STUDENT SHORTS COMPETITION

This program has concluded online. It will be presented at Supernova’s live forum at the Sie Film Center on September 23rd. Free tickets are available at EventBrite

Student work is the core that continually inspires Denver Digerati and grounds our belief that digital tools are fast becoming the choice for artists of the Next Generation, supporting new artistic goals at increasingly younger ages. This program is a wide ranging showcase reflecting personal vision and the most positive attributes of institutions that facilitate the integration of tech-based tools across in the US and around the world. Through our annual competition, we seek to highlight artists dedicated to experimentation, distinct visual aesthetics and constructs that don’t cling to commercial interests or fashionable trends.

The award for the student competition will be determined by Eric Davis, Tech lead at Meow Wolfe Denver’s Convergence Station

Lair

By Xintong Wang / Parsons School of Design

Experimental animation.

Colormeister

By Kevin Zhang / New York University

A man with a balloon edits the world to his colors.

It Escapes, Irretrievable Time

By Chellysia Rae Christen / Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam

A 3D animated short film that shows the song of life from birth to death - an ode to the beauty that lies in every single fleeting chapter of existence.

Take Care

By Ben Alderman / Royal College of Art, London

"Take Care" is an experimental animation that explores abandonment anxiety. The film explores fragments of memories by using the process of art-making and cinematic language. A postmodern pop surrealist film uses origami stop motion, CGI, and frame-by-frame animation.

Building Blocks

By Chan Hattie, Lau Tatia Pui Wan & Ng Chit / School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

Building Blocks is a 3D abstract animation inspired by the Central neighborhood in Hong Kong, a district coexistence of the new and old culture of Hong Kong. By using the vintage toys in Hong Kong as the main character, travelling around Central, Building Blocks was created.

H.O.M.E (Hoarding Old Memory Eggs)

By Marcella Moliner / OCAD University

‘H.O.M.E. (Hoarding Old Memory Eggs)’ is an experimental 3D animation with a non-linear narrative. H.O.M.E is created based on my intrigue to decipher my relationship with sentimental objects and how they manifest in my perception of belonging. The world created belongs to the main character SAL (Self Afflicted Loathing). This place is a collection of personified sentimental objects that form comfort for SAL. However, a world of materialism is forlorn, and S.A.L.’s world depicts the search for companionship in a place of lived memories.

Bay Of Pigs

By Camille Lo Bianco/ Parsons School of Design

A commentary on police presence using dynamics and motion capture.

Cold Square

By Mo Xiaolin / China Academy of Art

Square, one of the simplest geometric figures created artificially, in the imagination of today's people, it is not only like a chip circuit, but also represents a digital matrix; it not only symbolizes regularity, but also implies homogeneity. In the huge digitization process of human society, we are indulged in the digital information brought by the chip matrix that surrounds the senses in all directions. The square is the law and reality deeply hidden by the illusion. In front of the square, we think we see the whole world, behind the square, the hyperreal illusion does not even exist in the real world.

The Epilogue of a Computer

By Nix Liu Xin, Xiying Bao & Mu He / Harvard University

The Epilogue of a Computer is a speculative film that explores the memories of a moribund computer through a series of nested scenarios, each as part of the whole nested world, and implies one of the computational concepts.

Patient's Mind

By Zhiheng Wang / China Academy of Art

"Patient's Mind" is a multi screen experimental animation using circular narration. The metaphor of doctor-patient relationship is used in the work, which shows the process of the protagonist's inner self and superego, the fight for the subject right between the present and the "preset future", and the endless cycle between the present and the "preset future" in the doomed failure of self salvation. In the narrative, the whole story is divided into five parts and placed on five screens. Make the content of five screens form a big cycle in narration, and the content of a single screen form a small cycle in editing, and make the five screens have relevance according to different clues in content.

Bedroom People

By Vivien Forsans / Concordia University, Montreal

A man searches through documents of an unknown USB key found in his bag, and discovers a strange series of recordings.

Mahjong Mart

By Louise Chan / School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

Inspired by the word of “Ma (麻)” from “Yau Ma Tei (油麻地)”, we present our sights of Yau Ma Tei with the theme of Mahjong (麻將) by connecting two “麻” together with the good vibes of jukebox and Fruit Market elements in Yau Ma Tei.

Signal

By Lei Chen / California Institute of the Arts

I wait for him and she waits for us. The pigeons do not know anything.

Bliss

By Jane Liu & Jesseter Wang / School of Visual Arts, New York City

Bliss is a 2D/3D combined motion graphic that talks about a girl trapped in an uncertain romantic relationship. She travels in her anxious inner world, showing her unfulfilled feeling while she is dating a boy who doesn’t want to commit to her.

Without End

By Yuki Sun / School of Visual Arts, New York City

“Without End” is a two-minute experimental film, combining motion graphics, 2D and 3D animation. The conflict comes from a girl’s recurring dreams that keep her stuck in her past, back at school. At first, she lies on a desk, and melts into her dream. She’s content to linger there but certain signs and symbols begin appearing, urging her to wake up. The dream space starts to collapse as she realizes her dreams are isolating her from the real world. When she tries to escape, however, she falls into even deeper dreams. The character keeps trying to escape, but the audience never knows if she does.

M:lk

By Michael Orr / School of the Art Institute of Chicago

A lone figure stands silently in a calm, isolated realm until they are disrupted by a droplet that falls from a faucet above. In order to develop a meaningful connection to this fluid, their one semblance of life outside of themselves, they break open their sealed mouth to offer their “milk.” They begin to mimic the droplets in an attempt to communicate. However, their body convulses and births an entity that “silences” the fluid, leaving the youth shaken but not alone. The piece asks what it means to develop trust in oneself and to heal in sickness and in health.

Crossing

By Chang Tong & Zhang Xiaoyu / School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

This Experimental Film showcases the visual fusion of the modern and the former Fringe, taking a journey through time and space from the colorful modern to the last century.

With Whose Blood

By Livia Foldes / Parsons School of Design

An experimental short pairs generic 3D models, viewport aesthetics, and generative typography to interrogate the central role imaging technologies play in the military industrial complex.

Virtual Estate Agency

By Han Chen / Parsons School of Design

A real human meets a virtual character, and she was introduced to the virtual estate. The virtual estate agent persuades the real human to buy a virtual estate as soon as possible, as its price will soar in the future. The real human is convinced and buys the one she chooses. A few days later, she gets the virtual estate. The room is sweet at the beginning and then turns dark, so she gets out of the room and wants to go back to the real world. However, she falls into an endless corridor of the virtual world and is stuck there forever.

Well Wishes my love, your love

By Gabriel Gabriel Garble / Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design

Newly orphaned and freshly wounded from an immense loss, a boy lends his companion a prosthetic arm for the day. The companion would then expose the prosthetic limb to a mélange of textures and materials. As the moon inches closer and closer towards the sun, the boy sees something in the water... What will become of the hand?

A slow and meditative film about everyday gestures of love, communicated through our universal understanding of body language.