members are paired to synthesise descendants, who establish families in a virtual community.