video works
roughset and Kathrin Kur
Excession, 6:51 min
Excession
- 6:51 min
- country: France
- year: 2024
Excession is a slide film constructed using generative AI techniques. It embarks on a journey through political concepts—with the waxing and waning of power as its central subject.
Embodied by Greek sculptures, ministers and supernannies—as well as marmots and coyotes—it narrates concepts developed by Greek historian Polybius and political theorist Helen Thompson in her book Disorder, which are increasingly relevant in the current epoch of crumbling democracies.
The film unveils how aristocratic and democratic excesses, mapped through the rise and fall of civilizations increasingly punctuated by environmental catastrophes, shape our geopolitical landscape and societal decay.
"The idea of democratic and aristocratic excess is introduced by Polybius, the Greek historian writing in the second century BCE about the rise of the Roman Republic. He thought that regardless of their external vulnerability, all states were subject to internal decay, and that this decay produced a sequence of change between forms of government: In the beginning there is chaos, then monarchy, kingship, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and finally the mob rule of ochlocracy, before out of the chaos a single demagogue claims power and the cycle starts again."
Helen Thompson interviewAi ga, 1:08 min extract
Ai ga
- in progress
- 2024
Ai ga is a film essay which explores the core concepts of AI and its influence on human knowledge and culture.
The narrative deploys animated 3D characters, libraries, and tarot cards: vehicles articulating and providing purchase on ongoing debates surrounding prediction, the accessibility of human knowledge, technological hallucination, and intelligence.
Through a variety of sources, including interviews with computer scientists and instructional videos from Microsoft, the film evaluates the impact of AI on contemporary culture.
Meritocracy, 0:45 min Teaser
Meritocracy
- 8:35 min
- 2024
Meritocracy is a video essay reflecting on the nature of meritocracy and its impact on our collective aspirations and obsessions with achievement.
Exploring various viewpoints on the definitions of success and failure, the film sheds light on how these notions contribute to division and economic anxiety.
Through a blend of interviews, still images, and archival footage, it unpacks the techniques and complexities of living within this framework wondering whether Talent is a Fiction, recently published by Samah Karaki.
Films of the third kind, 0:44 min extract
Films of the third kind
- 16:45 min
- 2022
Films of the third kind is an essay film which investigates the methods of german film maker and inventor Hellmuth Costard. It is part of the collaborative project vollkommen phantasielos, an artistic research project about Costard’s work and his radical-political and utopian approaches, and their contemporary significance in the archival turn.
The subject of the film are Costards concepts which are explored using extracts from interviews such as the films of the third kind, his inventions of inexpensive technology to democratize filmmaking, the examination of film production mechanisms and the transparency of the actors. With his methods, Costard sought to implement change in society through innovative approaches to reality.