Strangeways

Director: Adam Lieber

Year: 2021

The world began with the Big Bang, we are told the walls of Jericho were decimated by trumpets, to music being used as torture or control, to persuade or even calm, to the soundtracks to war and music for revolutions. What is music and sound's relationship to control and power? We have channeled this question through candid conversations with neural networks, by training machines on a collected sonic and visual history of noise, metal and rock music, as well as music that is sacred and spiritual. The project explores ideas around music as a weapon, as a cultural shifter, manipulator, unifier and ultimately, as a force. The result is a non-stop fictional band performing endlessly, 24 hours a day. As the music infinitely changes, unique combinations of sound and visual will never be repeated. We have collaborated with AI music pioneers, Dadabots, combining machine learning, audio-responsive assets & procedural visuals inside VRChat to create a fully immersive real-time interactive environment. We are sonically at the mercy of the machine, as one never knows what will be performed on arrival.

Director: Julia Fry

Year:

Using ideas from Carl Jung - exploring and accepting the inner world, Carolyn Abbate - analysis of dissonance to find the narrative voice - and Hilde Lindemann Nelson - using narrative to repair damaged identity, I filmed my process of creating puppets and recorded some of the thoughts that arose as I made them. I utilised emergent practice in the filmmaking, which meant letting go of preconceived ideas to let narrative arise in the moment. I wanted my puppets to unite, rather than fight in the traditional Punch and Judy manner.

Director: Keshavi Jaharia

Year: 2026

In 1970s London, Simran arrives at Heathrow Airport from Punjab to be married in two weeks. Dressed for the journey, she moves through the warmth and order of the terminal until she is quietly diverted into a secondary corridor. In a calm examination room, procedures are explained to her in a familiar language, framed as routine and voluntary. What follows is a polite, administrative process that determines her right to enter the country. When Simran is allowed to leave, the airport resumes its rhythm. Outside, her future husband waits. Life continues.